Autumn Lawn Care
Tasks & Tips
Summer officially
gives way to autumn on the 22nd of
September, which is known as the
autumnal equinox, but for the lawn owner
autumn begins much earlier. This is
because the green keeping tasks for
autumn begin from the 1st day of
September.
Your first task is to make changes to
your mowing method, I would suggest
raising the height of cut by 1cm above
your summer mowing height which will
give you an ultimate mowing height of
3cm (1 ¼ inches). The reason why you
raise the cut to this height in autumn
is to allow for the slowing of grass
growth, on top of this I would usually
mow just once a week once this growth
begins to slow.
Should your lawns suffer from slow
growth in the spring or during dry
spells in the summer you may consider
applying an autumn lawn feed to develop
strong roots and hardiness. If you feel
your lawn is not all it should be and
would benefit from this autumn pampering
then by all means apply the fertilizer
but ensure it is specially formulated
for autumn application, an autumn lawn
feed such as this contains phosphates
and potash whilst omitting nitrogen
which would cause unwanted growth.
Many gardens may have goalmouths and
beaten paths to washing lines that are
tread-bare, sparsely populated by grass
or compacted. Address these now to have
them ship-shape for next season, start
by driving the prongs of a garden fork
approx 15cm (6 inches) into the
compacted turf at various points
throughout the affected area. This is a
form of aeration, which allows more air
to reach the grass plants roots on
compacted soils.
To thicken up your grass sward in these
high traffic areas we must introduce
fresh seed, so firstly we must create a
seedbed. Add a light layer of clean
loamy topsoil (This is available bagged
in most garden centers), rake this with
a flat garden rake to the consistency of
large cake crumbs and follow this by
shaking on some lawn seed at a rate of
40 to 50g per square meter. Tamp down
lightly with the flat of the rake to
ensure firm seed-soil contact,
alternatively on large areas use a light
garden roller. Try to avoid mowing the
reseeded area until next season, as most
lawnmowers tend to unsettle the new seed
due to their vacuum action. As well as
being a good month for reseeding bare
areas, September is also a good time to
sow new lawn from seed, with many being
sown over the early autumn weeks.
James Kilkelly is a freelance
horticulturalist and garden writer for
four Irish regional newspapers. His
forum, http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/
offers you free access to an incredible
wealth of horticultural information
specific to Ireland. He also regularly
posts his expert advice to a gardening
community at
http://www.gardenstew.com/
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