Advice
How to Get an Impressive Lawn This Summer
The Five-Step Plan to Get Your Lawn Looking Its Best!
With Summer around the corner, we’re starting to think of glorious days spent in the garden and chilled evenings spent entertaining family and friends. To keep your lawn looking its best this summer, follow these five simple lawn care steps to achieve a space to be proud of.
In this blog, we take a look at:
- Choosing the best time and lawnmower to maintain your lawn
- The problem with weeds
- How and when to scarify your lawn
- How to relieve compaction and aerate soil
- Maintaining your lawn edges
1. Keep Your Lawn in Check
To keep your grass looking beautiful all year round, cut the grass for the first time in March before it becomes unmanageable. You should then maintain the lawn regularly throughout summer cutting it once a week, then twice a month in autumn.
Lawnmower to Maintain Your Lawn
For smaller lawns, lightweight electric lawnmowers such as our award-winning Classic 33cm (13” Electric Rotary Lawnmower are perfect to grab out of the shed and get the job done quickly, or if you have a slightly bigger lawn and prefer the freedom to move without cables, you might want to consider a cordless lawnmower such as the 43cm (17″) Cordless Rear Roller Rotary Lawnmower, which includes a roomy 60-litre grass-collector for ease of use.
To tackle larger gardens where mowing might be difficult due to sloped or uneven surfaces, a petrol lawnmower could be your answer. More powerful than their counterparts, petrol lawnmowers such as the Classic 46cm (18″) Self Propelled Electric Start Petrol Rotary Lawnmower are a great way to achieve that desired smooth and even finish. However, if you’re maintaining a lawn that’s too big to manage with a walk-behind mower, it might be time to take a step up and slip into the driving seat of a ride-on lawnmower.
Once you’ve got the right lawnmower, start by cutting your grass with a blade height of approximately 2.5-4cm to allow for any dead grass to be removed and for sunlight to reach the root. In the summer months, you can raise this to 5cm but remember to lower it back for the last cuttings of the year.
And don’t forget to keep your grass well hydrated! Constant mowing can create a serious drain on nutrient reserves so keep it well-nourished with rainwater from a water butt or grey-water, where possible, and fertiliser, when necessary.
2. Weeding Out the Competition
Weeds are unsightly but the problem with weeds goes much deeper.
Fast spreading, they compete with your grass for sunlight, moisture, and nutrients so it’s important to tackle them before they get out of hand. Pulling them out from the base is the best way to achieve a quick removal but for those stubborn weeds that are too deep-rooted to pull by hand, weed pullers can save you a lot of time and energy.
3. How and When to Scarify a Lawn?
Left to build up, thatch, moss and grass cuttings can be a menace. The good news is that by using a scarifier, such as the 2 in 1 Electric Scarifier & Lawn Rake, you can revive your grass without even breaking a sweat. You might want to consider the 40cm (16″) Petrol Lawn Scarifier & Raker for larger gardens, as it delivers an impressive 212cc of power to tackle the toughest of scarifying and raking tasks. Light de-thatching or scarifying and moss removal can be done in spring and or autumn.
4. How to Aerate
The compacted ground can lead to bare unsightly patches in the summer, so you’ll need to relieve the compaction and aerate soil at least once a year to avoid this. For smaller lawns and gardens, pitchforks can do the job, but for best results on larger lawns, use an aerator or machine that removes plugs of soil.
5. Achieve a Cutting-Edge Lawn
After all your hard work, add the finishing touch and make sure your garden lawn edging looks defined and neat. Untidy lawn edging, where the grass is growing into the surrounding borders or paths can look unsightly. To simply maintain your edges use a pair of lawn edging shears or a powered lawn edging tool such as the Classic 450W 25cm (10”) Line trimmer and Edger. Featuring a telescopic handle with an adjustable cutter-head, you can effortlessly achieve crisp and tidy edges, without even having to bend.
Lawn Mowers
To get your garden looking good requires time and effort but for a luscious, green lawn to show off all year round, a few simple and regular maintenance tasks are all it takes to make sure you get the very best from your grass.