5 Simple Ways To Make Lawn Care Easier

10 May 2024 (Last updated: 10 May 2024 13:22)

A beautifully manicured lawn brings an elegant and restful feel to any garden. But beautiful lawns don’t happen all by themselves. Lawns are living things that need careful nurturing to keep them looking their best. UKLCA Members aim to make lawn care easier for garden owners. Here are their five top tips for easier lawn care.

1.    Mow regularly. Little and often beats sporadic scalping every time.

2.    Keep lawn care equipment in good order.

3.    Optimise soil health and structure - your grass will thank you with all year-round good looks.

4.    Use a lawn care company who use good quality, professional products and are trained to apply them properly

5.    Hire expert help for seasonal renovations and treatments.

“Your dream lawn could be a phone call away. When you work with a UKLCA member to make lawn care easier, results like this become perfectly possible.”

Your Mowing Regime

The very worst thing you could ever do to your lawn is to let it grow long and then scalp it. UKLCA Members always recommend mowing your lawn little and often. Now, that may not sound like a practice that makes lawn care easier. But by treating your lawn with the respect it deserves, you will reduce the risk of common lawn diseases, encourage a thick sward, make life more difficult for weeds and help the grass plants to cope with natural stresses such as drought and frost.

The best quality lawns are mowed at between 10-25mm high, depending on the grass type.  Fine fescue/bent lawns should be mowed shorter and very frequently whereas ryegrass lawns can be mowed weekly and on a mid-height setting.  Unless you have plenty of time for intensive lawn care, resist the temptation to keep a close-cropped lawn. Grass managed at a height of 25- 40mm will stay greener for longer in a dry spell.

When you mow regularly, you’ll find that you produce a lower volume of clippings with each cut. In very hot dry weather, it’s even ok to let those short clippings fly - saving you the trouble of removing and disposing of them.

Keeping Your Lawncare Equipment In Good Order

A good cook always keeps their knives sharpened, a good driver will have their car serviced regularly, a good dentist will keep their equipment sterilised, and a good gardener will look after all of their tools, particularly their lawn mower.

Blunt lawn mower blades rip at the grass leaving ugly jagged scars which turn into brown tips at the tip of every leaf. Yuck. Worse than that, a jagged wound on almost every leaf will potentially lead to rapid water loss which could stress the plants. Additionally, open wounds could be an open invitation for pathogens to attack. Sharpen or change blades regularly - at least once a year, preferably more often.

When your mower does not run efficiently the chances are it will be difficult to start, hard to push and generally unpleasant to use. Servicing your mower at least once a year will definitely make lawn care easier. The same applies to aerators, scarifiers, edgers, fertiliser spreaders and sprayers.

If you do your own lawn care treatments, equipment needs to be kept clean, moving parts should be lubricated according to the manufacturers instructions and of course sprayers and fertiliser spreaders should always be calibrated and tested before use. One mistake with the application rates could take weeks if not months of work to rectify, which is why we would always recommend leaving it to the professionals!

Good Soil Care Leads To Robust Grass Health

A healthy lawn will have a beautiful sward and be less susceptible to the ravages of drought, frost, wear and tear and common lawn diseases. And when it comes to grass, excellent health starts with good soil care.

Soil care is a complicated science and one that greenskeepers spend their entire careers studying. But they are working with super high maintenance sports surfaces and right now, this article is focusing on ways to make lawn care easier.

Great soil care is all about:

•   Being careful to avoid using the lawn when it’s very wet.

•   Trying not to take the same route across your lawn every time you use it - if you regularly walk in the same direction, consider installing a path.

•   Aerating once or twice a year to relieve the soil compaction that is a natural consequence of enjoying your lawn.

•   Optimising drainage. Aeration is a great drainage aid but for lawns that are frequently waterlogged, you may need to hire a landscaper to install a drainage system.

•   Carefully balanced nutrition to feed grass plants AND nurture the soil microbes and mini beasts that form the basis of a healthy ecosystem.

The first two bullet points don’t require any effort on your part, but if you’re overwhelmed by the idea of addressing drainage, aerating and implementing an appropriate feeding regime for your lawn, you’ll find that hiring a UKLCA member (www.uklawncare.net) to help you with these tasks is surprisingly cost effective.

‘Hiring a lawn care specialist to take care of soil and plant health is a great way to make lawn care easier’

Choosing and Using Lawn Care Products

The products and treatments you use on your lawn have an enormous impact on its day-to-day management. Cheap, inferior feeds are less likely to give your lawn the nutrients it needs. Whilst the less said about domestic-grade herbicides the better.

For sustainable, long lasting results, always use good quality lawn care treatments and apply them exactly as the manufacturer prescribes. Be very careful how you store them and always wear the correct PPE.

Honestly though, when it comes to applying lawn treatments, it’s always best to hire expert help. You won’t have to worry about choosing from the array of products on the Garden Centre shelf. Neither will you need to be fussed about calibrating spreaders and sprayers. The entire process will be done for you.

The Best Way To Make Lawn Care Easier

If you dream of the kind of lawn that turns heads and makes the neighbours green with envy, you will need to invest time and effort in lawn care. But never fear, there are a whole host of people out there whose life goal is to make lawn care easier for everyone. These are the independent lawn care specialists whose services take all of the hassle out of keeping grass green and happy.

When you work with an independent lawn care specialist, you can delegate those tasks that need experience, expertise and (expensive!) equipment.

Visit the UKLCA website today where you will find a searchable directory of independent lawn care specialists all of whom are ready to make lawn care easier for you.

www.uklawncare.net

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