In order to maintain a strong healthy lawn, I try to follow my lawn care calendar as closely as possible. Not every customer wishes to have the full lawn care maintenance package and prefers just to have a lawn mowing service. But where possible I will advise that as many of these jobs are undertaken during the season.

January – Happy New Year

Unless we have had a very mild start to the year, there won’t be much for me to do as the ground may be frozen and the lawn is still dormant.

So this month I just try to keep the lawn free from leaves and debris, and avoid working on the grass to lessen the risk of damage.

February – Time to give the lawn some Love

Providing the ground is not frozen, I can start to prepare the lawn for repairs and trim and shape the edging.

If it is mild towards the end of the month I might be able to give the lawn the lightest of trims with the mower if needed.

March – As fast as a Hare

Growth really starts to speed up this month as the sun gets higher in the sky and the air and soil temperatures warm a wee bit.

Mowing for regular lawn maintenance clients generally starts depending on the weather, and March is the perfect time to give the grass its spring feed to help it strengthen after the winter.

Moss may have taken hold in the grass if the winter was mild and wet, this is becoming more of a problem. If possible I like to give the lawn a good scarification to remove moss and any thatch. This helps the base of the plants breathe a little, it may look drastic at the time but scarified lawns always come back lusher and stronger.

Good frosts are still possible, so with early cuts I like to tickle the tops of the grass every 7 – 10 days if allowed. This helps encourage thicker growth and get the lawn off to a good start.

April – “to open” Life begins to show

Spring is really starting to ramp up now and the grass will be growing with some vigour. An ideal cutting schedule would be once a week in order to remove only one third of the grass growth but a more normal customer schedule would be fortnightly.

There may be a few lawns I did not get chance to feed during March, or a new customer may request the service so I continue the application of Spring/Summer feed for the rest of this month.

Any bare or thin patches of grass will be over seeded as normally the weather is perfect this month.

May – Fertility abounds

The spring feed that I applied to customers lawns during the last month will now have been mostly taken up by the plants and we should see good strong growth.

During this month I can drop the cutting height to around 2.5cm (1 inch) as the grass is strong and can withstand a more substantial cut. Of course the finished cut height really depends on the customers preferred choice.

Edges are kept trimmed and weeds are treated with a selective herbicide or manually removed before they become dominant in the sod.

June – Flaming June (hopefully)

Hopefully our weather has really picked up and we might even have had a couple of days where an ice cream in the garden was the order of the day.

I usually advise customers to keep moving any furniture and toys they might have on the grass to avoid damage.

Regular mowing continues with the aim of avoiding letting the grass grow long and then having to scalp it back to the desired length. A heavy cut on the grass can leave it open to disease. Want the perfect Lawn stripes like Wimbledon? Read my 5 tips to the perfect lawn.

July – Hot, hot ,hot

Wow… summer is here (maybe) ;) and we may well have a shortage of rain days.

An established lawn can handle this without problem, but any repaired areas or newly seeded and turfed lawns will need watering through any dry spells.

Mowing continues and the lawn tells me what height to cut it at and avoid stressing the grass plants.

August – Bucket & spade time

Phew…… it’s a warm one. High summer means it might be necessary to raise the height of the blades and leave the grass a little bit longer than normal as growth may have slowed.

Longer grass copes better with dry or drought conditions and can withstand the higher wear and tear from mid summer use.

A slight browning may occur if the weather is consistently dry and warm.

September – Back to school :(

If the lawn had gone a little brown during August, this month will see colour return and it green up nicely.

The mowing blades can usually be lowered back down again to achieve the desired length.

I can also start light scarification this month to remove any dead grass and debris from the base of the lawn to allow water to filter down to the soil. This helps the plants “tiller” which basically means they produce new shoots from the base.

I normally start to think about switching to the winter feeding regime during this month. I change to a feed formula that is rich in phosphorus and potassium but low in nitrogen. I am aiming to support more root growth and less leaf production.

Weed treatments will be undertaken if needed as the weather is still warm and they are quicker acting.

October – Halloween leaf horrors

Lawn mowing will start to slow down this month but there is still plenty to do.

Trees will have begun shedding leaves and ideally the grass should be kept free of them and in some gardens it does seem like a non stop exercise.

Speaking of exercise, did you know that half an hour of raking leaves can burn up to 150 calories…… saves me going to the gym ;)

November – Fireworks and meteors

My mowers are just about ready to be serviced and stored away for another season. A cut here and there might still be needed if the weather is unusually warm.

Winter feed is still applied if not already done and late season aeration can take place.

December – Festivities and cheer

As we enter the festive season there is nothing to be done on the lawn apart from clearing any remaining leaves and debris from storms.

If the customer has employed my services throughout the season and a lawn care plan applied, the lawn should be strong, healthy and ready to take on whatever the winter may bring.

Want to find out more? Follow the link to my lawn care service.