It’s Grounds Week and this year’s focus is on lawn care. We maintain a lot of lawns and green spaces for our clients, and often their residents, to enjoy.
In the social housing and local council sector, we are a leading landscaping specialist, and we play a pivotal role in helping people enjoy their green spaces, often in built up and urban areas.
With spring arriving, our teams have spent the last few months getting lawn ready. Mower blades have been sharpened and new mowers purchased.
When managing lawns, the first cuts are really important to a successful season. Having experienced a wet and cold end to the winter, the longer days and rising temperatures, will see the grass start to grow quickly.
Here are some lawn care tips for spring:
- Don’t mow too low, the lawns may be spongy and wet, so give a high first cut
- This is a great opportunity to add the first spring feed to the lawn. This will strengthen the grass shoots.
- Don’t leave it too long between mows. Ideally no longer than a fortnight. On the subsequent cuts you can mow to a lower height, giving the lawn a real tidy up.
- If possible, use a mulching machine which will drop nutrients back into the lawn. If cut and collecting is preferable, make sure to compost the cuttings.
- In conjunction with regular mowing, feeding the lawn every six weeks is ideal
- Did you know that lawns are great for creating a wildflower meadow? Even just letting an area of grass to grow longer will encourage some flowering plants to flourish and attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Dandelions may get bad press, but they are great for the insects.
Naomi Childe, director at Chequers said: ”The smell of freshly cut grass is a delight to many, and our horticultural operatives are certainly looking forward to the grass cutting season getting underway.”
