A green and stripy lawn is one of the most beautiful aspects of a well maintained lawn.
You'd think if you cut it regularly you'll end up with just the job, but it takes more than just regular cutting.
I'll run down some of the key things to consider to get a stripy lawn this spring.
1 - Feed regularly
Tip: Sometimes less is more
The best way to think about how and when to feed your lawn is think about how healthy you'd like the grass to be, then think about how often you might cut it, say once a week and think about it now in the context of if you wanted to perform better what would you do - eat better. So think of feeding a question of performance, the more performance you want, the more you'll need to feed the lawn.
2 - Moss control
Tip: Scarify the moss out, only when the lawn feed has kicked in.
A bit of moss is ok, it's quite normal. But don't let your lawn get carry away making moss for your hanging baskets!! (That's whats used in some btw).
It's best to treat you lawn at the start of spring with a moss and feed fertiliser, this will inhibit it's ambition. Once you've done a little moss control its a good idea to lightly scarify the lawn to lift the moss out, but don't go to hard.
3 - Cut when it dry and sunny
Tip: Dry and sunny days more mowing quite a nice job in winter.
Every 4-6 weeks, a light cut throughout winter. Then weekly once it starts to grow in spring. Remember a little and often is better than once every 2 weeks. You might find it's best to cut the lawn every time it flushes (growsa bit).
4 - Clearing debris
Tip: Use your mower to collect small debris
Oak leaf, that the big one to take care of, it's the last leaf to fall at the end of autumn and is often not cleared, but if you leave it on the grass you'll be surprised just how fast it will kill off the grass below it, so clear all leaf fall a couple of times over winter. Also with the winter weather you'll have sticks and bits and bobs all over the lawn, if there big pick them up and if there small, grab them all when you do the lawn mowing.
5 - Lawn Mower - type of mower
Tip: Buy something better than you think you need, you'll always get your money back over time.
To get a really nice defined strip, you'll need a cylinder lawn mower, we use Hayter 48 Pro's.
6 - Lawn mower - sharp mower blade
Tip: This is the easiest think to do, but few do.
A sharp blade, all year round gets you a perfect cut. You can easily buy the perfect mower, but that mower is only as good as the condition of its blade. We sharpen ours once a month.
7 - Aeration
Tip: Do this task after 3-5 days of dry weather.
If your grass struggles to hold its condition as the summer rolls in, you'd do well to get the lawn a little aeration in late winter into early spring. Pick a nice dry day, a day that perhaps follows on from 3-5 dry days, you'll find you'll get excellent results.
8 - Scarification
Tip: Do less in spring.
I like to think your can do different grades of scarification, you can go hard and do triple pass to get all the thatch out and prep the area for new seed or you can just gently scarify a lawn to get the grass breath. I prefect to do a little pass in spring, then feed the lawn and see how it goes and then scarify again in late summer.
9 - Over seeding
Tip: Make sure to always cover your seed with a thin layer of compost.
Most lawns benefit from over seeding, especially after scarification.
Do you need to do all of the above to have a nice lawn this spring? Yes is the simple answer
Here's today's podcast
https://anchor.fm/allgardening/episodes/162-How-to-get-a-stripy-lawn-this-spring-e1uhokv
Phil
Founder of All Gardening