Repairing Your Lawn
Many lawns receive a lot of wear, especially during the summer months.
Fortunately, the autumn is an ideal time to make repairs.
Use the following techniques to tackle humps and hollows, badly draining soil, bare patches, broken edges and areas that are simply worn out.
When an uneven lawn is cut the high points will show up as light green because the grass is being cut too short and the low points as dark green patches.
If the problem is widespread, you would be better off top dressing the whole lawn, but if you have just a few isolated bumps or hollow you can cure them using the following technique.
Use a sharp spade or half moon edging tool to make a H shaped cut in the lawn centered over the bump or hollow.
Carefully undercut the turf either side working from the central cut and peel back the turf to expose the soil beneath.
Then either remove sufficient soil to level the bump when the turf is re-laid, or top up with fine soil if you are leveling a hollow.
Fill any gaps with an equal parts mixture of sieved garden soil and sharp sand.
Repair any bare patches in the lawn by using a garden fork to scratch the surface and gently loosen the soil.
The incorporate a general fertilizer such as grow more at the rate of 50 gram per square meter, before firming with the back of a soil rake.
Sow grass seed over the top at the rate of about 35 gram per square meter for really bare patches and about 20 gram per square meter if over sowing sparse areas.
Cover the seed with a light scattering of sieved garden soil and then water with a fine roused watering can.
Protect the area from birds and cats by covering with a piece of garden fleece, held down with stones.
Water again during dry spells until the new grass is well established.
Grass clippings, leaves and other debris form a thatch at the base of the grasses in your lawn which can stifle them.
Remove it with a spring tine rake.
Raking also removes moss.
Do not let autumn leaves lie on your lawn for long or the grass underneath will suffer.
Clear the leaves up with a lawn rake.
Rake the leaves into piles and scoop them up with a pair of short planks.
Choose a still day when the leaves are dry to make the job pleasant.
Fortunately, the autumn is an ideal time to make repairs.
Use the following techniques to tackle humps and hollows, badly draining soil, bare patches, broken edges and areas that are simply worn out.
When an uneven lawn is cut the high points will show up as light green because the grass is being cut too short and the low points as dark green patches.
If the problem is widespread, you would be better off top dressing the whole lawn, but if you have just a few isolated bumps or hollow you can cure them using the following technique.
Use a sharp spade or half moon edging tool to make a H shaped cut in the lawn centered over the bump or hollow.
Carefully undercut the turf either side working from the central cut and peel back the turf to expose the soil beneath.
Then either remove sufficient soil to level the bump when the turf is re-laid, or top up with fine soil if you are leveling a hollow.
Fill any gaps with an equal parts mixture of sieved garden soil and sharp sand.
Repair any bare patches in the lawn by using a garden fork to scratch the surface and gently loosen the soil.
The incorporate a general fertilizer such as grow more at the rate of 50 gram per square meter, before firming with the back of a soil rake.
Sow grass seed over the top at the rate of about 35 gram per square meter for really bare patches and about 20 gram per square meter if over sowing sparse areas.
Cover the seed with a light scattering of sieved garden soil and then water with a fine roused watering can.
Protect the area from birds and cats by covering with a piece of garden fleece, held down with stones.
Water again during dry spells until the new grass is well established.
Grass clippings, leaves and other debris form a thatch at the base of the grasses in your lawn which can stifle them.
Remove it with a spring tine rake.
Raking also removes moss.
Do not let autumn leaves lie on your lawn for long or the grass underneath will suffer.
Clear the leaves up with a lawn rake.
Rake the leaves into piles and scoop them up with a pair of short planks.
Choose a still day when the leaves are dry to make the job pleasant.
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