How to give your lawns the royal treatment.
For the love of lawns
Rolling green lawns do something to the human psyche. For most of us, the sight of a beautifully maintained emerald green lawn, stretching out in front of us, gives us that warm, glowing feeling of contentment. All is right with the world if lawns still exist.
(Disclaimer: Yes, we understand that lawns are not necessarily the most ecologically friendly ground cover for all gardens, but let’s be honest, they can be beautiful, and practical. Not a lawn lover? Then check out this article on meadow lawns.)
For the rest of us, let’s dive into the art of lawn management and maintenance.
Lawn fertilization is a science and should be approached on a “lawn-by-lawn basis” as everything from season, rainfall seasons, type of soil, type of lawn and general health of your lawn will play a part here. The internet is full of experts who will tell you more about that…
What we will do instead, is explain some of the jargon you might come across in your lawn-care studies.
Dethatching
This is an important step in lawn care as it helps stimulate growth, can lead to a thicker lawn, and will protect your lawn from fungal infections or other pest infestations that can impact your lawn’s health.
What is “thatch”? Well, it is a layer of dead or living organic matter that builds up around the roots of your grass. Thin, “healthy” thatch can be beneficial to your lawn as the breakdown of organic matter contributes to fertilising and nourishing your lawn. If for some reason this organic matter does not break down, it can become smothering and lead to your lawn becoming unhealthy.
One of the reasons for an unhealthy build up of thatch is when your soil quality is low. If there are not enough microbes to aid in the breakdown and decomposition process, lawn clippings, leaves and other organic matter can build up to unhealthy levels.
If your lawn is over-thatched, you will have to physically “dethatch” and remove the tick buildup. You can either use a dethatching attachment for your lawnmower or you can dethatch by hand using a heavy thatch rake that has long blade like teeth.
Before you dethatch your lawn, we suggest you go online and watch a couple of DIY video’s for all the do’s and don’ts of dethatching.
These are the ones we found most helpful!
7 DETHATCHING MISTAKES that could RUIN YOUR LAWN
How To DeThatch A Lawn With A Thatch Rake
DON’T DETHATCH Your LAWN Before Watching – Your Questions Answered
Aerating
After you have dethatched your lawn, the next step is often to aerate it. This is the process of making holes in the surface of the lawn to promote healthy growth.
“A lawn aerator is a garden tool designed to create holes in the soil in order to help lawn grasses grow. In compacted lawns, aeration improves soil drainage and encourages worms, microfauna and microflora which require oxygen.”
Aerating is an important part of lawn maintenance and can solve many underlying lawn problems such as thinning grass and discoloration.
Other obvious signs that your lawn needs aeration is when there is heavy foot traffic, you have clayey soil, you have puddles that do not seep into the soil, or you have difficulty watering your lawn deeply (water will not penetrate).
Properly aerating your lawn will allow it to “breathe” and improve the overall health of your lawn. We love this manual aerator.
Overseeding
This is the process of planting (more) grass seeds over existing grass/turf, without tearing up the turf or necessarily digging into it. This is usually one of the final steps in lawn maintenance. Overseeding works well if you do it after proper dethatching and thorough aerating. When you overseed you are creating the opportunity for new grass to grow in-between your existing grass, and thereby protecting the new growth until it is strong enough to withstand the usual foot traffic and elements that your lawn might deal with.
Overseeding can give you thicker growth, better colour and you can even play around with adding different grass varieties to your lawn to improve your biodiversity and overall robustness of lawn growth. (Newer varieties of lawn grass have improved resilience against droughts and insects.)
If you want to change your grass type, overseeding is also an easy and low stress way of doing this. Yes, it will take some time, but the end result will be worth it.
Fix an Ugly Lawn with Overseeding // Complete Step by Step Guide For Beginners
Healthy lawns are lovely. Especially if you have children, there really aren’t many other sustainable ground cover options that allow outdoor play in such comfort and safety. A bloody knee, scraped on pavement or concrete is much worse than a bit of grass burn.
