1:- Raise the cutting height
One of the easiest ways to improve the look of your lawn is to raise the cutting height of your mower. Too many homeowners cut their grass far too short. They do this with the aim of getting it to look like a bowling green. This is a fallacy. You don’t have the same grass as a professional sports surface, so cannot treat it the same. Cutting it short will kill it.
Raising the height of your cut will improve the health of your grass. A longer leaf will help the plant to produce more food from sunlight for itself. The lawn will look greener as there will be less soil showing through and more leaf. You will also be able to run lovely green stripes into the lawn with your mower. A longer lawn is a much healthier lawn.
Raising your mower blades will bring great benefits without any cost.
2:- Aerate your lawn
I often tell my customers that if they only do one thing to their lawn, they should aerate it. Aerating a lawn brings massive benefits to the grass. It keeps the soil open which enables the grass to produce strong deep roots. Roots are the key to the health of your grass plant.
Deep roots enable the plant to recover from damage. They keep the grass green in times of drought and enable the grass to find water and nutrients deeper in the soil.
If you have an older lawn which sees a lot of use, then aerating will bring about even more benefits. It can revitalise lawns in a way that no chemical treatments can.
If you love your lawn, then aerate it. It will improve the look of your lawn.
3:- Sharpen mower blades
It is crucial that you keep your mower blades sharp. Achieving a clean cut to your grass will green up the lawn. A blunt blade (or cutting in the wet) will tend to rip the grass leaves. These will die off, leaving wispy white tips on the ends of the grass blades. Thousands of these lighter coloured dots all over the lawn add together. As a result the lawn will appear to be a much lighter green colour.
Torn grass blades are an ideal opening for parasitic fungal infections. Red thread and pink patch can take hold. If these appear the lawn will become discoloured. It may need further treatment.
Keep you your a lovely dark green colour by keeping your mower blades knife-sharp.
4:- Feed the lawn
An easy way to improve the look of your grass is to apply some lawn fertiliser. In nature, nutrients are recycled back into the soil through grazing animals. The action of removing lawn clippings reduces the amount of nutrients in the soil. Fertilising your lawn replaces these nutrients.
Some essential elements, such as potassium, can become washed out of soil by heavy rains. Feeding your lawn after a period of wet weather replaces nutrients and keeps grass green.
A lawn care professional can source high quality trade fertilisers. These are not available in garden centres. Talk to your local company about putting together a lawn feeding regime. Your lawn will look fabulous.
5:- Mow your lawn more
In the UK many homeowners and gardeners mow their lawn every two weeks. This is not enough for a quality lawn. Allowing the grass to grow for two weeks can allow the grass to grow too long for cutting well. A mowing scar can result, which can take a long time to grow through.
Mowing your lawn at least every week stimulates the grass to produce strong side shoots. This creates a thicker, greener lawn. Professional sports turf is mown every two days, sometimes every day!
Mowing weekly, or more, also means the lawn is easier to mow. Cutting very small amounts from the lawn will generate only a small amount of clippings. If you mow your lawn every couple of days you can even leave the clippings to mulch into the lawn. Robot mowers work in this way. Lawns cut by robotic mowers are some of the very best lawns I maintain.
To improve the look of your lawn, mow it at least once a week.
Improve the look of your lawn
It is no coincidence that three out of my top five tips are about mowing your lawn. Mowing a lawn in the correct way can bring huge changes in the way your lawn looks. Follow these simple top tips and you will too can have a fabulous lawn this year.
