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Lawn Care
Here you will find our comprehensive guide to lawn care. This guide will take you through the basic steps required as part of a regular lawn maintenance regime and help you keep your lawn looking luscious year-round. It also includes general lawn care tips across a broad range of topics and links to where you can find the products you may need as part of your care regime.
More specific topics are also addressed, along with tips for particular grass varieties, including couch grass maintenance, buffalo lawn care, and zoysia grass maintenance. So, before hiring lawn mowing services, garden maintenance, or gardening services, look through our guide. Regularly caring for your turf brings great rewards from a relatively small effort and may also save you money. -
Maintenance of your turf
STEP ONE
Watering
Deep soaking of your lawn promotes strong grass growth. It is better for root development than regular light watering when caring for your turf.
For the best lawn health, we recommend one deep watering per week. This will change depending on the time of year. Less water is required in cooler months, and more water is required in hotter months. In sunny Queensland we recommend you water in the morning.
It is important to check water penetration when watering your lawn. If water seems to be running off your lawn, rather than into it, you may need to apply a wetting agent to help your soil take up water. It is essential that water goes deep into the soil base. This makes sure turf grass develops a very strong, deep root base and encourages strong turf growth.
STEP TWO
Mowing
Properly caring for your turf requires regular mowing with sharp blades to promote healthy lawn growth. By using sharp blades your mower cuts the grass instead of tearing the grass as will happen with blunt blades.
Choosing how short to mow is important.
Always follow the one-third rule; never remove more than 1/3 of the leaf in a single mow. Mowing too low removes too much of the the grass ‘leaf’ and along with this its ability to generate energy to grow. This can result in shallow root growth which means a less drought resistant grass with dry patches and weeds. Mowing regularly will not only reduce scalping but also encourages more lateral growth making a healthier, thicker lawn.
If you have a mulching mower you may want to not use a catcher to allow the clippings to feed your lawn. However, if you do not have a mulching mower it is best to collect and dispose of your clippings as green waste.
STEP THREE
Weeding
Healthy lawns need less weeding, whereas unhealthy lawns often have compacted soil and bare patches usually display open ground which encourages weed growth.
Caring for your turf with the correct use of selective herbicides and good fertilising practices will control most weed species.
Herbicides can be used to treat weed-infested lawns. Make sure you choose one that is appropriate to your lawn type and follow the labels instructions.
Check out our handy Weed Identification Guide for pointers on how to manage different weeds and our Online Shop for a range of suitable weeding products.
STEP FOUR
Pest Control
Lawn pests can make short work of a great lawn, destroying your hard work.
The most common lawn pest our customers face are lawn grubs. Lawn grubs is a common term covering two types of caterpillar the army worm and sod web worm. These leaf-eating pests are most active from October through till early April.
There is an easy test you can perform to check if you have lawn grubs. Simply pour a bucket of soapy water over an area that you think is affected, and if they are there they will come to the surface. An early warning sign of their presence is often small moths or wasps flying around your lawn at dusk.
There are several products for killing lawn grubs, but there is only one product with residual protection. This product is Acelepryn and is available from our online store in a safe and easy to use granular form, Acelepryn GR.
Check out our Online Shop for our full range of pest control products.
STEP FIVE
Fertiliser
Turf thrives with a balanced application of the right nutrients. To maintain optimum growth when caring for your lawn, grass requires 16 essential nutrients. The main elements required are nitrogen (n), phosphorus (p) and potassium (k).
These nutrients encourage a healthy deep root base and develop deep colouring. It also assists your lawn to out-compete weeds and tolerate stress better. For the best lawn health, we recommend using a slow release fertiliser to deliver these nutrients.
When applying fertiliser always water in well to reduce the risk of burning the grass. It is better to spread a little fertiliser more often, than greater amounts less regularly.
Check out the Online Shop for a range of suitable fertilising products.
STEP SIX
Aeration
Compacted lawns do not get enough air, water, or nutrients for their roots to grow. Lawn aeration allows nutrients, water and oxygen to get directly to the roots where the lawn needs them.
There are several ways to reduce compaction that range from simple tasks completed with existing equipment to motorised equipment you can hire. For example; a compacted lawn can be worked over with a garden fork, a coring machine or a spiked roller.
STEP SEVEN
Lawn Repair
If you have been caring for your lawn, or perhaps you missed a few steps along the way and have some bald spots, don't despair!
Consistently completing the above steps will help the lawn regrow in these areas. You can also patch repair with turf. If you do this, ensure you follow the new lawn tips to offer the patch repair the best chance at integrating with the rest of your lawn well.
You can order small volumes (and not so small ones) via our online store or give us a call to chat through your needs.
STEP EIGHT
Seasonal Tips
Your lawn's needs vary across the year; in the cooler months, it needs less water, and in the warmer months, more. It may need weed treatment or grub treatments at different times, and so forth.
It can be a lot to remember, this is why we cover the key things you need each season in our handy guides below, our monthly newsletter, on our socials and in our blog. Subscribe and follow to stay in the loop! If at any time you're unsure on what to do, feel free to reach out – we are here to help you and your lawn!
Regular Lawn Maintenance
For more advice on any of these lawn care topics contact our friendly staff on (07) 3113 9071.