Lawn Maintenance - Fertilising - Watering – Weeds

Fertilising Your Lawn:Always fertilise your lawn before winter, late autumn and straight after winter and early spring. When your lawn is green leave it alone, if it looks a bit pale in the summer time then give it a slight fertilise.

Use a good NPK fertilizer. Nitrogen Phosphorus (K) Calcium. A slow release fertiliser or even a high acting one, a high nitrogen fertiliser depending on how hungry and yellow the lawn is looking and the turn of the time.

Going into winter I'd be putting in a high nitrogen based fertilizer. Once summer is around and the lawn's growing actively and green, put on a slow release fertiliser. The reason we say these times to fertilise is because going into autumn you want to get the lawn fed and fertilized before it goes in to dormancy so it has the nutrition in its system to carry through the cold months.  Coming out of winter you're going into the warmer months so you want to activate the lawn to start growing before any weeds have a chance to penetrate.

When you do this, if there are any sections of the lawn that have thinned out or struggled through winter the lawn will quickly run over and thicken up the area to keep foliage cover over the sub soil to minimise predators like weeds to come through. Watering Your Lawn TurfEveryone's irrigation systems and water pressure are different.A soaker hose is a good way to go of an afternoon and the only way to check your work is to go and stick your finger in the ground and see how deep the moisture has gotten in there.

20 to 25mm penetration in the ground is what you're after. In the real hot days when you're driving home and you see everyone's grass at the side of the road all browning off, that's the time to definitely be watering your lawn. In water restriction times:In times of water restriction what you should try to do is top dress your lawn with a standard soil at the end of winter. Try and get your grey water on your lawn and use rain water when possible. You could even get a water tank to store up water.

Remember a lawn is a living thing and needs to be irrigated in those hot times. If rain is around get out there and fertilise your lawn straight away to get maximum growth out of the lawn while the ground is damp.

Try not to let your lawn get too long before you mow it and stress it out. Keep it maintained at a reasonable level. Keep the leaf nice and healthy. Weeds and Lawn MaintenanceThis is probably not what you'd expect to hear when talking about out-competing weeds but check this out…

Regardless of what lawn you have It should be watered at least once or twice a week and I mean a good soaking and what I mean when I say a good soaking is 20 to 25mm penetration in the ground. That way the root structure of the lawn will search deeper and deeper for moisture.  To be fertilised before winter and straight after winter. Keep the lawn actively healthy. Keep the ground cover covered with a healthy lawn. If that is done correctly, the act of having weeds coming through your lawn should be greatly minimised.

You're not giving them a good chance to survive. If you have bare ground, the little weed seedlings will have a good chance to germinate. If weeds do come in and there are only a few, you can just go in and pick them out. You want to try and avoid spraying the lawn for weeds. If you do end up with a weed situation - which is very rare - then there are chemicals which you'd go out there and spray but that would be the last resort. Prevention and keeping a healthy active growing lawn is far better than having to treat your area for weeds.

Weeds aren't really much of an issue if your lawn is kept healthy. As the lawn grows - if it's kept healthy - the lawn thatch will be pushed up and the mower will knock the head off the weeds and they will disappear.