I’m a Gardening Expert – Simple 5 Point Plan to Winterize Your Lawn

IT’S officially fall, and with that comes the inevitable conclusion that if you haven’t done a few tricks to your lawn this summer, it might be looking a little tired.

That’s not surprising: not only have we had to deal with extremely strange weather, but even the experts find it difficult to maintain a lush green lawn in August.

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But don’t worry, there are a few steps that you can use right now to bring it back to life and hopefully prevent it from becoming a winter blight.

1. Change the mower setting

First of all – raise the cutting height of your lawn mower. The grass blades want to absorb as much sunlight as possible to energy levels rise during winter.

Help them achieve this by making sure your lawnmower is set to its highest setting. If it’s too short, you could scalp the soil – leaving unsightly bare patches, and it can also stress the grass when the weather gets cold.

Sounds simple, but reduce the number of times you mow your lawn. In the summer, it can be as much as twice a week, but from now on you should do it once every few weeks.

2. Scarifying

Nextscarify. This is really important because it removes all the thatch, moss, dead organic matter and general crap that has built up over the summer. All that extra layer will almost act as a coat for your lawn – one that it doesn’t really need because it will prevent the uptake of rain and nutrients.

There are scarifiers you can buy, but they are expensive and pointless in my opinionlike you can use a rake for everyday use that you probably already have.

Homebase is currently selling large garden rakes for a tenner.

Give it a good rake – in one direction and then in the other direction, so that you are almost walking crosswise across your lawn.

Then I would advise to leave it for 24 hours. You have given your lawn a good shock, so it is only fair that you give it time to recover.

3. Aeration

Then it’s time to aerate. This is exactly what it sounds like – you’re adding air pockets to the soil. This improves the soil’s structure, allowing it to breathe and giving rain and nutrients a place to penetrate the lawn.

Again, there are many different products that claim to do the best job at this difficult task. But if you only have a small outdoor space, there is no point in buying aerators.

There are some great specialty aeration shoes available with spikes that you can basically stretch over your garden. bootswho are doing great.

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B&Q has them now for £8.50.

But the simple and free way is to use a garden fork. Experts recommend using a fork with hollow tines, otherwise you will compact the soil underneath.

But actually a pitchfork is fine. Climb on it almost like a pogo stick and keep moving up and down the lawn, making deep holes.

I’m not saying this is easy. Think of it as your daily workout.

4. Overseeding

Then you can reseed it. This basically means taking handfuls of decent grass seed – preferably a native seed like bentum or fescue – and scattering it all over the lawn.

The idea is that it not only ends up in the holes, but also mixes with the recently turned soil.

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5. Fertilizing

Then it is finally time to fertilize and water.

There are soluble and granular fertilizers, both have many advantages and I don’t think it matters which one you use.

But make sure you do it right when you water. Don’t spray – a long deep sip so the water really soaks into the soil.

I’m not promising that you’ll get perfect lawns like Bridgerton if you do all of these tasks.

But it will almost certainly keep your lawn from looking like it’s been ravaged all summer by little feet, water fights, mud and “mom look, I’m digging a hole” moments.

Good luck!

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