Banish moss and weeds from your lawn for good this spring with four easy steps, expert reveals
AS the weather begins to warm up you might be looking forward to spending some long days lounging in your garden.
But before that you’ll have to take care of your lawn – and that means getting rid of moss and weeds.
It might sound like a lot of work, but don’t worry a gardening expert has broken it down into four easy steps.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Stuart Staples, head of technical, at Westland Horticulture revealed exactly what gardeners should be doing right now.
His tips and tricks should get your lawn thriving just in time for summer.
Mow carefully
As grass starts to grow faster as the weather warms up, the gardening pro recommended only chopping off the top third of the grass by having your mow on it’s highest setting.
And if your lawn is still wet, or it’s still frosty where you live hold off on mowing for now.
Don’t let moss linger
Moss can often take over gardens during the colder winter months, but the key is to deal with it as soon as possible.
The gardening pro said spring is the ideal time to deal with any moss before it takes over your garden – you can do this with a moss killer like Westland’s All In One lawn feed, weed and moss killer, which Stuart recommended.
Aerate compact lawns
If your lawn is compact it means rainwater can gather and lead to puddles forming on the surface.
Aeration is the simple solution to this problem, Stuart said.
To do this you can buy a tool to help make the job easier – just create holes over the surface of your lawn to allow rain water to drain easily.
Doing this will also ensure other nutrients can reach further down, helping your lawn look green healthy.
Overseed to fill patches
Removing moss could leave bare patches on your lawn, so to get it back scratch by overseeding those areas.
Simply rake the surface of soil to help break it up then go in with some seeding soil to help encourage more growth.
After apply the seeds you should begin to see new growth within a matter of weeks.
If the ground gets too dry you can also water the seeds to help them out.
The exact date you should mow your lawn
If you’re still not sure when to mow your lawn for this first time this year, don’t worry.
TOP TIPS FOR MOWING THE DISTANCE
- First Spring Clean your lawn, says Cheryl Cooper, Greensleeves Lawn Care MD – pick up sticks, stones, and dead leaves, and watch out for wildlife.
- For the first mow, choose the highest blade setting – and if grass is really long, consider starting with a strimmer.
- Mowing fortnightly in Spring and weekly in Summer encourages denser grass and combats weeds.
- Never mow wet or frosty grass as it damages turf and compacts soil.
- Never take off more than a third of a blade of grass.
- Extremely low cutting levels encourages shallow rooting and makes the lawn more susceptible to drought damage, moss and weeds. It can also scalp the turf.
- Scarifying the lawn – ie, giving it a good hard rake in various directions – collects all the thatch and moss and allows proper growth.
- Compost your clippings, or leave them on the lawn to keep moisture in.
According to Woodland Trust Citizen Science Officer Lorienne Whittle, most Brits have found the sweet spot to be on March 18 – so right now is perfect!
Nature’s Calendar records found that it was the average date of first lawn cut in the UK in data collected over an 18 year period.
However, some Brits are even cutting their grass all year round due to the milder winters.
Regional differences are vast, but on average over 7% of our green-fingered Brits on Nature’s Calendar records cut their grass throughout winter.