4 UK Summer Lawn care Mistakes

Summer is finally here, and it’s time to get your lawn looking its best.

With warmer weather comes the chance to spend more time outside, but it also means that there’s a higher risk of making common lawn care mistakes.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to lawn care, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making simple mistakes that can harm your lawn.

In this blog, we’ll highlight 4 of the most common UK summer lawn care mistakes and give you tips on how to avoid them.

How to look after your lawn this summer!

If you are looking to get a thick and healthy green lawn this summer I’m going to break down 4 of the most common mistakes that are holding you back!

July’s weather has been perfect for the lawn, we’ve had a good balance of some sun and rain with has really pushed some fresh growth in the grass. You can see from the video the grass is a bit longer than it would normally be as I haven’t been able to keep up the mowing on top of all the new growth, and here is where the first mistake starts….

You can watch the video on all these techniques or continue to read the article below

Mistake 1 – Stop Scalping your lawn

The single biggest mistake people make is leaving the grass to grow long, bringing the mower out and hacking it right back down to the roots.

This creates a cycle of poor quality looks, huge amounts of stress on the plant and ultimately as poor looking lawn.

If your lawn is getting a little long, or you just haven’t mown it for a while here is what to do…

Try to avoid taking of more than 1/3 of the overall length of the grass blade in any one cut.

If you need to, lower the height of the lawn over a few cuts and a few days to reduce the stress of being hacked right back as this will cause you to loose that deep green colour and really stress out the lawn

Cutting regularly with small amounts off the length will encourage the grass to lock in that lovely green colour and push its energy into filling out as opposed to recovery from the stress of being cut back hard

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Mistake 2 – Not dealing with weeds

So lets see what else is going on in the lawn right now, here you can see some POA Annua or annual meadow grass.

Typically this grass will die off during the heat of the summer however, you don’t want to spread the seeds over the lawn by using a box to COLLECT the clippings and reducing the spread

You can also see some broad leaf weeds appearing this time of year and the best way to combat new weeds is maintaining a healthy lawn with regular mowing and fertilizer plan as the grass will naturally compete with most weeds

You can treat broad leaf weeds using a selective weed killer like Weedol (make sure you pick one that says Kills weeds not lawns) or, you can apply an All-in-one product that feeds & weeds the lawn

Mistake 3 – Not mowing often enough

Mowing often is one of the best things you can do for a thick and healthy lawn.

During periods of growth like spring/summer you can be mowing weekly or even twice per week for great results.

This will help promote a thick dense sward and fresh new growth from the grass which in turn supports disease resistance, weeds and heat stress.

If you are new to lawn care, a weekly mow taking off no more than 1/3 will really improve the results you are seeing and is the FIRST biggest step you can take without even applying any products to the lawn

Listening to your mower can also be a great way to understand what’s going with your mow.

If you can hear a droning or varying pitch noise when mowing it normally means you are either taking off too much with the cut and its putting the mower & grass under stress OR, the box is full and needs to be emptied!

Either way, that will lead to a bad quality cut, poor results and increase wear and tear on your equipment

Mistake 4 – Not feeding the lawn

The last tip is around applying fertilizer to the lawn to make sure everything is well fed with all the nutrients it needs.

You don’t want to apply fertilizer in the top heat of summer where the grass is already in enough stress as it is so look out for a cooler spell where there is rain or you can keep on top of watering.

For a beginner schedule you can apply a granular slow release treatment which mean a solid granule that releases its nutrients over a period a months.

This can be a little slower to act but requires overall less applications and a regular spring / autumn treatment will go a long way

For more advanced treatments you can apply the granular lawn feed and trickle feed liquid applications in between for maximum control and flexibility.

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