Grass Clippings - Lawn Advice From a Team of Lawn and Turf Experts

Winter lawn care tips

With Christmas some four weeks ahead, our thought process at this time of year is not always on our lawn.  The grass does not stop growing, but it slows almost to a stop and with a slight increase in temperature will easily grow over the winter months. 

If we enter a period of warmer winter sunshine and the ground is not frozen, sieze the opportunity to get the mower out and 'top' the grass taking off anything from 10% to 25% off the top to tidy it up and stimulate whatever growth there may be at this time of the year.

No lawn should be scarified in the winter months when there is little chance of natural grass plant recovery following the scarification process no matter what your chosen lawn care expert or company claims!

CastClear - Worm Cast Deterrent for Lawns - become a Stockist

The nice people at The Lawn Company have come up with a worm cast deterrent that is approved for amateur lawns. 

CastClear is NEW and an unique combination of nutrient materials that have been clearly shown to reduce worm-cast levels on lawns large and small.

It is unique in using a surfactant system that moves the nutrient into the upper soil structure and fixes it there providing good persistence of deterrent effect until breaking down to natural nutrients absorbed by plant roots.

An application of CastClear will greatly prolong the use of the lawn in the autumn to spring months and protect the existing surface of the lawn so that you might end up with grass cover in the spring.  The overall micro levels of the lawn will instantly be improved.

Please keep off the grass.....

The weather has been unseasonably cold for November of late.  My outside thermometer read a minimum nighttime temperature of minus 8 last night.  The chill factor keeps the daytime temperature a chilly minus 3. 

So whilst is cold outside, think back over the previous 11 months and how your lawn performed this year and also plan ahead into next spring and cobble a plan of improvement for your lawns.  There are over 300 technical posts on this lawn advice blog to assist you in your decision making process as well as access to professional quality products and a team of lawn specialists to help you perform the tasks.  

The frost has got into the ground now after only a couple of days of minus temperatures making any hope of caring for your lawn difficult to say the least until it unfreezes.  Thankfully for ease of mobility, we have not had any snow as yet but some is forecast soon, maybe tonight.

How to save your lawn.....

If your lawn is looking a little poorly after the summer, throw it a life-line and try and save it before it is too late....

The summer soils are warm and moist, ideal opportunity for getting some new grasses into the lawns. It is getting a little late to renovate and repair your lawn now but there is still time to get it sorted and put to bed of the winter months.

The process is very easy and flows like one of those flow charts at school - if you are going to blanket over seed your lawn then it does not matter how hard you scalp the lawn or scarify the lawn, if you are not over seeding, do not go too mad otherwise you may not get the recovery from the grasses that are left.   As soon as we get a long term period of frosts, you have lost your opportunity to renovate the lawn following the process below and will have to wait until spring when it is a little warmer and in the more traditional growing season.

The correct process of renovating a lawn and order of performing the tasks is :-

Remember the Fallen Heroes

Remembrance Day and the Two Minute Silence have been observed since the end of the First World War, but their relevance remains undiminished. 

When we bow our heads in reflection, we remember those who fought for our freedom during the two World Wars. But we also mourn and honour those who have lost their lives in more recent conflicts. 

Today, with troops on duty in Afghanistan and other trouble spots around the world, Remembrance, and this two minute tribute, are as important as ever.

Top Ten Autumn Lawn Care Tips

Here are our top 10 tips to keeping your lawn great this autumn:-

 1.  Keep mowing the lawn, even if it is only once every four weeks or so
 2.  Make sure you remove the dead leaves and needles off the lawn weekly
 3.  Trim back any over hanging shrubs and bushes that are growing over the lawn
 4.  Fertilise the lawn with a good autumn lawn fertiliser, sooner than later
 5.  Control any moss and lawn weeds now
 6.  Aerate the lawn monthly over the autumn and winter months
 7.  Control the worm casts to prolong the mowing season and retain the grass cover
 8.  Keep off frosty lawns until the frost has burnt off in the autumn sunshine
 9.  Buy a Lawn Guide to get a greater insight into lawns and their care
10. In your new 2011 diary, make an entry to fertilise the lawn every three months

Here are the solutions :-

Lawn Fertiliser

Control Moss using Soluble Iron

Controlling Worm Casts

Buy a Lawn Guide

Autumn Lawn Care Tasks

We have had a few frosts in the UK this autumn so far but it is still not too late to work on your lawn and put it to bed.

Plan to keep mowing the lawn until you really cannot get onto the lawn through frost, snow, water-logging as the grass will not stop growing, simply slow down and the plan is to mow once a month when you  get a dry and windy day to take the top off the grass and a few leaves too.

The most important task for many a gardener amateur or professional is leaf clearing.  Oh my, what a task!  I remember as a child piling leaves fallen and raked from the long line of Oak trees in our family garden on the forever smouldering bonfire that seemed to burn from October through to the spring.  Leaves left on the lawn will soon smother the grasses and cause bare areas.

When should you stop mowing your lawn in the autumn?

Grass does not actually stop growing even when it is really damn cold, it simply slows down. 

The question of when you should stop mowing the grass is more a question of the prevailing weather and ground conditions which quite often prevent you getting onto the lawn when you have the ideal opportunity to perform the mowing function. Prey for a dry wiindy autumn day!

There is an Old Wives' Tale about when to stop mowing your lawn in the autumn months.  I think it is actually an Old Granddad's Tale as an excuse to put the mower away in the shed and get the slippers and pipe out in front of the fire with the feeling that the mowing function had been completed for that year!  

The factors restricting lawn mowing in the autumn and winter months could be -