Spring lawn care

Here’s what you’ll need to do in spring for an emerald-green, lush, healthy outdoor living carpet.

One person went to mow…

Grass grows at temperatures of 5C (41F) and above, and in mild winters it will still grow and need cutting. The only things to prevent you giving it the once-over with the mower are if the grass/soil is too wet and/or frozen. But growth will be at its height in spring, so you’ll need to be cutting regularly.

But grass starts growing with earnest in March, so the lawn will need regular, correct mowing from then onwards. What’s regularly? Well, the simple answer is whenever it reaches a height that can be cut! Ideally, you should simply “tip” the grass at each mow, and certainly not remove more than one-third of its height at any cut. This might mean cutting a couple of times a week in spring. If you did put the mower away in autumn, then the first cut should be at the mower’s highest height setting, reducing it to the normal cutting height over the next couple of cuts. You could stress and weaken the grass if you make the first cut too low.

Height is the other important factor. Many people mow their lawns far too short, scalping the grass, or too infrequently, both of which weaken it, and this allows weeds and moss to establish. For normal lawns that take a lot of wear and tear the height should be around 4-5cm (1½-2in). For “bowling green” lawns of fine-leaved grasses this should be about 2-2.5cm (¾-1in). For lawns growing in shaded areas, mow even higher – around 7.5cm (3in).

Feeding makes the grass grow – better

People who don’t like mowing their lawn, don’t like feeding it either, as it will grow more and need more regular mowing! While it’s true that feeding does make it grow more quickly, it will improve the lawn and make everyone who sees it green with envy.

Regular mowing removes a lot of nutrients, and for a lawn that looks fabulous, lush and deep green you need to replace these nutrients with a lawn feed. Good feeding also makes the grass thicker, stronger and healthier, and all three of these help the lawn fight off moss and weeds taking over, and reduce drought stress in summer, and cold and wet stress in winter.

Liquid lawn feeds are a great choice as they start to work straight away, are far less likely to burn the grass than granular feeds and are less dependent on correct weather conditions. If you want to get great results, follow the lead of greenkeepers and groundspeople and use a “professional” feed. By which, I mean use Lawn Magic! Use it every four to five weeks. As it contains iron sulphate, it will also help to keep moss in check.

Get out you two!

The two main issues that face the proud lawn owner are the ingress of moss and/or weeds, and spring is the time when most people start to notice them in the lawn.

Both scourges can start to appear if you haven’t mowed correctly or fed the grass. But there are other factors that can cause moss to attack your lawn, so see my article on lawn moss control.

Where moss is a problem, Richard’s natural, hassle-free, no-rake Moss Remover is the easy way to get it under control. As this contains naturally-occurring ‘friendly’ bacteria to deal with the moss, the SOIL temperature needs to be 10C (50F) or higher for them to start working. So, check before you apply. There’s no need to rake out the dead moss – the bacteria gets rid of that for you!

As spring is also the time when lawn weeds start to raise their ugly heads or start to encroach, if you have both these and moss present, use the triple whammy action of Flower Power All In One Lawn Feed, Weed and Moss killer from April onwards.

Reseeding grass lines

If your lawn contains a lot of moss and/or weeds, you’re bound to have gaps in the grass where these have died; even a small amount of them can cause bare patches to appear. These gaps need to be re-seeded with fresh grass seed; Triple Use Grass Seed or Patch Fix is perfect for this.

As well as repairing bare areas, a dose of fresh grass seed can repair patchy, uneven growth and very thin areas of grass. Even on a well-manicured lawn, in an average year, 20-25% the grass can die.

You can overcome these issues by overseeding. This simply means scattering grass seed over the whole lawn at the rate of 15-25g per sq m (½-¾oz per sq yard), work it into the soil with the back of a rake or similar and water it in. Apart from regular care, this is the secret weapon used by greenkeepers and groundspeople to produce quality greens and pitches.

Richard’s Premium Triple Use Grass Seed is also perfect for starting a new lawn from scratch, reseeding bare patches and overseeding tired lawns.