Autumn is the perfect time to examine your lawn for signs of summer wear-and-tear and treat if necessary. At this time of year, any treatment has time to take effect before temperatures fall and growth stops.
Lawn Stripes And Hedges Ltd provide an excellent lawn care package which is started in Autumn/Winter providing you will a total of 5 different treatments over a 12-month period.
Treatment 1 - is the autumn feed, this promotes root growth and deters moss.
Treatment 2 - is the winter feed and moss treatment which is a liquid we use to treat your lawn plus aid drainage.
Treatment 3 - is the spring treatment which is a lawn feed with added nutrients for colour
Treatment 4 - is the late spring treatment which is to reduce the number of weeds in your lawn
Treatment 5 - is the summer feed which is an organic lawn feed.
Our lawn care package also includes aerating, scarification and over seeding to your lawn. See below the benefits of these below:
Aeration is a mechanical process, which extracts cores of soil, thatch and grass from the surface of the lawn to increase nutrient availability, water penetration, soil air exchange and reduce compaction. This improves the effectiveness of your TruGreen services and ongoing watering, leading to a healthier lawn.
7 Benefits of Aeration
- Relieves soil compaction. Compacted soil can prevent air, water and fertilizer from reaching your lawn’s root system, causing dead spots, patches and/or thinning. By removing cores in the aeration process, soil density is decreased, thus relieving compaction.
- Aids in thatch management. Thatch, the layer of dead grass that accumulates on your lawn can build up to a thick layer, robbing your grass of necessary rain and nutrients which can be detrimental to your lawn if left untreated. Core aeration helps manage that build-up by introducing thatch-decomposing microorganisms from the soil to the top of the thatch layer.
- Increases nutrient availability. Aeration allows air, water and nutrients to penetrate the soil. When nutrients penetrate deeper into the root zone, they become available to the turf. This improves the effectiveness of your TruGreen fertilization and ongoing watering to promote a healthy turf.
- Benefits Ph modification. Applying lime or sulphur after core aeration promotes the change of pH deeper into the soil profile.
- Builds a thicker lawn. Aeration stimulates root development and growth, but cool season grasses need overseeding (which we offer also) to help fill in bare spots and thicken up the turf, which helps crowd out weeds come spring. Overseeding alongside aeration enhances seed to soil contact necessary for germination and creates a moist, protected environment optimal for seedling growth and development. Plus, you’ll benefit from TruGreen’s specially selected grass seed, which offers improved disease and drought tolerance to help your lawn withstand changing conditions.
- Reduced water runoff and puddling. If you find your yard has runoff or puddling problems after a rain, aeration could be the fix you need.
- Prepares grass for winter dormancy and a green spring. Before your cool-season grass goes dormant, make sure it’s in tip-top shape by pairing fall aeration with fall fertilization. Aerating prior to fertilizing will help the nutrients soak in more effectively. Planning for aeration and fertilization in the fall gives cool-season grasses enough of a buffer to protect the grass from summer drought stress and ideally enough time before the first winter frost arrives.
Benefits of scarifying your lawn
- Removes the organic matter from the surface of the lawn, helping it breathe
- Refreshes a lawn, helping it to absorb water and nutrient much more easily
- Reduces moss levels in a lawn
- Stops it becoming 'spongy'
- It is one of the most beneficial treatments that your lawn can receive
Over time your lawn will suffer from a buildup of organic matter eventually forming a ‘Thatch Layer’ on the surface of your lawn. Thatch mostly comes from grass clippings and any other dead or decaying mater. If this is allowed to build up it will have a damaging effect on your lawn, as it will weaken the grass and encourage the growth of both moss and weeds.
The only way to remove this layer is by scarifying your lawn, this is a physical process of removing thatch from the soil surface. To do this by raking is a strenuous and physically demanding task.
At Lawn Stripes And Hedges Ltd we have specialist machines that can carry out this task in a far more comprehensive and efficient way than raking by hand. As well as removing thatch and dead moss, our scarifying machines will also prune the shoots of the grass plant which will encourage stronger growth.
Scarification of your lawn is a vigorous process, and after the thatch and moss has been removed your lawn may look far worse than before the scarification for a short while before your lawn recovers.
