If you’re eager to be out and about in the garden, there are some things you can do for your lawn at this time of year. With some fundamental preventive care now, you can cut down of the amount of time you’ll have to spend on the lawn during the growing season. Don’t work on the lawn if it’s still wet, though, especially if your soil is clay.
| Aerating |
Having a large area of grass requires truly intensive gardening. A lawn is made of hundreds of tiny grass plants, all with roots wanting to take in oxygen and nutrients. Over the years, the soil will become compacted, making it more difficult for air to enter. Every three or four years, either in the spring or fall, aerate the soil by using an aerator, which extracts plus of soil. Sandy soil of course, does not benefit from aerating, since it already drains well – too well, some might say!
You can rent machines for aerating or buy a simple hollow-pronged tool that will do the same thing. Leave the plugs where they fall and lightly top-dress the lawn with compost or good loam.
An avid gardener and golfer once told me that he always aerated his lawn by wearing a pair of golf shoes – the metal spikes did an excellent job.
| Dethatching |
Thatch is a layer of grass roots (rhizomes) and leaf blades the weave themselves together around the individual grass plants that make up your lawn. Eventually the mat becomes so thick that air, water, and fertilizers have trouble getting down to the soil. Because the grass is not receiving the nutrients and moisture it needs, it becomes unhealthy and prone to insects and diseases.
Thatch buildup cannot entirely be prevented. However, you can retard buildup if you encourage the grass roots to grow deeply into the soil: cut your grass to a height of 6 to 8 cm (2 ½ to 3 inches), water deeply, and aerate, as described earlier.
To see how thick the thatch layer in your lawn is, cut a core about 8 cm (3 inches) deep and examine it. If the thatch layer is less than 12 mm (1/2 inch), there’s no cause for concern. If it’s more than that, the thatch should be dealt with.
Use a rake or rent a dethatcher – a machine that cuts through the thatch and lifts it to the surface – if the thatch is particularly heavy. Rake up the thatch and add it to your compost. You can also use a commercial liquid dethatcher to do the job rather than the rake or rented dethatcher.
| Fertilizing |
After a long, cold winter, lawns – like their owners – need a pick-me-up. The lawn’s trip south comes in the handy shape of a bag. In the spring, lawns benefit from some added nitrogen as the grass goes into high-gear growth. A slow-release, granular 21-7-7 fertilizer is ideal, applied twice, six to eight weeks apart.
