There are several things that can be done to help, including properly preparing your lawn during the spring, by feeding, aerating, and generally helping the grass gross strong roots. Its is also important not to mow your lawn too short. A slightly longer lawn will help trap whatever moisture there it.

Most importantly, and perhaps most obviously is to water your lawn. During periods of hot and dry weather (and especially if you have recently seeded) we recommend watering every day. The best solution to do this, is to use a sprinker, or install an irrigation system, which typically will embed sprinkler heads within or close to the lawn.

We’ve just started working with an irrigation company which offers systems that do just that. We’ve seen them in action and they are very good. Typically they install “intelligent” computer controller irrigation i.e. its works on a system but responds to existing water levels.

We’re also particularly impressed by their solution to the enviromental concerns surrounding use of water in your garden – they can use “grey water” (recyled from other domestic uses) or even rainwater (stored in underground tanks).

If you are interested please give us a call in the office and we can point you in the right direction 0800 0612606 or visit Watermatic Ltd (mention you found them through us and we can liase with them on the right system).

If your lawn is staring to look a little “grey” like mine then it is ready for some water. I am sure you remember that the top tip for watering lawns is to water deeply once or twice a week. If you’re worried about how much to put on, place a cup in the way of the sprinkler and fill this to about 3-4 cms.

This should have an almost immediate effect of greening up your lawn – especially as we will have recently fertilised it. Lawns that are in full sun are looking particularly parched at the moment.

The seed needs to be kept damp to ensure good germination rates. The best way of doing this is little and often, so do please use a fine spray on your watering can or hose every other day or every day if really warm. Avoid flooding the area or washing the seeds into ‘clumps’ The soil temperature is gradually rising and the gentle watering will make sure that the seed is in the best condition to take full advantage of the late spring growing conditions.

If you can’t see any little green shoots very soon, don’t panic! Seeding takes about 2 to 3 weeks to germinate depending on the position (areas in full sun will of course be getting more warmth than shady areas).

This is the bossy bit: Please try to stay off the seeding as much as possible for 3 weeks, then allow only light traffic for a further 2 weeks.

As to mowing, wait until the seed has germinated if you possibly can. If you feel you have to mow as the grass is very long, mow on the very highest setting and test an area, as you risk sucking up all the seed when you go over it with the mower. If the seeding has been done in patches, try to avoid these altogether.

If not treated this can cause long term damage and mean a lot of recovery work in the Spring.

Do get in touch and book a fungicide treatment if you’re concerned on  020 8417 1752

The Winterisation treatment is a specially blended formulation of Iron and Seaweed that attacks moss as well as providing superb micro nutrients for the turf during the winter months. It promotes root strength rather than top growth so no extra mowing will be involved above that which you would normally be contemplating.

If your lawn is looking a little unhappy over the winter months then we can gladly find you a slot in the diary for this treatment.

To keep your lawn looking green and healthy, the trick with watering lawns is always to give the lawn a good soaking when you do it. You need to allow the water to penetrate down into the soil and encourage deeper roots so if it has been dry for a little while you will need to run the sprinkler for quite some time. It is always best to water in the evening or during the night if you have a controllable irrigation system installed.

Grass plants are in fact amazingly resilient and simply go yellow and dormant waiting for enough water to start growing again. Encouragingly, even after the terrible drought in 2006 (and the hose pipe ban) lawns did green up as soon as the heavens helped us out with some proper rain, but they develop thatch which is the yellow colour that you see in drought conditions, and look a little scruffy whilst they are in their recovery phase.

During the autumn season, we like to scarify the lawns that we look after which have been badly damaged by drought and then do a little over seeding where the plants look like they are going to struggle to recover.

Top Tip: Watering little and often is not good for the lawn as this makes the plants think that water will be readily available and so encourages shallow roots.

For london lawn care this is a very busy time of year. Not only do we have lots of remedial work to do on lawns damaged over the winter, but we also start the process of setting the lawns up for the rest of the year.

What are the repercussions for your lawn?

Under the snow, the grass does not completely stop growing but slows to an extent where the metabolism of the grass plant is barely moving.

Unfortunately it is common for turf grasses to develop diseases such as Fusarium Patch under the snow blanket where it is quite warm and disease pathogens can be incubated and encouraged to spread. Read my post on Fusarium for more info.

The best thing that you can do at this point to protect your grass from snow damage is to allow only the minimum amount of traffic over the lawn. The lawn will contain differing levels of frost, so walking on the surface will cause the layers to shift and create a shearing action causing the roots to break resulting in weakened plants this spring.

As the frost dissipates, the upper surface may lift slightly – known as heave. If you don’t have a roller on the back of your mower it might be an idea to give the lawn a gentle roll in the spring (trying not to compact the soil particles too much) if things don’t settle down between now and then.

Of course once air temperatures rise all of this extra moisture is likely to make the upper surface of the lawn soggy – just another reason to keep off the grass as much as possible to avoid compaction. Not good news for small footballers I’m afraid!

MOSS

We have found that due to a horrible wet August, a lot of our lawns are looking pretty mossy this year; unlike weeds, moss cannot be completely killed off as spores live on post treatment. Therefore even if we have done our best to rid our lawns of a moss infestation this autumn you may see it rearing its ugly head again. If this is the case we would recommend a moss control this winter to retard any growth now,  making the spring task of getting your lawn back in shape much easier (and less costly!).

COMPACTION

Moss thrives on lawns which are suffering from compaction meaning that as a result of poor drainage, water sits on or near to the surface. By aerating you loosen the soil which allows the water to drain away with greater ease and permitting better oxygenation of the root zone.

We are spiking lawns that could benefit from some extra aeration this winter. If your lawn is very soggy after rain or you have worn areas due to use (paths to sheds, areas used frequently for garden games etc) then spiking could really make a difference in preparation for a lovely lawn next spring.

LEAF FALL

With the recent cold weather the trees are shedding their final leaves. Make sure you remove the leaves as soon as you can as they encourage worm activity on the surface, shut out the light and oxygen and will generally be deleterious to the health of your lawn. Be warned: piles of leaves left on lawn for any length of time will kill off the grass underneath!

MOWING

Oh yes, and don’t forget to get out there on a dry afternoon and give your lawn at least one haircut this month!

A word of warning, however: walking on frozen grass will crush the cells inside the leaf (as they are mostly water and therefore hard and brittle when frozen), which will damage the plant – so please keep off your lawns as much possible until the frost has gone.