Autumn lawn care

• Nurturing element to lawn care: The lawn is easily marginalised in importance when gardening. Attention will often be paid to the flower beds and planters around it. But the lawn responds well to care and attention and there is a host of knowledge and expertise available for those who want to take the time to be better acquainted with it as an area to focus their efforts.

• Good physical workout: As the temperature drops it’s nice to have a task that lures you outside to break a sweat. While you may start a scarifying task in a jumper and jacket, by the end of it you may well find yourself down to your t-shirt due to the energy the job requires.

Possibly not the most obvious of jobs to involve children in but there are certainly elements that will appeal to younger minds.

• Top dressing the lawn involves weighing and measuring elements and making sure the feed is evenly spread.

• Most kids don't mind getting behind a rake and having some tasks that require them not to be too exacting can be a good thing. Scarifying also results in mounds of dead grass called ‘thatch’ that can make prime material for bug hotels.
• Aerating can entice many worms out of the ground. Core aerators pull small plugs of soil to the surface that can give a nice cross-section of the soil make-up of your lawn. With the correct supervision, a more active child may be happy to have a go at treading a fork into the ground at measured spaces before giving it a slight wiggle and pulling it back out.

• You can use lightweight detachable tools and handles to work at a height that best suits your needs.
• Raking and sweeping can be easier if you use an add-on fist grip style handle and an arm support cuff - particularly if you use one hand, have a weak grip or weak wrist.
• There are a variety of grab and lift devices available, such as grab and lift rakes and grab and lift debris collectors that enable you not to have to bend down to pick up the thatch left behind.

Why do it? Over time your lawn will begin to build up unwanted reserves of dead grass and moss. As this happens, it prevents water and nutrients getting to the healthy roots and newer shoots growing around it. Scarifying is a way of removing dead and undesirable growth, otherwise known as ‘thatch’. It also breaks up grass stolons to promote new growth.

How to do it? Raking. One of the reasons this task is best done in autumn is that if done in spring hard raking may cause damage to newer grass growth and shoots. You should rake your lawn space thoroughly but avoid causing damage to the soil in the process. Once you have created your thatch piles, you can dispose of them in the compost to benefit your garden in the future.

Why do it? Aerating is a way of making sure that air and water can get to the roots of your grass. It is best done on areas that are compacted, worn or have a high clay ratio within the soil. Lawns benefit being aerated every 2-3 years. The process is also known as ‘spiking’.

How to do it? Simply make holes about 20cm apart and this will make sure your lawn is less likely to get waterlogged in rainy weather and that the grass roots can survive through drought.

Once you have aerated your lawn, you can improve drainage and feed it by raking in a top dressing.

Bags of top dressing are available from most garden centres and consist of loam, sand and organic matter or compost that nourishes the lawn area and grass growing on it.

If you used a hollow tine aerator, firstly remove the soil plugs that are on your lawn. Then put 2kg of top dressing per square metre onto your lawn and, using a plastic leaf rake, rake into the holes provided. Any excess top dressing can be brushed into flowerbeds or placed on your compost.

One last piece of advice is not to leave it too late as these tasks are a lot harder to carry out once the frost comes around.