If your lawn has taken a beating from the winter rain, frost and sleet do not despair since most lawn grasses will easily repair themselves so long as the conditions are right.
The most common winter lawn damage is caused by water logging – like me and you; lawns need oxygen to breathe and do not like being soaked in water for too long. If your lawn is growing on a heavy clay soil and you have been walking on it, it will have become compacted too causing even more damage.
You will need to go about aerating your lawn; but if it is still soaking you’ll just have to wait a bit longer as any walking on the lawn will damage it even further. If you need to get to flower beds then lay a plank down and walk over the plank or consider sinking a few decorative flag stones which will lessen the problem of compaction all year round too.
Definitely do not be tempted to mow your lawn, even if you are using a light weight cordless battery powered lawn mower any mowing done whilst the lawn is still wet from the winter will cause too much damage.
Once your lawn has dried out and you can somewhat safely walk on it you can start aerating it. Small lawns need no more special equipment other than a simple garden fork. Push the fork tines four inches into your soggy turf, wiggle them about and pull out; repeat every six to twelve inches or so. (As an alternative to this you can buy specialist crampon like attachments for your shoes with long spikes for aerating your lawn as you walk across it)
For larger lawns you may want to use a specialist “hollow tine aerator” which attaches to your lawnmower or you can rent a specialist lawn aerator.
Once you have aerated your lawn you will want to fill the holes with a suitable lawn sand which will keep your lawn performing at its best all year round. You may even want to invest in a couple of packets of high quality lawn repair mix which usually contains a mix of grass seed, sand and coco coir.
If you follow the above advice hopefully you will see a marked improvement in the condition of your lawn within a couple of weeks. Now will be the time to fork out any perennial weeds and to inspect your lawn for moss. If moss is a particular problem then you may want to treat with a specialist moss remover – choose one which includes lawn fertiliser and you will kill two birds with one stone! 🙂
