Lawn care products in most cases are the easiest way to help keep your lawn performing and looking great. Most lawn care products available today are specifically designed to be safe to use around pets, kids, and wildlife! However, if you prefer not to use chemicals around your home, here’s how to go about it.
Mowing
Mowing is key to help keep your lawn nice and healthy. Regular mowing will help promote an even growth pattern. We recommend mowing frequently enough so that only one third of the leaf is removed with each mow. If more than this is mown, it will cause extra stress on the grass and can cause scalping. Mowing regularly will also help block out unwanted weeds.
As a general rule of thumb: mow shorter during summer and longer in winter.
Guide on ideal mowing heights:
- Green couch: 5 to 30mm
- Buffalo grass (Sir Walter): 30 to 50mm
- Kikuyu: 30 to 50mm
- Zoysia matrella (Sir Grange): 5 to unmown
- Queensland blue couch: 5 to 30mm
- Broadleaf carpet grass: 30 to 50mm
- Hybrid Bermuda (TifTuf): 5 to 30mm
- Fescue: 30 to 50mm
There is a wide range of mowers that don’t need petrol, from push reel mowers to the popular battery powered mowers. No matter what type of mower you have, making sure your mowing blades are nice and sharp will result in a better cut.
Hand weeding
By keeping a thick and healthy lawn you should be able to block out a lot of weeds before they start to appear. If there is still some weeds coming through, the best and easiest way to remove them is to simply pull them out by hand. However there are a few different weeds you shouldn’t pull out, you can find out what weeds these are here.
Using weeding tools like the WOLF-Garten Ergo Weeder will help make the task of hand weeding easier than ever. You simply need to place the weeder over the weed, push it down on the footplate and the prongs will grab onto the weed and its roots.
Boiling water works great at killing weeds, but like glyphosate, it is non-selective and will kill your grass as well. This organic remedy is a good option for concrete areas where you have weeds growing through cracks, but it’s best kept away from your lawn if you don’t want to end up with dead patches everywhere you poured it.
Organic fertilisers
Manure can be a great source of nitrogen for your lawn! If you are looking at using manure, it is often a lot easier and less smelly to use a product like Dynamic Lifter that has already been aged and is in a pellet form.
Please have a look at our blog on using manure on your lawn for more information here.
Aerate
Aerating your lawn will help assist your lawn to grow deep roots to produce a stronger, more vigorous lawn. If your lawn is commonly used by pets or kids and has developed a compact soil base it is best to do this regularly. For a normal lawn this is best done every one to two years.
Aerating with a sturdy garden fork or core aerator and wiggling it back and forth is best to help fracture up and decompact the profile. This will better allow for air, water, and nutrients to penetrate to the grass roots.
Watering
Not too sure how often to water your lawn? The simple answer is when your lawn needs it.
For the most part, rainfall will be able to produce your lawn with enough water. However, you may need to provide additional watering’s if the leaf is wilting or losing colour or if it is becoming dry during hot weather. If you are trying to repair a certain area additional watering’s can help encourage growth.
Morning watering’s before the heat of the day is best. Late afternoon watering’s should be avoided to help prevent the lawn from sitting damp overnight.
Consistency is key
Like with most things, staying consistent is key to maintaining a great looking lawn.
For more lawn care tips and advice, you can check out our other lawn care blogs here.
