Gardeners looking to protect their lawns for the winter should act quickly to give their grass the best chance of bouncing back beautifully in the spring.
According to the experts at the RHS (The Royal Horticultural Society), mowing is done mainly between March and October.
As the temperatures drop, growth slows down meaning that it doesn’t need to be mown as often, if at all.
But rather than just giving up on it completely, the experts at lawnsmith.co.uk say that you should take extra care of your grass before the winter.
Weighing up when you cut it and how often in the next few weeks could make a big difference to your summer garden.
They said: “The autumn rains make the end of August and September a good growing time so mow frequently. You can also lower the cut if you raised it for the summer but if your lawn is prone to moss you want to be raising the mowing height not lowering it.”
Usually, your final mow of the year will be in November, but while the weather is still nice it’s a good time to get out and get mowing. As soon as those first frosts fall, the grass will be more brittle than normal, and mowing could damage your grass.
Explaining why it’s important to take extra care of your lawn in the autumn months, lawncarepro.co.uk says: “In the early/mid autumn, you want to begin preparing your grass for the lower temperatures by making it as healthy as possible.
You want to try and address weed outbreaks, use fertiliser, reseed bare patches, and aerate your lawn if you need to (typically once a year for clay soils, less often for regular soils).”
They continue: “Just before temperatures drop at the end of the year, you want your lawn to be about two inches tall. Any shorter and your grass may get stressed out when it gets extremely cold weather.”
In fact, you may want to do multiple smaller cuts in the weeks prior to the first frost.
In conclusion, they say: “The healthier your lawn is going into the winter, and the deeper its root system, the healthier it’ll be as you enter spring.”
