Clever Ideas to Get Your Lawn Looking Its Finest this Spring

 

Spring is a peak growing period for many Australian lawns. With the combination of warmer weather and moist soil from winter rains, your grass is set to explode. But how do you give your lawn the best shot at making the most of this wonderful season?

Here are just a few clever tips and ideas to get your lawn enjoying everything that the season of spring brings.

Cleaning and Repairing Your Grass

As the cool of winter gives way to the warmth of spring, you want to ensure your lawn is ready to make the most of the better conditions. Step one is to rake any debris from the lawn, to allow the maximum amount of spring sun to hit the grass blades.

Once raked, you may need to make some minor repairs to your winter-weary lawn. Firstly, ensure that your grass surface is even. Dips in your grass can be prone to water logging, and mounds can get hacked by your mower. Use a shovel to even the surface out. Winter rains may have also compacted your soil, so rolling an aerator over the lawn will help deliver oxygen to the grass roots.

Reseeding in Spring

Due to the hot Australian climate, most Aussies will have a warm-season lawn in their yard. While these lawns are terrific over the dry heat of summer, they can be susceptible to browning if the temperature drops too low. While you’ll likely have chosen a grass appropriate to your area, a particularly cold winter can still have a negative effect on even the hardiest of grasses.

If a portion of your lawn has died over winter, spring offers the perfect time to over seed. If your lawn was killed by something other than the winter conditions, be sure to address the underlying cause before reseeding. If the winter chill was the culprit, it may be worth over seeding with a grass more suited to the cooler conditions, such as a fescue or ryegrass.

Take Your Lawn Out for a Meal

Spring is a great time to fertilise your lawn. If your grass experiences its peak growing period in spring, the addition of fertiliser will have it exploding over this period, with that health and vitality hopefully extending into the more challenging months of summer. Fertilising your lawn in spring will also promote thick and dense growth, which can serve as a natural herbicide. If the lawn is thick enough, it will choke out any weeds that try to invade.

A slow release fertiliser is probably best, as your grass will be growing healthily without the need for a supercharged quick-release meal.

Cutting it Back to Size

As you’d expect, you’ll be doing more lawn mowing in the spring that you were in the winter. But it’s not simply a case of bringing the mower out every couple of weekends.

The rule of thumb for mowing lawns is that you never want to cut off more than one third of the blade height. This reduces the stress on the grass, and also allows the cut blades to decompose easier. Longer blades tend to just sit at the base of the lawn as thatch, eventually choking the grass if left unattended.

Cutting a maximum of one third of the blade off will certainly have you mowing more over spring, but your lawn will thank you for it.

After a long, cold and wet winter, your lawn is just as excited about springtime as you probably are. By taking note of these simple ideas, you’ll give your lawn the best chance to capitalise on the excellent growing conditions that spring can bring.

If you’ve got any other queries about lawn care in spring, don’t hesitate to contact the friendly team at McKays.