Tips for caring for your lawn after winter
After the winter season, last year's dry grass forms a dense layer that prevents young growth from developing, prevents the flow of macro- and microelements, water and air to the roots of plants. If you do not take any measures, the lawn will look untidy, start to turn yellow and may even die.
Lawn aeration and scarification
In addition to such important procedures as watering, feeding, cutting, it is also necessary to carry out aeration and scarification of the lawn.
Scarification is the combing out of old dry grass using a special garden technique or by hand with a rake. Aeration - cutting furrows in the soil to saturate it with oxygen. It is necessary to aerate and scarify the lawn to make it healthier. In this case, it is necessary:
- remove dry grass that prevents new shoots from growing;
- remove moss;
- make holes in the soil up to 5 cm deep so that the roots of the plants can breathe.
This will allow air and sunlight to flow to the lower layers of the grass cover, and will also allow nutrients and moisture to reach the plant roots.
Aeration should be carried out monthly during the season or at least twice a year: in early spring and autumn, in October.
How to aerate
If your lawn occupies a small area, then you can carry out aeration with an ordinary garden rake. In large areas, it is better to aerate the lawn with the help of special garden equipment - a gasoline or electric aerator. The tool cuts furrows with knives to a depth of 3-5 cm while combing out old grass and lifting it up.
Before aeration, the site must be cleaned of large debris, sticks, bark.
If you have automatic watering, then mark the nozzles with flags so as not to damage them during aeration.
After the area is treated with an aerator, all the straw is collected with a rake or a garden vacuum cleaner. It is also very convenient to harvest dry grass with a lawn mower.
Rake is better to take ordinary, metal. They collect old grass well, there is no need to go through the same place several times and redo the work. A light fan rake makes a lot of skips.
Then we go through the aerator again in order to finally remove the remains of dead wood and cut more holes in the soil.
We give the lawn an opportunity to recover, and we sow large bald patches. After aeration, it is advisable to do top dressing and a little watering. The grass will begin the growing season and grow quickly. Your lawn will have a bright green color and a uniform dense turf.