Home | Home | Gardening

Autumn And Your Lawn Needs Some Care

By: Mark Bartley

Read More About Gardening

One of the biggest gardening headaches at this time of year is falling leaves. Do you rake every day or wait until all the leaves are down before you gather them up for composting? The answer as always is somewhere in between. If you wait until the trees have dropped all their leaves then your grass will be struggling to survive underneath a suffocating cap of rotting vegetation. If left, this 'thatch' can initiate the onset of disease or promote weeds. However, raking every day is a little too 'extreme gardening' for those with already busy lives, so during the autumn months try to rake at least once a week. Use the right tools for the job to rake the thatch off the top of your still-growing lawn such as a spring-tine rake, garden rake or, if you want to make the job even easier, a powered rake.

Let your lawn breathe. Autumn lawn care is all about knowing your lawn. What type of soil is under your lawn? What kind of grass seed forms the basis of your lawn? For those lucky enough to have loamy soil, very little in the way of feeding needs to be done, although every lawn appreciates a bit of extra nutrient now and then. For those on heavy clay, compaction can be a real problem. Because the particles in clay soil are much finer than those in loamy or sandy soil they tend to stick together, suffocating your lawn from the ground up. Lawn sand will also help and sprinkle a good feed mixed in with sand to help keep the soil aerated and to improve drainage.

Feed up your lawn for the winter to help it survive. If your soil is sandy then aeration and drainage may not be a problem. However, retaining nutrients is a different matter, as sandy soils tend to leach nutrients at a much faster rate. All autumn lawn care should include giving your lawn a good feed before the onset of winter and the grass's dormant stage. Choose a lawn feed that contains a good balance of nutrients and some slow-release nitrogen. A wet autumn is bad news for lawns that already have a moss problem, so try and get it under control as soon as possible during the drier weather. If you have a large lawn, then the quickest way to spread an even coverage of lawn feed is to use a wheeled spreader. Rotary spreaders are quick and easy to use if you have a large space to cover. Ensure that you do your feeding on a dry day to allow the nutrients to sink into the soil rather than being washed away by rain.

Patching things up while the weather allows is a wise move. Drought, animal droppings and hard wear can also leave your autumn lawn looking patchy. Take advantage of any 'Indian Summer' weather to repair unsightly dead patches by reseeding or, if necessary, try re-turfing. Alternatively, there are lawn repair kits available that are specifically designed to tackle tough patches of dead grass and bring them back to their former glory.

Some well-timed autumn lawn care will set things up nicely for the winter and make sure your lawn is all ready to spring back to life as soon as spring re-appears.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Mark says making time for autumn lawn care is one task that will bring great rewards in future seasons and even if you only find time for only a few hours effort your lawn will repay you next year.

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Gardening Articles Via RSS!
Additional Articles From - Home | Home | Gardening
Sign Up for a free account.
Our other websites
All about SEO
Beauty Tips Forum
Submit Articles
Member Login
Link Us
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
Sitemap
New Stuff
About Us
Developer
Good shopping portal
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

counter easy hit

Powered by Article Dashboard