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 blog format, is a month by month guide to keeping your garden in good order.
Use these links to skip straight to the current month for a more complete list of tasks.
- January – service your lawnmower
- February – hedge trimming
- March – early spring lawn feed, spruce up the patio
- April – spring aeration and scarify
- May – keep on top of weeds. This is the busiest month for mowing
- June -early summer feed
- July – lawn weed treatments
- August – irrigation
- September – autumn lawn feed
- October – hedge trimming
- November – gutter clearance
- December – winter lawn treatments
A beautifully manicured garden is all about keeping on top of the work. My garden and lawn care calendar will help you to plan your year.
January
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
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?
Flower beds and shrubberies can be mulched in February. It’s good to get this job out of the way before the growing season starts.
Click here for tips on effective mulching
March
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
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.
Keep an eye out for early signs of redthread disease.
You may also need to think about scarification and aeration. It’s a good idea to contact your lawn care professional nice and early – before they get booked up. If you live in and around Belfast, Robbie is happy to visit, assess your lawn and offer his advice.
There are five steps to the perfect lawn. This video explains more
April
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.
How to mow stripes into your lawn
Trimming the edges of your lawn will make your whole garden look sharper and neater.
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.
May
You’ll be too busy mowing to think about much else. But try to remember that as you mow you are taking away your lawn’s food store. Make sure you’ve booked your next lawn treatment so that those nutrients can be replaced.
Are you noticing any weeds in the lawn? Avoid blanket weed and feed treatments if you can. It’s better to spot treat weeds than to spread weedkillers around indiscriminately. If in doubt, talk to your lawn care provider.
Common lawn weeds and how to treat them
June
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.
How often to apply lawn treatments
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.
July
In a wet summer you might be noticing quite a lot of algal growth on your patios, steps and walls. This is easily treated using Softwash, a biological cleaner that kills algae and mould without damaging surfaces. Ask Robbie at Premier Lawns for more details
Cleaning algae off decking and patios
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.
The good news is that weeds often struggle when the soil is dry. Hit them hard while they’re weak! Hoeing beds and borders in dry weather not only gets rid of weeds, it disturbs the life cycle of slugs and snails who lay eggs just beneath the surface of the soil.
August
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
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.
Here’s why toadstools in your lawn are nothing to worry about.
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.
October
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/
November
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.
December
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.
Your Lawn Care Calendar
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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