With the new year comes many new year resolutions. If improving your lawn is on your list, we’ve put together a guide on what lawn care activities will see the best results to help get you on the right track.
Getting Your Soil Right
By ensuring your lawn’s soil base is in good shape, your grass will be able to establish its roots deeply and have access to nutrients required to stay healthy.
What pH Should My Lawn Be?
If your lawn has been struggling for a while, it is worth doing a soil pH test. Your lawn’s soil should be between 6 to 7.5. If your pH is out of this range, check out our blog here for how to amend it.
When Should I Apply a Wetting Agent?
Over the last 12 months, most regions of Australia have experienced high rainfall. When excess rain is experienced, it can cause the soil to leach nutrients from the top layer of the soil. This can cause our lawns to dry out and compact very quickly.
To amend this, it is best to apply a wetting agent to help your lawn absorb water better and aerate the soil. We recommend using the wetting agent Lawn Soaker to help treat a water-repellent soil.
When Should I Aerate My Lawn?
Aerating your lawn will help decompact the soil profile to allow the roots of the grass better receive air, water, and nutrients. Decompacting the profile will also aid in treating a hydrophobic lawn that struggles to drain away water. In addition, it will help make your lawn healthier by strengthening its roots. Aeration is also an important task to carry out if your area has frequent foot traffic from kids or pets.
Aeration can be carried out using a garden fork or tyne aerator over a small area. However, if you have a larger lawn, you may want to hire a motorised aerator to help you cover the area faster.
Check out our page for more information on aerating here.
How to Remove Weeds from a Lawn
After getting your lawn soil on the right track, it is best to get on top of any weeds. When removing weeds, you will need to use a herbicide that will target what you have growing.
For common broadleaf weeds like Clover, Bindii, Oxalis, Cudweed, and other broadleaf weeds, we recommend using a broadleaf herbicide like All Purpose Weed Control or Amgrow Bin Die. These herbicides are safe for common lawn varieties, including Buffalo, Couch, Zoysia, and Kikuyu.
Check out our blog here for more information on removing other common weeds from your lawn.
If you are looking for a preventative herbicide to help stop weeds before they grow, we recommend using Oxafert. Oxafert will prevent seasonal weeds, including Summer Grass, Crab Grass, Winter Grass, and Creeping Oxalis.
When Should I Apply a Fertiliser?
Once weeds have been removed, we recommend applying fertiliser to help give the lawn a boost in nutrients. When looking at fertilisers, it is best to use a well-rounded NPK fertiliser that contains all the nutrients your lawn will need to thrive.
If your grass is in need of repair, it is best to use a granular fertiliser that will slowly release nutrients to the grass rather than a short boost. This will feed the lawn over a longer period for a sustained boost. When looking at granular fertilisers we recommend using our Lawn Solutions Premium Fertiliser. It is best to use this fertiliser around three times a year, once in spring, summer, and autumn. We recommend using the October long weekend, Australia Day, and Easter as a general guide on when to apply it.
If you want to give the grass a further boost in between fertiliser applications, we recommend applying a soil conditioner. A soil conditioner like our Lawn Kelper will promote root and shoot growth, helping improve turf vigour and strength.
How Regularly Should I Mow My Lawn?
Some love it, and some hate it, but with regular mowing your lawn will look and perform well. By mowing regularly throughout the year, you will help allow for consistent nutrients within the grass and will help reduce additional stress to the lawn caused by removing too much of the leaf.
When mowing, it is best to ensure you are cutting regularly enough so that only one-third of the leaf is removed with each pass. This means you will need to mow more frequently in warmer months as the grass grows faster. Conversely, you won’t need to cut as often in the cooler months as the grass will grow slower.
