It’s early spring, and lawns are on our minds and many of our customers want a perfect lawn. This translates to healthy green grass, very few weeds and stripes you see on professional grounds like cricket, football, and rugby pitches. In this article, we’re offering our top tips for a beautiful lawn.
Pre-Emergent Herbicide/Weed Killer
Spring is the start of the growing season, and it’s when we begin to notice weeds invading gardens with poor grass strength. Regardless of the strength of your grass, at the start of spring, you can spray a pre-emergent herbicide for weed management. This will maintain a healthy lawn appearance as weeds are less likely to creep through gaps. In addition, it’ll save you time later on in the season with a post-emergent herbicide.
Post-Emergent Herbicide/Weed Killer
At the time of posting, you’ll probably want to use a post-emergent herbicide for weed management. This will effectively kill the weeds down to the root depending on the quality of the herbicide. If you only have a few weeds as your grass is strong, then cutting the weeds and their roots by hand should be satisfactory.
Scarify the Lawn
Following the pre-emergent or post-emergent herbicide, it’s best to scarify your lawn at least once a year. If it hasn’t been scarified before, it may need to be scarified multiple times in different directions. This process pulls out thatch and moss as well as anything else on and in the soil that’s preventing a healthy lawn. By the end of the process, your lawn is clearer and may show more soil and many little holes.
Fertilise and Overseed
The scarifying process creates little holes in the lawn to allow nutrients to easily make their way into the soil to support grass growth. You can further strengthen this with a fertiliser that guards against weeds and facilitates grass growth. In addition, your lawn may be very patchy due to lots of thatch and moss being pulled out by the scarifier, so you may want to overseed your lawn.
Sharpen Mower Blade or Buy a New One
Most homeowners neglect the need to sharpen mower blades. Depending on how perfect you’d like your lawn, sharpening the blade every 5 to 10 cuts will be fine. However, most lawns can get away with once a year. You’ll know when to sharpen your blade (or buy a new one) when your grass has jagged edges. These initially appear white but change to brown due to ripping and tearing of the grass rather than cutting.
Mow Grass Taller
Homeowners tend to let their grass grow very tall, and then cut it down to the shortest possible. However, this process adds a lot of stress to the grass and hinders its ability to strengthen. Instead, your grass should be cut 3 to 4 inches high (typically the highest setting on the mower) and at least once a week to avoid cutting more than a third off at any one time.
Lawn Stripes
The best lawn stripes are the result of a cylinder mower, but many rotary mowers can achieve lawn stripes too. In order to achieve it, your rotary mower needs a cylinder at the back to push the grass down in the direction you’re mowing. Some rotary mowers come with a cylinder, while others can have attachments. In the worst case, you could make one (plenty of videos on YouTube).
