Introduction

Garden Maintenance a lush, well-manicured lawn is the perfect green leaf for colour full grass borders, an ideal backdrop for summer picnics, and even a feeding ground for birds and other wildlife. We’ll show you how to keep your lawn looking its best.

How To Look After Your Lawn

Mowing the lawn regularly promotes lush, green growth—cut weeds like dandelions when you see them keep them from competing. With grass, spread the grass seeds in bare areas to grow back. Use stored rain and gray water to water your lawn in dry summers to keep it from turning brown. Prick the property with a fork to aerate trampled spots to bring them back to life, and in the fall, rake dead shoots for lush green grass.

Follow our care tips below to improve the condition and appearance of your lawn.

Mow The Lawn Regularly

Mow at least once a week in summer and every two weeks in spring, autumn, and warm winters. Regular pruning will encourage root expansion, which will help fill in gaps and block weeds.

In summer, increase the cutting height of your mower to keep the grass longer (approx. 5-10 cm), making it less prone to tanning in dry weather. Keep your lawnmower in good condition and the blades sharp.

Learn more about the benefits of a range of lawnmowers, including electric, cordless and gasoline-powered machines, in Alan Titchmarsh’s straightforward guide to choosing a lawnmower:

Water Your Lawn

Constantly watering young lawns, but not too much, will slow them down and make them challenging to establish. If possible, use rainwater from a water point or gray water from your bathroom or sink. Sprinklers are great for keeping your lawn hydrated, but they use up a lot of tap water and are not allowed during the hose ban. Don’t worry. If a well-established property turns brown, it isn’t dead. It just turns green again when it rains.

Weeding Your Lawn

Bananas and dandelions have broad, flat leaves that can stifle large areas of lawn and stunt growth, although they can be easily removed with a hand trowel or a daisy. Yellow jellyfish, buttercups, and clover can spread quickly across the lawn. So if you rake them before mowing, you can raise them to the mower blades and weaken and kill them over time.

Try to avoid the use of herbicides. Chemical herbicides can be expensive and ultimately won’t work against poor lawn health as they allow the weeds to thrive. If you need to use one, try a homemade herbicide.

Relieve Compact Grass

Compacted soil prevents good grass growth and can lead to bare land in summer and mud baths in winter. Relieve the soil compaction and aerate the ground by placing a garden fork approximately 10 cm. The tips open the soil, allow the roots to breathe, and promote the regrowth of the grass.

For heavy soils, such as clay soils, brush sharp sand or fine horticultural sand into the holes to improve drainage and prevent further compaction.

Discover with Alan Titchmarsh the advantages of aerating a lawn after scarifying it in our guide to uncomplicated lawn aeration:

Our experts have tested it so that your property stays in top shape

Edge Your Lawn

The lawn edge is the finishing touch to a clean, trimmed lawn. Use long-hand scissors to define your property’s perimeter and keep the grass from pushing towards the edges. It instantly cleans your garden and gives an excellent finish. When the grass has grown to the brim, use a shovel or sickle-shaped edger to reshape it so that a shallow “pit” is created or install a permanent ledge that the grass cannot pass through.

Learn how to create the perfect edging and the best technique for using edging shears in our simplified guide to lawn edging with Alan Titchmarsh:

Feed Your Lawn

To keep your lawn looking its best, you need to fertilize it regularly. If you have a large yard, invest in a wheeled lawn feeder for fast and precise work. When it rains, fertilize the lawn to reach the roots and not burn the leaves; organic fertilizer promotes long-term lawn health rather than chemical alternatives. If it is not raining, pour the fertilizer with a hose or watering can. In a week, your lawn should be greener. Properties generally need food in the spring and summer.

Fill Bare Lawn Patches

Instead of letting bald patches ruin the look of your lawn, it’s easy to sow grass seeds over the raked soil. Alternatively, you can make refills with new weed. When arranging the property, collect the strips and place them in a seed bin filled with compost at a distance of 5 cm, then let them grow outside or under a cold frame.

To replace baldness, cut out a square or rectangle around the area and use a hand trowel to dig the soil in the rectangle to the depth of the ground where the new strip of grass is located. Carefully lay the cut grass on the sidewalk. Sign up so that there is no space and your new lawn is neither higher nor lower than your existing lawn.