Notes on autumn lawn care

Autumn lawn renovation – this year 2021 it looks as though late September early October is going to be the ideal time for autumn lawn renovation. 

At this time the soil should still be warm enough to germinate the grass seed and help the grass create some new roots before winter to help with soil structure and drainage. 

The process 

Lightly rake the lawn with a wire rake to help remove any dead grass material. A lawn especially lawns created with finer grasses such as fescues build up a lot of dead grass which forms “thatch” which needs to be removed. 

Then carry out spiking with a fork pushing a garden fork into the lawn 6 times a metre spread out evenly. If the soil is very compact you can slightly pull back on the fork once the fork has been pushed into the soil. 

Next, apply a general autumn lawn food to the lawn. The idea is that some of the lawn fertilizer will be washed down the holes created by the fork so the grassroots will grow down to reach the nutrients from the fertilizer, in turn creating a drought-resistant lawn and better soil structure.

Then apply some grass seed to overseed the lawn, this seed needs to be kept damp for 14 days which is the weather is dry and warm watering the lawn every couple of days. Often at this time of year heavy morning dews will be enough to keep the seed damp. 

Finally, after overseeding you can topdress the lawn with some lawn top dressing to help help the grass seed germinate.

Your MyGardenTeam advisor from GardenAdvice will help you with finding a topdressing and the best seed to use to overseed your lawn.