Summer is nearly here, so many gardeners will be hotly anticipating the arrival of their gorgeous garden displays over the next few weeks and months. This means that the month of May may be the last opportunity to get ahead with important gardening jobs before the temperature gets too warm.
Gardening expert and TikTok creator Michael Griffiths recently shared his list of the top gardening tasks everyone should be doing this month. This includes some vital lawn care that will leave your grass looking lush and vibrant for the summer.
There are three key jobs that should be on your to-do list: aerating, scarifying, and reseeding lawns. To prep the ground, you can use an aerator, scarifier, or even a garden fork or hand rake. This is used to poke holes directly into the soil to help the water drain in.
Aerating Your Lawn
To aerate, use a core, spike aerator, or a garden fork to ensure the soil is moist beforehand. Aerating your lawn will help stimulate deeper root growth, reduces thatch, and helps the lawn withstand drought and disease. Lawn aeration involves perforating the soil to create holes that allow air, water, and nutrients to reach the grass roots, relieving compaction and improving root health.
Scarifying for Better Airflow
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. This will also help stimulate grass growth. It will also help to improve the airflow into the ground. By thinning this out and removing it, it improves the lawn's health by allowing better airflow, water, and nutrient penetration to the soil by removing any competition for the soil.
Reseeding and Watering Tips
B&Q advises 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. However, it is best to avoid aerating lawns after extremely heavy rainfall, as the ground could become waterlogged. Once the lawn is scarified and aerated, you can add plenty of an autumn grass seed, which is higher in phosphorus. This feed is focused on root development, rather than feeds which are higher in nitrogen, which is focused on the growth of the grass. Reseeding lawns with feed will give the grass an extra boost come the summer.
It is important to reseed now, as it will be too hot in summer to do so. The next time you will be able to feed your lawn properly will be in autumn.
