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Email: info@instantscenery.co.uk
Phone: 01905 347105
Longer, brighter and better summer days are finally here to take pleasure outside. Now, is there a better sight to symbolise the start of a long, beautiful season than a glistening, green lawn looking lush and radiant?
Yes, “glistening-green” indeed, but without the right love and lessons in lawn summer care, very soon that rather idyllic vision can turn quite ugly, leaving us with nothing more than a patchy, brown eyesore at our feet.
Therefore, to help you keep your lawn looking its best, we’ve provided eight essential summer lawn care tips, guaranteed to keep your grass healthy and vibrant from June to September.
The ideal summer lawn care is not easy. Getting it in tip-top shape takes time and effort alongside the understanding of what your grass needs to thrive. And even after doing everything right, sometimes it seems nature has a way of doing its own thing.
Either way, here are our eight essential tips for summer lawn care to keep your garden shining bright all summer.
Really… scarifying the lawn is more recommended as a late spring or early autumn job. It involves removing thatch and moss with a rake to improve your lawn’s health and appearance.
However, if you did leave it a little late this year, then not to worry. The warm summer temperatures will at least help the grass recover quickly.
Beyond scarifying, light raking will help “wake the grass”, clearing debris and removing any moss or fungal diseases. By raking, you’re essentially preparing the grass for a busy summer of cutting ahead.
Your next job to maximise your summer lawn care involves getting down and dirty with the weeds. Unlike in the flower beds or popping up their heads in between the pavement slabs, weeds in your lawn will make themselves pretty well known.
Basically, anything that isn’t grass is probably a weed.
Most likely, you’ll be looking for dandelions, daisies, greater plantain, and clover. Some weeds are easier to remove than others, but the key is to use a decent fork, trowel or other digging tool to remove the entire plant, including its roots.
There are treatments available that remove your unwanted weeds without affecting the grass; however, due to the chemicals and spraying techniques involved, we recommend hiring the help of a professional.
After scarifying and removing weeds, you may have a few bare patches dotted about. Don't stress. You can easily replace them with either some grass seed or spare turf. Soon enough, with plenty of water and sunshine, these patches will blend into your lawn like magic.
While it might seem like letting your grass grow is the best thing for it, let it grow too long, and you risk various factors affecting the overall health and appearance of your lawn.
Longer grass will prevent the sunlight, rainwater and nutrients from reaching the soil, subsequently weakening it and making it more susceptible to fungal diseases and weeds taking over.
On the other hand, the more you cut the grass, the more you encourage it to grow back and develop stronger roots.
In peak summer, aim for once, if not twice a week. Just remember to keep an eye on its condition to ensure you’re not overdoing it and causing damage.
At the risk of sounding contradictory, you want to mow the grass regularly but not have the cutting level too short at the same time. As with all things requiring a labour of love, there is a fine balance, and your summer lawn care is no different.
Therefore, during particularly drier conditions, we recommend raising your cutting level to at least 5-10cm. We say this because the extra coverage will protect the ground from too much sunlight.
Should we expect the condition of our lawn to be better than the machine we’re using to cut it?
Mower maintenance can prove the difference in lawn summer care. The main thing to remember is to keep the blades clean and sharp.
Rather than cutting the grass cleanly, blunt blades can tear your lawn and even pull up lumps, leaving your grass looking ragged, brown and uneven.
After sunlight and warmth, grass loves nothing more than moisture.
Now, watering your lawn is not necessarily essential for the ideal summer lawn care. We all know what our British weather can bring, and sometimes the rain will do just fine on its own. However, if conditions are dry, then a good soaking once a week will do the job.
Just a sprinkle is not enough and will encourage shallow root growth. You need the water to seep deep into the soil to get healthier, stronger grass growing.
The best times to water your lawn are early in the morning or the evening. Water in the afternoon, and you might scorch the grass while not allowing enough time for the water to permeate into the soil and nurture the roots.
Ideally, you’d water the lawn with recycled rainwater caught and contained in your water butt. But if you’re going straight from the hose, check there is no hosepipe ban in place. More often than not, that’s exactly when we want to water our lawn the most.
Whether you’ve got kids running about or you’ve just been busy in the beds, no doubt you’ll have a few compact patches that need aerating. Simply relieve these compact areas by digging your fork into the soil. Aim for about 10cm.
At Instant Scenery, we’re award-winning gardeners and landscapers who love nothing more than making outdoor spaces look their best.
Our experience of summer lawn care spans over 15 years. In that time, we’ve built a reputation for being reliable, friendly and professional while delivering the highest standards of gardening and horticultural work.
The lawn summer care services we offer can include basic maintenance or more advanced treatments. Whatever your lawn needs to thrive, we have the skills, expertise and tools to make it happen.
Get in touch for more details about how we can help bring your lawn back to life.
