As with last Autumn, it's time to scarify the lawn again. It's a time consuming, and arduous, job if done manually. I tried to complete this evening, but didn't quite make it due to the lack of rain making the ground too hard. Steps are:
- Mow the lawn and rake up the cuttings
- Then with a spring tine rake, rake again length wise and cross wise. Give this some real wellie as well. The more effort you put in the more thatch you get out. As can be seen from the picture above I actually got more thatch out of the lawn than grass from cutting
- After this aerate the lawn. Take your pitch fork and every ten centimetres dig in and slightly lift the turf. This is the real hard piece of the work. If it hasn't rained properly for two months, as it hasn't in London, simply do not do this. The ground is simply too hard to make much ground work. I didn't manage this today. Will wait until after it rains a little.
- Sprinkle on some Autumn lawn food and water in. I also didn't complete this step as will wait until the aeration done.
- If suffering from bare patches sprinkle with lawn seed and rake in. It should still be warm enough for these to take hold. Don't let this go for too much longer though.
Looking at the lawn this year below, and comparing it to last year, following, it looks as though the lawn has stood up a little better this year
and from last year
Last year when I scarified for the first time the lawn looked so bad I thought I had done permanent damage to it! I was cursing the folks at Gardeners' World ;-)! Having gone a full year though and seen how good the lawn was this year I am hoping to be happy with the results next Spring as I was this one just past.
Below are the results of this Autumn's scarifying. It really is surprising how much dead grass you have in your lawn!
A shame that I am only half done though. As mentioned it is a rather arduous task and to be honest I have only done the easy bit! The aeration using the pitch fork is always fun!
That's all for now.
Cheers
m
So I was noticing in the this year versus last year pictures that everything in your yard looks better this year despite the lack of rain. I think you must have a green thumb (or a blistered one from working hard).
ReplyDeleteWhat grass seed do you use?
Thanks. Not sure it is though! Have not been able to spend much time in it this year! I only photograph the nicer bits ;-)
ReplyDeleteI am using a fine grass seed. So grass should look nice but not suitable for wear and tear and loads of traffic. You wouldn't want to play football on it!