may
May Lawncare Jobs
- by John Quinn, Master Greenkeeper
Well, by now we should all be mowing and probably stepping up the frequency of this, due to good growing weather. It has been a very late, cold and dry spring in many areas of the country and grass has been slow to get going. On our commercial golf course contracts we have been praying for things to get growing, while my lawn has been very early to start…typical eh!
The UK’s only lawncare company with Master Greenkeeper expertise
Here are April’s lawn care tips from Greenmaster’s Managing Director and Master Greenkeeper John Quinn.
Moss
If moss is persisting and refusing to go away, keep an eye on the mowing height as going in too close can encourage moss to hang around. Also its not too late to do a bit of solid tining to relieve wet areas of the lawn. Always use a round profile tine and never a slit or knife tine at this time to ensure that you don’t get ugly yellow slit holes opening up during dry weather.
For Those about to Have a Hosepipe Ban
On the subject of weather, as you might know Turf and Stuff are a nationwide supplier and some of our readers could be facing a hosepipe ban already. This of course isn’t good news for the lawn enthusiast during dry weather. However, there is a lot you can do to make sure your lawn looks its best even in the face of adversity. Try these tips:
- Raise the height of cut to retain more of the leaf. This will help the plants to develop deeper roots and search out scarce moisture from below.
- Let the clippings fly and don’t box them off. This helps in 2 ways, firstly the clippings act like a mulch around the base of the grass plants, slowing down evaporation of soil moisture and secondly the moisture contained within the leaf tissue will return to the soil.
- If you’ve encouraged the very fine fescue and bent grasses as we always preach here they are naturally drought resistant and with a little encouragement from you will survive the worst dry spell.
- Try sarrell rolling the lawn (roller with short spikes on) then applying a wetting agent before watering in with the used bath water. This will help to retain more moisture in the ground and reduce losses due to transpiration from the leaf.
- If you’re still seeing dew in the mornings, get up early and brush it into the lawn instead of letting it evaporate too readily from the leaves when the sun gets up.
- Get a water butt! For future reference.
- For the Angus’s among us…empty the swimming pool!
For Those with Plenty of Water
Keep an eye on moisture levels as this is the time when we find that dry patch problems get their grip on lawns and greens.
When watering always remember the rule is “deeply not daily” . A good soaking twice a week is far more beneficial and makes more efficient use of water than a light watering every day.
Nutrition
For the Scots among us with plenty of water to go around, remember to look after nutrition levels this month. An application of a granular slow release fertiliser with between 9 to 14 percent Nitrogen (N) and 8 to 16 percent Potassium (K) with added Phosphorous (P) if you are on sandy soil and a little Iron (Fe) if moss is proving hard to budge.
Weeds
Late May should be the perfect time to get weed control underway. The easy annuals will succumb to the first treatment with a selective weedkiller, but further treatments will be required in June and maybe July for the more persistent ones like speedwell etc.
Mowing
Mow as often as necessary to stop the grass growth leaving you behind, remembering that we never take off more than a third of the leaf at any one time. Decide on your height of cut and don’t let the grass get too far ahead of this before mowing again. We can safely reduce the mowing height now but remember for that lush green uniform look its better to keep the height up around 25mm. To keep the lawn in good condition when mowing significantly lower than this starts to get very labour intensive indeed. On golf courses we are already mowing greens every day even weekends!
Happy mowing!
Next Month:
Mid summer lawncare.