If there’s one thing which can help your garden stand out from all the rest, it’s a neatly kept and luscious green lawn. Grass is a fragile family of plants and as such requires a great deal of care and patience. If everything is done right, it will grow to become an incredible sight to behold. That’s why it’s important to have basic knowledge of how to take care of your lawn. For that reason, we’ve prepared a handy-dandy lawn care calendar just for you.

It’s important to have all the right tools at your disposal when performing these essential lawn care activities. These include: rake, shovel, garden hose, lawn mower, garden fork, etc.

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Mowing

This one ranks among the lawn calendar activities that you will be performing the most. However, mowing your lawn is not as easy as it may sound. You need to adjust your mower to the right height and avoid cutting the grass too close to the ground. Doing the latter would weaken it and make is susceptible to weeds, moss, and drought.

When you first start mowing, adjust the mower to the highest setting. After a week has passed mow again, but this time set the blades a little bit lower. The next week, go even lower. Do this until you reach the desired height. Mow your grass every week to maintain its height and keep this cutting lawn maintenance schedule until autumn.

If you feel confused and don’t know how tall your grass should be, never cut out more than 1/3 of a leaf shoot.

Watering

Watering your garden has never been much of a problem in the UK where the natural weather is mostly rainy. Depending on your soil type, watering should be carried out every 8 to 10 days. Wait until the soil becomes dry, but don’t let the grass change its colour to yellow or brown.

Always water in the morning before it gets too hot. If you water during lunch time, the liquid would evaporate too quickly. If you water at night-time, the water would not evaporate at all and may cause diseases.

Water deeply each time you do so – clay soils need half an inch of water and sandy soils – one inch at a minimum.

Feeding

Feeding the lawn is just as important as all other activities, but it should be done carefully. As you can see on your UK lawn care calendar, there’s a perfect and a recommended time. In spring time, it’s best to use granular feed. This type of feed nourishes the grass and fights weeds.

Be cautious if you feed your lawn during summer days. Sometimes, if the weather is too dry, the fertiliser won’t work as it will need moisture. In this case, you can consider purchasing a liquid feed, which will both fertilise and water the lawn. If the weather becomes too hot, the grass will stop growing and will thus not use any feed. Stop fertilising if this happens!

Aeration

How often you need to aerate your lawn depends on the soil type. Clay and sandy soils need aeration at least once a year, because they get compacted more easily compared to loam and peat soils. Other softer soils need to be aerated every two years. The proper time for aerating any soil is after the summer is over, for two reasons:

• The grass is usually worn down by kids and pets;
• Rising moisture levels as the weather gets colder.

The sole purpose of poking holes in your grass, which is a simple way to describe this activity, is to improve drainage and increase soil temperature. That’s why the months from August to October are the perfect time for aeration. Try not to do it too late as by then the temperatures would be too low for the soil to recover properly. 

Lawn aeration can be an overwhelming task without the proper equipment, get it done right by booking our professional aeration services and enjoy a healthier garden, hassle-free. 

Scarification

Scarification is best done at a time when the lawn is growing actively. That time is in April and later on in September and October. Avoid doing this in hotter months when grass growth is slowed down and recovery is generally moderate.

Thatch (dead leaves, cut grass, dead moss) is harmful for your lawn because it stops valuable nutrients and water from sinking into the soil. All lawns produce this dead organic material but, luckily, it can be removed with a lawn scarifier. Just be careful not to scarify the grass too close to the soil. After that, remove all green waste with a rake.

If not carried out properly scarification can damage your soil, book lawn scarification with Fantastic Gardeners for a piece of mind and guaranteed results.