WORDS BY KRISTEE SEMMLER
THE BAROSSA NURSERY
Gardening Advice with Kristee Semmler
Who doesn’t love the look and smell of a lush freshly mown lawn?
There are even Facebook pages dedicated to ‘lawn porn’!
I know I certainly have a few friends who are very lawn proud – and so they should be!
In my opinion nothing lifts a house facade or backyard like lawn.
It softens harsh lines and the lush green just makes everything look better.
Did you know that having lawn around your house (as opposed to cement or gravel) can keep your home up to 20% cooler in Summer? Nature’s insulation!
Coming out of winter and into spring, many lawns need a bit of love.
There are many varieties of lawn that go semi dormant during winter and can go quite yellow in colour – especially here in the Barossa where we can get some pretty nasty frosts.
There is little point fertilising lawns during winter because the ground is just too cold to take up any nutrients.
However, come Spring when the days and nights are warming up and there’s more sun, your lawn will absolutely love an application of lawn fertiliser.
Always remember to water in lawn fertiliser well as it can burn your lawn otherwise.
After applying fertiliser your lawn should green up really quickly within a couple weeks.
Lawn fertilisers we recommend are: Munns Golf Course Green; Greenup; or a newcomer to the market which has received great reviews (plus we love the name!) – Lawn Porn.
Spring is also a great time to do any lawn repair work. If your lawn has bare patches or holes in it (cheeky dogs are a common culprit here), or if the levels of your lawn don’t look even, spreading some lawn dressing or topsoil can combat these issues.
A good feed and water is recommended after applying topsoil.
Another common lawn issue is the build up of thatch, dead grass runners in your lawn.
If your lawn looks worse after a mow with unsightly ‘dead or frayed’ looking patches, or looks and feels really thick and spongy, you may have a build up of thatch.
This happens especially in very robust growing lawns like kikuyu and some couch varieties.
Spring (mainly October through to December) is a great time to dethatch your lawn.
This can be done by hiring a scarifyer, or as we do at home to save on costs, just mow your lawn 3-5 times, lowering your blades after each mow until you have removed all green growth and the area basically looks like you have mown down to dirt.
Then an application of a good lawn fertiliser, water in well, and with some warmth and sunshine you will have what looks like a brand new, lush lawn in about three weeks!
The final Spring lawn maintenance job is weeds.
When lawns are dormant or struggling in winter, weeds can take hold.
There are many products on the market that you can use to kill the weeds in your lawn without damaging your actual lawn.
Our favourite selective lawn weeder at Barossa Nursery is Kleen Lawn for all your kikuyu, couch and fescue varieties, and Buffalo Pro for buffalo lawns.
You can get ‘weed and feed’ products that do both weeding and feeding, but I always think you get the best results when using a lawn weeder and fertiliser separately.
Get outside and enjoy the Spring weather and get lawn proud! Give your neighbours and friends lawn envy! Happy gardening!
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