Lawns can be a little bit needy, but since most of us like to keep at least a small bit of lawn, it’s important that we know how to care for them. There are several challenges involved with lawn ownership; watering, mowing, adding nutrients, repairing patches and creating drainage are all regular lawn jobs. If you are getting your seasonal lawn care right, though, you can often circumnavigate the need for more work.
A little bit of maintenance can go a long way when it comes to a lawn, and not doing that maintenance can cause more work for you in the long run. As with most things in the garden, there are several different approaches we can take. Most lawn-care advice will recommend sticking to a very strict feeding routine. I’ve had a lawn for my entire life and never used a lawn fertiliser. If you do, the results are evident quite quickly, but bear in mind that this will need to be applied regularly. If you employ the natural systems in place to feed your plants, it all starts with soil as I explain in my book, Grow a New Garden.
Mowing your lawn regularly through the summer will help it to thicken up. If you reseeded in spring, either avoid these patches or let them establish properly before mowing. Your lawn might need watering in summer, but take care not to water too much as the grass will become dependent on regular watering. It is far better to water deeply and less regularly than a little and often because this scarcity encourages deep root growth.
There are several problems that lawn owners can face. Lawns are generally not easy to care for, and getting an immaculate lawn can be a difficult and high-maintenance endeavour. Lawns are quite far removed from natural environments. Here are a few problems that lawn owners may face, and how to approach them.
The main problem with lawns is either that they go brown in summer or they become patchy. Going brown just means its needs watering, and most lawns recover fine. But there are several things that can cause patchy grass, including low nutrients, waterlogging, soil compaction and pests. Patchy grass can also be created by heavy foot traffic and dog urine. If you’re new to gardening and you’re not sure what’s causing the patchy grass, you should start by doing a little bit of investigation.
If the patchiness is in a linear formation, it could be due to foot traffic. If this is likely to continue, you may want to consider putting in a path or stepping stones. Just ensure that if you are adding a path or stones you aren’t creating problems for yourself when it comes to mowing the lawn
If there are lots of yellow patches on the lawn or the grass has simply died off, this could be the result of dogs urinating on the lawn. There are plenty of solutions for this one, the simplest being to identify where the dog is ‘going’ and water it after your pooch has done its business.
If the lawn is very patchy and bare and the grass doesn’t seem to grow thickly anywhere, this could indicate a pest lives in the soil, such as cutworms (moth larvae) or leatherjackets (cranefly larvae). In which case, you will need to examine your lawn and take the appropriate action as below. Or you may find that you have something eating your lawn from on top, like deer. If shoots at the top are being nibbled by something, this isn’t such a bad thing as it usually encourages more growth.
Dig up a small portion of your lawn, around 10cm (4in) deep and sift through the soil. If you come across a fat brownish-grey grub with sharp mouth parts on one end, your lawn patches could be a result of cutworms. I recommend treating your lawn with a nematode specifically for cutworms.
If you find long, thin grubs or shiny red-brown pupae, you may have leatherjackets. You can get a nematode treatment specifically for leatherjackets, too. If you don’t find any evidence of pests in your lawn upon closer inspection, you may have compaction, waterlogging or low nutrients.
Coming across areas that are dry and hard when you dig into the soil is often a sign that it is lacking in organic matter, which means water is not able to travel through all the layers of soil. If your lawn is regularly drying out because of intense heat, you may want to consider one of the following approaches to keeping it a little healthier:
You might not want shade on your lawn, which is entirely understandable, but it can be a long-lasting and eco-friendly solution. Creating shade can help your lawn suffer less from evaporation. But be careful not to plant trees that require a lot of water, because these will likely not establish well in the area and will likely exacerbate the problem by soaking up more water. Bear in mind that shade could also prevent rainwater reaching your lawn, so consider this when choosing what to do.
The obvious choice for tackling dried patches is to add some irrigation or manually water the lawn yourself. This can be effective but also quite labour intensive or costly. I recommend collecting rainwater over the rest of the year using water butts (rain barrels) and storing it for summer if you are able. This storage will reduce some of the on-going costs. Try to water at dawn, before the sun becomes too warm and just before the plants need it most. Watering this early allows the water to drain into the soil before it evaporates.
If you are feeling brave, you might want to consider planting something other than grass. There are plenty of drought-resistant alternatives to grass. The species best for you will depend on your local environment, but it’s worth doing some research if you’re ready to make big changes.
Top dressing your lawn with a thin layer of compost can help to increase water infiltration and decrease surface evaporation. You will need to do this regularly – once or twice a year. Also ensure not to cover up the grass because this can cause it to die back.
Most lawns that dry out over summer will recover almost immediately when it starts to rain. So, if you’re able to be patient, you can just wait for it to spring back to life when the rain does finally come.
This is an abridged extract from Grow a New Garden: Plan, Design & Transform Any Outdoor Space by Becky Searle (£25, Chelsea Green) and you can buy your copy HERE. Becky is on Instagram @sow_much_more.