Autumn lawn care

September is a key time to carry out annual maintenance on your lawn. Our sundries buyer, Sara Wildman, gives us her top tips on how to get ahead for 2015…

These simple jobs will ensure a healthy green lawn throughout the autumn/winter seasons and give it a head start into spring 2015.

The first job is to mow the lawn. Once clippings have been collected, carry out the five steps below in this order:

1) Scarify: You can buy or hire an electric lawn scarifier, but the average garden lawn can be scarified with a spring tine rake. This simply means the removal of moss and ‘thatch’ (dead grass clippings) that sink below the lawn surface. By removing this you give the grass some breathing space and room to spread out. 

2) Aerate: The more air you can get to the roots, the better your lawn will grow. This job also alleviates soil compaction, improving drainage ahead of winter rain and will help prevent moss growth. You can use a garden fork to spike the lawn evenly to a depth of 15-20cm. For larger lawns we recommend a rolling Aerator to make light of this job, which can simply be rolled across the lawn.

3) Top dress: Fill the holes from aeration and level out any hollows in the lawn by brushing ‘Westland Lawn and Turf Dressing’ into the surface. A 25 litre bag is £5.99 or buy two bags for just £10.

4) Overseed: To thicken thinning areas of grass and fill any bare patches use a good quality general-purpose grass seed. A thick lawn will suppress weeds from taking hold.

5) Feed: Apply Westland Autumn Lawn Feed and Moss Killer.

An excellent range of autumn lawn care products is now available in-store and we’re here to help with all your gardening queries, so please do just pop in and say ‘hi’.