Several of my YouTube channel subscribers have been in touch asking for a garden and lawn care calendar to help them organise their gardening year. So here, in tabbed format, is a month by month guide to keeping your garden in good order.
If the weather is mild and the grass keeps growing, then it’s OK to keep mowing. Please avoid walking on frosted or waterlogged grass though.
If you’ve not already given your lawn a winter treatment, now’s the time to do it. An application of seaweed based tonic will help keep lawn diseases at bay, green up the grass and reduce the risk of frost damage. Believe it or not, winter is also the time of year to start treating moss.
Make the most of miserable days to service your lawn mower. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions or if you’re not mechanically minded, nip it down to your local repair shop.
Winter is a great time of year to get those hedges trimmed and tidied.
February is a good month for planning your lawn care regime. Grab your calendar and make notes to remind you when lawn treatments will be needed. Think about moss control, scarification, aeration, feeding, and weed-control. Edging and mowing are weekly tasks – will you be needing help with them while you’re on your holidays?
Now is a great time to get the lawn ready so, get the edger out and give the edges a freshen up
Spruce up the patio
The garden is starting to wake up and bits of it might need a bit of extra TLC. Patios, paths and driveways can lose their lustre over the winter months.
A good clean will set them up for the summer and make your whole garden look and feel a little more loved. Premier Lawns offers a patio cleaning service that doesn’t involve nasty chemicals or brutal jetwashing. Find out more here
Early spring lawn feed. Start of lawn renovation season
As the soil warms up, your lawn will start growing. Healthy growth calls for a balanced diet of plant nutrients. Time to apply a spring lawn feed.
And it’s that time of year, weather permitting of course that we start our lawn renovations, although it’s still too cold for any lawns that needs seed.
Lawn renovations carried out now will help ensure your lawn looks amazing for summer. The grass is growing quickly and will recover well from any interventions. Overseeding in April is a great way to repair any bald patches.
You’ll likely be mowing at least once a week during April. Keep those mower blades sharp and high. A scalped lawn never looks good and it will be more susceptible to disease.
Trimming the edges of your lawn will make your whole garden look sharper and neater.
Around the Garden
Provided the soil is warm enough, some flower and vegetable seeds can be sown out of doors now. But please don’t be tempted by the bedding plants in the garden centre – it’s too early for frost sensitive plants to be out without protection.
If you lawn is dieing beneath your feet, there is a good chance you have leather jackets in your lawns, now is a great time to treat theme with nematodes See my blog – https://premierlawns.co.uk/how-to-stop-leatherjackets-damaging-your-lawn/
If you have any bare patches in the soil, now is a great time to repair them
If you didn’t apply a lawn feed in May, be sure to do it this month. The plants are doing their best to set seed (because that’s what grass does at this time of year) and they will be using a lot of energy in the process. Don’t let them lose their vigour.
Those summer bedding plants can be planted out now. Give them a good watering and apply mulch to help keep the soil in good condition all summer long. The clay based soils here in Belfast are prone to baking hard in the summer which is never good for shallow rooted plants.
Why not have some fun in the lawn and see if you can think of fun ways to mow stripes in your lawn
Time to raise the cutting height of your mower. Maintaining your lawn at around 5-7cm will shade the soil from hot sun, help preserve moisture levels and keep your lawn greener for longer in warm weather.
June and July are the months most likely to see redthread in your lawns, check out my blog below for more info.
Enjoy your lawn! You’ve worked hard for this so make the most of it. Growth slows in mid-summer so you’ll be mowing less frequently.
Watering is essential for newly established lawns. Older lawns will enjoy a good soaking but they’ll survive just as well without it. If you do choose to water, here’s a little video to help you get it right.
September is the one of the busiest months for lawncare
It is a great time to sow seed and renovate lawns as the soil is warm and it starts to get damper.
Autumn lawn feed
The most important thing you can do for your lawn at this time is feed it. The grass will be recovering from the stress of summer and will welcome a good meal. Be very careful about the formulation of the feed you use. Too much Nitrogen in autumn could lead to a disastrous attack of fusarium patch disease.
I always recommend a seaweed treatment for September. Here’s why
Sometimes in autumn you might spot a toadstool or two in the lawn – particularly if the lawn is freshly turfed. This is absolutely nothing to worry about – it’s just Mother Nature celebrating the season.
September marks the autumn lawn renovation season. Time to aerate and scarify your lawn to help with winter drainage, lawn disease control and to encourage robust root growth.
Depending on where you are in the country will dicate when you can stop sowing seeds, in Belfast we stop around the middle of the month due to frosts
Hedge trimming
Time to lift tender plants and plant those spring flowering bulbs. Top up the mulch in your beds and borders too – it will help protect perennial plants from frost.
As the garden relaxes towards winter there’ll be a little less colour to entertain your eyes. Now is the time for structural plants to shine. Pristine hedges with strong lines will show the world that you care about your garden.
If you’re not confident cutting hedges, this video will help. And if the video doesn’t help, Robbie from Premier Lawns will…… here’s how to contact him. https://premierlawns.co.uk/contact-us/
The most important job for this month is keeping all of those fallen leaves off the lawn. It may feel like a marathon but trust me, you will see the benefit. Every single fallen leaf blocks sunlight from the grass, and without sunlight, grass cannot survive. Forget to remove the leaves and your lawn will be very spotty by spring time.
Time for a winter lawn treatment. An application of potash and potassium will help with winter hardiness. Add iron for winter greenness and moss control, sulphur to control fungal diseases and a nice dose of minerals for general health. At Premier Lawns we recommend a professional feed boosted with a seaweed tonic – it gets great results.
If you have not cleaned your lawn mower, now is the time to get the bucket of water out, for some tips on getting your lawn mower looking like new again…
It’s impossible to cover everything I want to in just one blog so please peruse my website and blog for more details and subscribe to my YouTube Channel for weekly updates on lawn and garden care.
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