Preparing the Lawn for Winter

Our garden was really well used last year from parties, gatherings but mainly the children playing. After such abuse, the lawn was not looking too great during the winter of 2012, so we have really made an effort to look after our lawn this year.

This has been our diary:

January – February

There was not much to do in these months as it was too cold and wet. We did however buy an electric lawn raker in the sales.

March – April

As the spring weather arrived, the grass started to grow and so our work began! The first cut of the season should always be to just take the tops off the grass. Then over the course of these months, the height of the mower should be gradually lowered. We also used the new electric lawn raker and it did a good job of scarifying and removing some of the thatch. However, for thicker patches and for the mossy areas, it was easier to get the manual rake out and apply a bit of elbow grease! The next stage was to get the pitch fork out for aeration as our soil had become quite compacted. We took this opportunity to apply some lawn feed, weed and moss killer too.

May – June

We were mowing the lawn on a regular basis, initially fortnightly but soon it needed a weekly mow. All the edges of the lawn had overgrown too where the mower couldn’t reach so we had to get the strimmer out on a number of occasions.

July – August

We were lucky this year and got a decent summer. However, this hot weather dried the lawn out so we had to water it. It is best to water it in the evenings so that the water doesn’t just evaporate away. We also reapplied the lawn feed, weed and moss killer to give the lawn a boost.

September – October

Things started to slow down during these months as the weather started to get colder. The frequency of the cuts were scaled back which was just as well as it was quite a busy time for us with school starting back and birthdays etc.

November – December

We gave the lawn a light trim and we repeated the scarify, aeration and feed in November. Ideally we should have done it last month but the weekends that we were free, it rained so we had to postpone it. That should be it now until next spring, other than clearing any leaves or other debris that may fall onto our lawn.