It doesn’t take a lot to achieve the perfect lawn. Give your grass some spring TLC and get it in great shape for summer by carrying out a few quick and easy jobs now. As well as quickly refreshing and invigorating your lawn, doing these jobs now builds in good resistance to weather extremes, helping keep your lawn fresh and green all summer. And your lush grass will be the envy of all your neighbours!
1. Rake and mow
Even if grass hasn’t grown much, a quick mow tidies up the lawn and picks up bits of debris that have fallen. Lightly rake beforehand to scatter worm casts, lift flattened grass and the runners of spreading lawn plants like buttercups, as well as pulling back grass that’s spreading into borders. Do the first couple of cuts with the blades set high, rather than risk scalping the lawn and making unsightly bare patches.
2. Add fertiliser
A big win for little effort is to treat your grass to a lawn fertilizer. Feeding makes grass grow greener, thicker and stronger, and helps it out-perform moss. Choose an organic one as artificial fertilisers can damage the environment in the manufacturing process, and also weaken the fertility of the soil over time. Make sure it’s designed for use in spring, so has a high nitrogen content. A granular type is easiest to apply. Take care to scatter the granules as evenly as possible, and use only the recommended amount as too much can scorch and burn the grass. Wear gloves and avoid inhaling fertilizer dust.
3. Tackle bare patches
The easiest way to deal with small or thin patches is to buy a seed product specifically designed for patch repair. To repair large bare patches, use lawn turf, cutting out the old worn grass and dropping in the new turf. You can buy small amounts of turf from garden centres and large DIY stores but do check what day they receive deliveries so as to buy it fresh. Avoid cracked, dried-out turves or any with yellowing grass. Or, instead of buying turf, look to see if there’s edge pieces of your own lawn that can be cut off and used for patching.
4. Remove moss
Moss in lawns is only a problem if you’re after a perfect grass lawn. Otherwise, moss is green and sustainable, especially in damp or shady spots where grass struggles to grow. The easiest way to tackle moss is to rake it out and then mow/sow seed and feed, but the long-term solution is to improve drainage by aerating and scarifying.
5. Make smart edges
Where the lawn joins borders and paving, a crisp neat edge makes the world of difference. Cutting the grass using shears may be all that’s needed (angled edging shears, especially long-handled ones, make short work of this job). Or, if the lawn boundary has lost definition, use a half-moon edging tool to cut a fresh edge. For pin-smart straight edges, use a long plank to stand on and use as a cutting guide.
