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Spring Is Just Around the Corner

Spring Is Just Around the Corner
10th February 2015 Lawn UK
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Your lawn is the centrepiece of your garden and how it looks has an enormous effect on the overall impact of your garden.  What you do to your lawn now will make for a great summer season and with spring coming fast now is the time to make plans to renovate and boost the lawn after a difficult winter.

A cold, wet winter is hard on a lawn.  Grasses like to produce their roots during winter but they can have a hard time doing that in cold, wet soil.  Some areas may have died completely or become very thin. Moss may have thrived and chocked out some shady parts of the lawn.

Your lawn needs a population boost and a good meal. You can achieve that by overseeding or even reseeding all or part of the lawn and by starting a fertilizer program for the season.

So that you know just what to do and when to do it, in this article we will explain how to choose the right seed, how to prepare the lawn for overseeding and what nutrients you should be providing at this time of year. It is not difficult to take the right steps and get off to a great start with your lawn for 2015.

Overseeding

This is a good way to thicken-up your lawn and establish a nice dense sward.  Dense grass resists the invasion of weeds better as well as looking good.  If the grasses you have in your lawn are not ideally suited to the levels of sun or shade, the soil-type, or how much water your lawn gets in summer, overseeding with more suitable species can correct that.

You can even over-seed with different grasses in different areas to make sure you have the best overall coverage.  If your lawn gets a lot of use from children, dogs or parties, overseeding with our Tough Green mix or Sprogs and Dogs will greatly improve the resistance to wear and tear. These mixes contain dwarf Ryegrass, the toughest grass around.

If your lawn has become shadier as trees have grown, overseeding with Premium Shade will make a huge difference and give you a much thicker lawn.

If you want a high-quality, finer textured lawn, you can achieve this quite well without having to make a complete new start.  If you over-seed with Premium Green which contains Bentgrass and then mow closely (preferably with a cylinder mower) at 5-6 mm, the coarser grasses will die out over time and the fine grass will come to dominate the lawn.  Remember to give the new seed time to establish – six to eight weeks – before cutting the lawn this short.

If you just want a general mix to thicken all your lawn, then Repair and Reseed is the ideal choice.  Get some extra when you order so you have it around to fix any areas that get damaged during the season.

Preparation for Overseeding

First, rake the lawn thoroughly, trying to remove as much dead grass as possible.  A scarifier is useful for larger areas and will do a very thorough job of preparing the lawn.

If the soil in any areas appears especially hard, insert a garden fork every few inches and gently loosen the soil without digging it up.

Growmore general purpose fertilizer can be applied before seeding and this will provide the phosphates which the new seedlings will need, as well as stimulating the existing grass.

To spread the fertilizer and also the seed a simple hand-held spreader is all you need for even coverage on a small lawn.  If you have a larger lawn a wheeled drop-spreader that can be used for both seed and fertilizer is a valuable addition to your lawn-care equipment.

Unless the lawn is very thin, use half the recommended rate of seed coverage when you over-seed.

Keep the lawn well-watered until the new seedlings have germinated.  Ryegrass will be up in a few days, but other types of grass seed will take a couple of weeks to start to show.  If the lawn dries out during that time the developing seed could die.

Fertilizing Your Lawn

Spring is the time to start an annual fertilizer programme.  A properly fertilized lawn will be dense and better able to resist weed-invasion, pests, diseases, drought and general wear and tear.

In spring grass needs nitrogen to build new leaves, roots and stems.  Mowing removes a lot of leaf, so nitrogen is also needed throughout the growing season. High-nitrogen Green Up fertilizer is the best choice.  Starting in early spring, apply this every six to eight weeks until autumn.

If you prefer to take an organic approach, use Supagro organic fertilizer.  You can also use this as an organic option when preparing for seeding, but don’t use a normal high-nitrogen fertilizer before seeding or the new grass will be burnt.

However if you lawn is not in need of new grass, an application of a good fertilizer may be all you need.  Once you see some growth, apply Green Up.

If you have weed problems, use Green Up Feed & Weed + Mosskiller to deal with everything in one easy application. If you need to control weeds or moss, be patient if you are overseeding. Wait a couple of months before using these to avoid damaging the new grass.

If your lawn has been soggy wet all winter the soil may be compacted, especially if you are gardening on clay.  A small investment in Aerating Shoes is an easy and even fun way to correct this problem.  These shoes are studded with steel spikes and strap over your outdoor shoes.  Just walk around the lawn and you will improve air movement into the root-zone and improve drainage and root growth. An alternative is to use a hand-operated Aerator.

These simple steps will get your lawn off to a great start for another season and make a big improvement of previous years.

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