October

Autumn Renovation:

After that beautiful, long, hot summer we have had, a number of you will be looking at poor, thin, patchy lawns. Although grass is very tough, some of the finer grasses in your lawns will die in a summer like that.

What needs to be done at the moment is the following:

Heavy Scarification:

At this time of year you should be scarifying or raking. This will remove all the dead leaves and grass plants from the summer which cause the thatch build up.

If your lawn is looking very poor, then deeply scarify with a bladed scarifier rather than a spring tine. This allows the ground to be opened up ready for the following treatments. Contact your local hire shops for the correct equipment.

Before you start scarifying, mow to the closest setting on your mower.

Hollow Tining:

If you have the time or energy to hollow tine your lawn (or at least the worst, hard packed parts) get it done at this stage. If your area is small use a hand operated tool. If the area is large then try your local hire shops for a machine, or contact your local golf course, they may have a contract service available.

You should be Hollow Tining to at least 3", preferably 6" deep. Remove the cores to your compost heap.

Top Dressing:

You should Top Dress whether you have Hollow Tined or not. It revitalises, improves drainage and provides the best "key" possible for your oversowing work.

Remember that Turf And Stuff are specialist Top Dressing suppliers to both the Trade and DIY. Please visit the link below to see our range of Top Dressing products:

Top Dressing

Our Top Dressings are made using mixes of finely sieved green waste compost. The nutritional, disease control and long term greening effect of these products is remarkable.

Professional Tip:

Ever wondered how Top Dressing is levelled and worked in on the golf courses?

Click these two links below to see the professional products we are now making available to the DIY market, These tools make Top Dressing easy:

Levelling Lute

Dragmat

Oversowing:

To replace the finer grasses that have died in your lawn, you should overseed onto your Top Dressed area. You can choose any seed mix you want. Here you get the chance to change the make up of your lawn. For instance you may want to make your lawn finer, or more drought resistant or more shade resistant. Here I should remind you that we supply grass seed, at no extra cost, with our Top Dressing packages.

Once the over sowing is done, you must very lightly rake the surface to cover the seeds (no more than 2-3mm cover). Then stay off the grass for the next month. If we experience a lot of autumn growth then you will need to mow before the winter, but keep the mower up at it's highest setting. Collect the cuttings,even if this slows you down in wet conditions.

The kind of treatment described above will have a terriffic improving effect for next season.

Next month we cover Autumn fertiliser, when, what and why.