In a former life I worked as a lawn technician. Many words have been used to describe us. Hero, daredevil, pioneer, but we are merely men, men entrusted with one of your most prized possessions, your lawn.

We all want a trophy lawn that makes our neighbours envious and you can go about getting such a thing in one of two ways. You can either outsource the work or do it yourself, the latter is much more hard work physically but perhaps a bit more rewarding.

Spring

To start with, even if you lawn is only a few years old you have to treat it with moss and weed killer. This makes the renovation work coming up a hell of a lot easier. Three to four weeks after this initial treatment the lawn will then need to be scarified several times until it is pretty much down to soil.

A scarifier is an incredibly noisy and difficult to use machine, designed to remove all the moss and thatch out of a lawn and ultimately retain its quality. It’s a hefty thing to push around and the amount of debris it leaves means you have to be physically fit to manage the process, or you could outsource and watch the help from the comfort of your living room.

Once scarified to it’s base and all the debris has been removed the lawn then needs a complete overseed, spread the seed evenly and generously over your now massacred lawn. The seed should take 3-4 weeks to germinate, once it is around an inch high it can be mowed on a high level.

Summer

One treatment at the start and one at the end of summer are necessary in order to maintain your lawns quality and keep the neighbours peering over your fence in awe. Spreading fertilizer using a spreading machine and applying moss and in particular weed killer will keep your lawn looking lush during the summer months. Watering it as much as possible during this time will also make a huge difference. Another treatment is recommended in Autumn.

Mowing and maintenance

Always mow your lawn on a high cut and in a different direction to when you last mowed it, this will ensure it doesn’t suffer too much and the grass doesn’t start to lye down after persistent same direction mowing. Scarification’s and aerations should be carried out on an annual basis in order to remove any remaining moss and reduce soil compaction.

There you have it, an enviously lush looking lawn that is the talk of the neighbourhood.

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