Should I Feed My Lawn in the Autumn?
During the summer your lawn can get compacted from all the foot traffic, full of weeds and worn out. Autumn is a great time to do some garden maintenance, feed your lawn and perform lawn care treatments to give it a seasonal boost.
Autumn is actually a great time to feed your lawn, it will help it recover from the hot, dry months of summer and also prepare it for the winter, sustaining it through the cold months. Feeding your lawn will help it stay healthy through the winter and ready to bounce back in the spring.
What comes next in the article?
Why Do I Need To Feed My Lawn?
You need to feed your lawn to get it healthy so that it can survive the winter.
Lawn fertilisers will keep your lawn strong and dense and will help it survive and recover from difficult conditions like low temperatures and heavy traffic. Healthy lawns are tough and more resilient to weeds and disease. The roots continue to grow through the winter months and an autumn lawn feed will supply the essential nutrients that the roots need.
What should I feed my lawn in the Autumn?
Autumn feed for your lawn should be rich in phosphate and potassium. These nutrients will ensure that the roots are strong and growing well, even during the winter months. It’s best to avoid lawn feed that is rich in nitrogen as this encourages new growth, which will be vulnerable to the colder temperatures and frost and likely won’t survive through the winter.
You can use either a liquid lawn fertiliser or a solid fertiliser. The best time to apply it is just before rain, this is because the rain water will carry it deep into the soil and grass and allow the feed to get to the roots, where it is absorbed into the grass. If there is no sign of rain, give the lawn a good watering after you add fertiliser.
How to Feed Your Lawn in Autumn
In addition to feeding your lawn, there are a few more important treatments that you can do to make sure your lawn is as healthy as possible and ready to face the winter. Treating your lawn in Autumn is best done in a specific sequence: scarify, fork, aerate, topdress and feeding. During your garden maintenance Ealing, you will also need to kill and dig up weeds and mosses that are in the grass. Weeds and mosses will compete with the grass for nutrients and water, they grow quickly and will rapidly spread across your lawn, suffocating the grass.
- Scarify your lawn
Over the summer and autumn, thatch will build up on the top of your lawn. Thatch consists of dead grass and old moss. It has to be removed otherwise it can prevent water and fertiliser from getting through the soil to reach the grassroots. Scarifying is when you rake your lawn to remove the layers of thatch.
-
Fork-compacted areas for drainage
Some areas of your lawn will have had more traffic than others and will be compacted. Water can not pass through the soil when it is compacted and so the soil needs to be broken up which will improve its drainage abilities, using a garden fork.
-
Aeration
Compaction of your lawn also causes problems with the aeration of the soil. For the grass to grow properly it needs adequate amounts of oxygen. Forking the soil will open up channels that will allow air as well as water to pass through. It’s best to push the fork four to six inches into the ground to get the proper aeration and drainage. Aeration is an essential step in having a healthy lawn.
-
Topdress your lawn
Topdressing your lawn improves soil structure and encourages strong root growth. You can use a ready-mixed topdress formulation or make a custom mix for yourself. A mix of 50/50 compost and sand formulation works well in most UK gardens. The topdress needs to be evenly applied over the surface of the lawn and worked into the roots.
-
Feed
The final step is applying feed to your lawn. An autumn lawn fertiliser is needed which will help your lawn develop strong roots. There are many commercial autumn lawn fertilisers on the market. It is important that you get an autumn fertiliser and don’t buy a spring lawn fertiliser; as they contain different chemicals and nutrients that are suited for the different seasons.