Lawn Care

Controlling thatch is one of the most important – and most overlooked – parts of lawn care. Thatch is simply the layer of dead grass, roots, and debris that accumulates between the soil surface and the green grass blades above. Over time, it forms a thick mat, hindering water and air from reaching the soil and providing an environment that can encourage pests and diseases. Dethatching can help prevent these problems. Almost every lawn needs dethatching about once a year, or whenever the thatch reaches a thickness of about 1/2 inch (1.2cm). To check, just work your fingers into the grass and note the depth of the thatch layer. Dethatch cool-season grasses in autumn, warm-season types in late winter, early spring.

An important task for your lawn during autumn and winter is maintenance. To keep lawns looking healthy and attractive aeration and soil conditioning are important tasks and the time to do them is now. It’s important to aerate the lawn, particularly if you have heavy clay soil. Simply drive a fork halfway into the lawn and wiggle it. This opens up the soil and allows plenty of oxygen in, which is really good for the roots. Of course it also helps rain penetrate, and it’s important to get the best value from every drop. For a small lawn, aeration is good exercise, but for a really big area it might mean hiring a machine. As a rule it’s best to aerate lawns twice a year, once in winter and once in summer to keep the lawn healthy and in good condition.

To maintain a healthy, vigorous lawn, we recommend you use a premium fertiliser two weeks after installation and then every 6-8 weeks all year round or at least the start of each new season. When fertilising your lawn, apply approximately 30g per square metre and remember to water in well. To help hold the colour of your lawn during winter, you can fertilise in late autumn using a combination of organic and slow release fertilisers. High nitrogen fertilisers such as UREA will bring out the green in the turf, however will only last 3 to 4 weeks.

Armyworm (or the more common name, lawn grub) is a moth caterpillar that feeds on the turf foliage at night. The grubs come in large numbers and can cause rapid damage as they move across turf areas. An indicator that Armyworm is in your lawn is the presence of birds feeding in the early morning or late afternoon on grubs, or red/brown wasp like insects on top of the lawn. Armyworm can be sprayed with any Lawn Grub killer or Acelepryn. As a prevention we recommend you maintain your lawn with regular mowing during the warmer months of October through to April.. The eggs are laid in masses of 600-700 eggs that are covered with long, light brown hairs, these felt-like egg masses are cemented to leaves of trees and shrubs or on buildings close to lights and are often found on eaves and open ceilings. Brushing the egg masses off helps to physically control the insect, (we do not recommend hosing the eggs as this will wash the eggs into your turf).

Mow when the turf is dry and ensure your mower blades are sharp. Preferably never remove more than one third of the leaf blade (maintain a suitable height for your particular turf as stated in the lawn characteristics), at this height the turf will retain moisture and nutrients (low mowing may damage your lawn).