Autumn lawn care - the last grass cut of the season

You might be forgiven for thinking Autumn is not a vitally important time for your lawn - after all, it usually stops growing and it'll be spring before the mower and edging shears are needed, right?

Wrong. Autumn is in fact a big deal for lawns everywhere and now is the perfect time to prepare your lawn for a glorious Summer next year. We take a quick look at some things you should be doing right now.

Mowing: Although your lawn doesn't look like it's growing very much, there's a lot of activity going on below the surface as roots extend to prepare for WInter. You can help by adjusting your mower so that it cuts a little higher than usual, mowing about once a fortnight as often as possible up to the middle of October.

Using a spade or a special lawn edging tool will give your edges a nice clean finish which should last through till Spring.

Feeding: There are specially formulated Autumn lawn feeds available which can treat moss and give the lawn a root growing boost. Advice seems to be add after mowing up until the middle - end of October. Any really compacted areas should be aerated and there are special dressings available to treat holes, dips and cracks left after a Summer of play, paddling pools and picnics.

Moss can be treated with a proprietary moss killer - let the moss turn black before raking the dead stuff off. Be careful about adding it to compost heaps as some treatments suggest it's unwise to do so. Lawn Sand can also be used to treat Moss.

With all that root growing activity going on, Autumn is the perfect time to sow grass seed - the soil is still warm from the Summer and the (hoped for) showers take care of the watering. It's all in the soil preparation apparently. Experts are recommending you choose a grass type depending on what you use your lawn for.

Surface debris: Dead leaves will trap moisture and encourage moss and although it might seem akin to painting the forth bridge, raking up any dead leaves etc from your lawn will help it breathe, and improve its overall health.

Finally, if you're thinking of laying turf, then October is an ideal month for turf to establish itself.

source: Westland Garden Health