Lawn Care and Maintenance

Lawns Care & Maintenance, Watering, Fertilising, Mowing.

It’s a simple pleasure walking over a manicured lawn, admiring the work of your landscape gardener for the different seasons in the garden of your hedged plants across to your vegetable garden ready for harvesting, one which thousands of Canberrans are missing out on. Let’s see about Lawn Care and Maintenance.

Lawn Cutting

• Never cut more than 1/3 of the height of the grass. Cutting too low can burn and damage the grass
• Summer grasses or grasses that go dormant and brown in colour cut @ 20 -30 mm high for Canberra while green in colour.
• Evergreen grasses cut 50 – 60mm high for Canberra all year round.
• Always use a mower with sharp blades. For a good result it is important that the grass is cut off with a sharp edge.
• Edging will always compliment a good lawn.

When to cut your grass

• Depending on a few factors – Grass type, frequency of watering and fertilising.
• Never cut more than 1/3 of the height of the grass. Cutting too low can burn and damage the grass. The frequency of cutting will depend on the lawn growth rate.
• Regular mowing routine will keep your lawn even, soft and lush.
• Summer grasses or grasses that go dormant and brown in colour cut before 50mm high for Canberra
• Summer grasses or grasses that go dormant stop cutting when lawn goes brown.
• Evergreen grasses before 70 to 80mm high for Canberra all year round.
• The lawn stops growing when the temperature is below 10 degrees.
• When the frost comes at night you should definitely reduce lawn cutting and edging.

Lawn fertilisation

• Fertilise preferably before rain or a deep watering when using granules fertiliser.
• Apply a little slow release lawn fertiliser every second month for best results.
• Apply liquid fertiliser ‘weed and feed’ during the growth season to control weeds.
• Use a lawn mower with mulch blades or don’t use a catcher can provide up to 25% of your lawns nutrients when the cut grass blades are less than 10mm long.

Moss and weeds in the lawn?

• A healthy lush lawn is your best form of weed control.
• Weed by hand to remove the roots twice a year. Early Spring and late Summer.
• Use a liquid fertiliser ‘weed and feed’ during the growing season twice a year. Mid Spring and mid Autumn.
• Moss loves moisture and grows best in the shade. Therefore, choose grasses that can withstand shade.
• Moss is an indication of over watering.

Coring and Top Dressing Lawns

• Old lawns with compact soil may need to be aerated using a corer to increase the grass’s defence against moss and weeds, every second year.
• If the lawn is old and contains only moss and weeds, it is just as good to start from the beginning and build a new lawn.
• The easiest way to top dress is to lay out the dressing material in piles and spread it evenly, 10mm thick over the surface with a rake, every second year.
• Areas of no grass can be taken care of by seeding or laying a new roll of turf, at the same time as top dressing, when needed.