A good quality lawn can not only add to the appearance of your home, it can also increase its value, prevents soil erosion and helps to absorb heat and noise to keep your environment cooler and quieter.
Materials checklist
- Garden accessories.
- pH soil test kit.
- Lime and/or Gypsum.
- Lawn fertiliser.
- Starter fertiliser.
- Grass seed.
- Weed killers (such as Zero or Round-Up).
- Timber.
- Heavy timber board.
- Scrap piece of timber.
A lush green carpet of lawn surrounding even a modest suburban home makes it seem more attractive, more impressive. But a good quality lawn can not only add to the appearance of your home, it can also increase its value, prevents soil erosion and helps to absorb heat and noise to keep your environment cooler and quieter. A beautiful lawn requires only a little more effort to prepare and maintain than a bad one, but the results are well worth the extra time.
In this Mitre 10 MitrePlan, we show you how to go about it step-bystep. It’s a job you can tackle with confidence and it will give you great satisfaction. When you plant your new lawn, why not install a permanent pop-up watering system? They’re easy to install and can save you time, effort and water.
Step 1: planning
When shaping a new lawn, avoid corners or peaks too narrow for mowing – use groundcovers or bark mulches instead. Plan an expanse of lawn rather than cutting up the area with little garden beds which make mowing difficult. It will also need to come up to path levels and other established points like gates, fences, pools etc. If possible, avoid very shaded positions – most grasses do not take kindly to shade under trees or beside buildings and fences. Use such areas for paving or bark-chip beds instead. For banks, consider planting ground covers which help hold the soil better than grass and require little maintenance.
Plan also to plant in the periods that will give the best chance of success. Generally, this is in the spring or autumn, as summer and winter are usually too extreme for successful germination. Autumn is probably your safest time. Young grass planted in spring requires more water through the summer and may not be able to survive extreme heat.
Step 2: what type of lawn?
It’s important to choose a grass variety that is suitable for the climate and your soil type. And of course, its use. Is it to be just ornamental? Or will it need to stand up to children’s play and other outdoor living activities? There’s a good variety of brands and grass seed mixtures on the market to suit any situation, from hardy mixes that love direct sunlight to shade loving blinds for under trees and quiet corners.
Many also contain slow release nitrogen granules to progressively fertilise and assist early growth. Some also blend in clovers to help improve soil fertility. You might even consider a non-grass lawn, such as Dichondra (kidney weed) which gives a smooth, green lawn that needs no mowing and is suitable for sun or light shade. If you have any trouble deciding, ask at Mitre 10. They’ll be happy to assist you.
Step 3: site preparation
The success of your lawn depends very much on proper preparation. This includes cultivation, drainage, soil improvement and grading or levelling. The objective is to have a firm, granular, well-drained, weed-free soil that is neutral or slightly acid.
Use your mattock or pick to first remove all stones, rocks, big lumps of clay and other rubble. Cultivation (digging and turning the soil over) will destroy most annual weeds and ‘Zero’ or ‘Round-Up’ can be used to kill more persistent varieties. Dig the soil to spade depth, about 15cm. It it’s a large area or clay soil, you’d be better off hiring a rotary hoe. It will also help if you water the area the day before you dig or rotary hoe. Water the newly dug soil well and leave for a few weeks.
Cultivation
Use your mattock or pick to first remove all stones, rocks, big lumps of clay and other rubble. Cultivation (digging and turning the soil over) will destroy most annual weeds and ‘Zero’ or ‘Round-Up’ can be used to kill more persistent varieties. Dig the soil to spade depth, about 15cm. It it’s a large area or clay soil, you’d be better off hiring a rotary hoe. It will also help if you water the area the day before you dig or rotary hoe. Water the newly dug soil well and leave for a few weeks.
Drainage
Look to see if water is draining away satisfactorily next time it rains, or if it lies about. If drainage is poor, lay in some Agi Pipe or Nylex Strip Drain now. Poorly drained lawns develop problems with mosses and other water-loving weeds which will give you years of trouble. For a small site, only one drain running across the middle and following the natural fall of the land is needed. For larger areas, set feeder drains at an angle of about 40 degrees. Set drain lines about 22cm deep and fill to near the surface with 6mm gravel or scoria, then sand.
Soil improvement
If you have heavy clay soil, now’s the time to improve soil structure and water penetration by applying gypsum at 1kg or 2kg per square metre. Top dress this with about 5cm of sandy loam and cultivate to about 10cm deep. Use your pH Soil Test Kit to check the soil acidity (Fig. 3). Many soils are too acid (sour) for good growth and an acidity reading below 6.0 means the soil should be treated with garden lime to correct it. Apply the lime at about 200gm per sq. metre. Also add a complete lawn fertiliser to stimulate weed growth that otherwise may not appear until after sowing.
Grading
Level off high spots and fill hollows by using either your garden rake or by attaching a rope to a heavy board and dragging it over the site (Fig. 4). If a heavy board isn’t handy, fasten several lighter ones together. Attach your drag rope about 7-8cm back from the front edge – too far back and the front edge will bite too deeply, while too far forward and the board will just skim the surface without scraping off the bumps. Make sure the soil is not too compacted though. If it feels spongy underfoot, damped the soil and give it a good rolling or systematically tread the soft spots to consolidate them.
Step 4: sow your seed
To begin, use a starter-type fertiliser even if your seed mixture contains a small amount of slow release fertiliser. Follow the instructions on the pack and rake into the surface. Seed should be placed at a fairly shallow depth, generally about 5-10mm below the surface. Use your metal rake to make shallow grooves in the soil, then scatter seed evenly over the area. Sow half your seed in an east-west direction, and the remaining half in a north-south direction. This will ensure a more even coverage.
Use a piece of timber to lightly smudge across the surface to bury the seed in the grooves (Fig. 5) and firm down the surface with your rake head (Fig. 6). Don’t worry if the seed is not all covered. To make certain of even sowing, try mixing your seed with dry white sand if your soil is dark, or a black sandy loam for light coloured soils. Mix about one part seed with three parts of the bulk material. The different coloured materials make it easier to see where you have been and where you have missed and help to prevent blobs of seed being dropped in one place.
Step 5: watering
After sowing, it is essential that the soil surface is continually moist using the finest of mist sprinklers – heavy watering may cause run-off and wash away some of the seed resulting in patchy growth. Water twice a day to ensure that the soil does not dry out. Some grasses – particularly ‘Ryegrass’ – germinate within a week under good conditions. Others can take two – three weeks. As the grass grows, reduce watering first to once a day (about the second week), then to every second day (about the third week). Twice a week should be ample by the end of the first month with a once a week soaking after three months except in very hot and drying weather or on very light sandy soils.
Step 6: mowing
Do not begin mowing until your new grass is about 6cm high. Mower blades should be sharp and no more than one third of the grass length removed at one time, or no lower than 4cm (Fig. 7). On future cuts, you can gradually lower the blades, but remember – longer lawns give healthier growth and look better, more luxurious.
Step 7: keeping your lawn green
Feeding
Apply a solid or liquid fertiliser at least 2-3 times a year. Follow directions carefully and water in well to totally dissolve the fertiliser, or you could end up with brown patches, or worse, kill the grass completely.
Watering
One deep, uniform soaking per week is usually all a lawn needs, even in hot dry seasons.
Weed & Disease Control
ost weeds can be controlled with a selective weed killer. Some, like Yates Weed ‘n Feed, also fertilise at the same time. Hormone weed killers, such as ‘Zero’ and ‘Round-Up’, should not be used on lawns less than two months old.
Mowing
Generally, aim to cut no lower than 2-3cm. Cutting at almost ground level is a sure way to kill your lawn and encourage weeds.
Acidity
Use your pH Test Kit to test for acidity each year. If the pH reading is 6.0 or lower, apply garden lime.
Aerating
This helps to improve fertiliser and water penetration. Use a hollow tinned lawn coreer or jab a garden fork into the soil as far as the tines will go (Fig. 8). If done in the Spring, more effective and less frequent watering is possible during Summer.