Gardening expert and TikTok creator Michael Griffiths has shared three simple jobs green thumbs can do this month to revive their lawns and prepare for the colder months ahead. September offers the perfect opportunity to get ahead with lawn maintenance, especially after the heatwaves the UK experienced.
If the grass in your garden is still looking a little bit worse for wear, he advised to leave it alone for a week or two until it regains its former lush green colour. In a recent video, Michael said: “Autumn is the perfect time to start lawn maintenance again, but if your lawn looks like this, then leave it a week or two to let it recover.”
Mowing and Scarifying
Once your lawn has recovered, you want to start by mowing the lawn to around four centimetres in height. This will help the grass get ready for winter. This can be done either manually or mechanically. However, it’s not all about mowing the grass to keep the lawn in good shape, but the ground underneath.
Michael explained that September is also the perfect time to scarify and aerate lawns, which will help prep the ground for the colder months ahead. An easy way to get air and moisture into the ground is by doing these jobs. To prep the ground, you can use an aerator, scarifier, or even a garden fork. This is used to poke holes directly into the soil to help the water drain into the ground.
Simply use the garden fork to pierce holes into the ground approximately four to five inches deep. Plunge the garden fork firmly into the ground, then pull the fork back without removing it entirely. You can repeat the process every six inches across the lawn. Once you've aerated your lawn, you can either leave the holes empty or fill them with horticultural sand to aid drainage.
Scarifying works by using rotating blades on a machine to cut into the lawn, removing layers of dead grass, moss, and debris, and stimulating grass growth. It will also help to improve the airflow into the ground. Scarifying is a lawn care process of using mechanical blades or tines to cut into and remove a dense layer of thatch — dead grass, roots, and organic matter — from a lawn. The health of your lawn will improve as this allows better airflow, water, and nutrient penetration to the soil by removing any competition.
Watering and Feeding
B&Q advised giving your lawn a good amount of water to help the soil absorb moisture. It also explains that the best time to aerate the lawn is one or two days after a rain shower, while the soil is moist.
To give the grass a boost, you want to overseed the lawn, and then give it a good feed. But remember, switch from a summer to autumn lawn feed. Apply the feed with a spreader or by hand between September and November. Give it a water and watch the lawn thrive.
Using an autumn lawn feed will help avoid soft top growth on the grass that gets battered by frost. This will help toughen up the lawn’s roots, making it resilient against the winter weather. Autumn lawn feeds are rich in potassium and phosphates which help to encourage root growth rather than leafy growth, explained Gardeners World. They say: “Putting on root growth means the grass will be able to absorb more nutrients and water come the following spring, which will result in more leafy growth when you need it.”
