How to care for a new lawn
If you’re moving into a new Cruden home this year and have taken advantage of one of our landscape packages, you can look forward to seeing freshly-laid grass outside your window. Staggered rows of emerald turf form a delightful sight as they bed into place in a newly landscaped garden or communal area.
However, it’s surprisingly easy to let that green and pleasant landscape wither beneath your feet. It’s crucial not to stand or play on recently laid turf whilst it settles, and without regular care and maintenance, new turf quickly struggles. A factor or landscaping company will maintain communal spaces on any new estate, but in a private garden, the responsibility is yours. Below, we summarise how to ensure your new lawn remains a picture of health, underpinning outdoor activities with a soft green carpet.
Feed it
Lawn food comes in numerous guises, but don’t dismiss seasonal products as gimmickry. Spring and summer feeds typically comprise fertiliser mixed with weedkiller, whereas applying nitrogen-rich feeds in the autumn might trigger diseases in the soil. Iron sulphate is the vital ingredient needed in the low months, helping to kill moss and harden the turf against frost and snow. Conversely, in summer your lawn will be craving phosphate and potassium to help roots embed and leaves to grow.
Ideally, you want to give your lawn a feed once per season. This should be done immediately after mowing it and ideally before it rains, ensuring nutrients reach the soil rather than getting stuck on long blades. Excessive feeding could accelerate growth to a point where the soil struggles to break down dead roots, which is necessary to create space for new ones. Dense roots create an impenetrable barrier to air and water – both required below ground level to maintain healthy soil.
Water it
In dry weather, running a sprinkler for a couple of hours maintains grass health, as does using a butt or rainwater barrel to refill a watering can. This shouldn’t be done in direct sunshine, since the water will evaporate – wait for shade, or applying a light soaking to the grass mid-morning or mid-evening. Never leave sprinklers on overnight, since they could flood the soil; pools of standing water suffocate the roots beneath. Boiling water kills weeds when applied directly, doubling up as grass food once it’s cooled.
A spring or autumn lawn scarification helps air and water flow beneath the surface, which is vital for the sticky clay soil below most Central Belt lawns. Scarified pellets need to be disposed of rather than being left on the lawn, and this cumulative process offers greater benefits with every passing year. Inserting a garden fork and gently rocking back and forth also allows roots to breathe, and you could pour fine sand into the cracks to improve drainage.
Mow it
Many problems with lawns stem from inconsistent or overly enthusiastic mowing. For instance, cutting the leaves too short weakens the roots, reducing their ability to retain water and stay healthy. A 35-45mm cutting height is optimal for preventing green turning brown during a dry spell, though the first couple of cuts each year should be higher still. Longer grass repels weeds more effectively, at a time of year when they’re seeking new homes.
Waiting too long between mows allows insects to cause damage, while it’s a lot harder to identify and tackle chickweed or clover among long blades of grass. Cut it weekly during peak growth spells, and fortnightly in early spring and late autumn. These are the optimal seasons to overseed bare patches, rather than midsummer or during a dry spell. You could even place toy snakes around seeded patches to prevent birds eating the seeds, moving them around regularly to maintain the illusion!
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