Spring is, amongst other things, one of the best times to aerate and scarify your lawn. “Aera-who? and scari-what-the-hey?” I hear you say. What are those things?
Aerating and Scarifying. Nothing to be afraid of despite that fact that scarifying sounds pretty spooky. But no. Contrary to what Holly might tell you, bearing in mind she is a bit of a novice when it comes to lawns, scarifying does not consist of standing on your lawn shouting “watch out, here come the moles:”. That might alarm your lawn but it isn’t going to scarify it. If you’re still having a problem knowing the difference, here’s a brief illustration…
A mole scaring the life out of the lawn
A woman scarifying the life into the lawn
Aeration and scarifying are important and beneficial procedures for allowing your lawn to grow as it should.
More and more gardeners and lawn enthusiasts are discovering that just snipping your lawn a couple of times a season is not enough. A lawn is a living breathing thing, it will not survive frost, weeds, heat and saturation without help.
You could say looking after a lawn is a bit like having a large green pet in the garden. You wouldn’t refuse to give your dog water and a good meal. A lawn needs feeding, tending, grooming and caring for like any other pet. It has many advantages over real pets of course. Unlike our cat, for example, a lawn is unlikely to go out of its way to sleep on your cashmere sweater, claw at your ankles in the morning as you go past or leave something half-eaten in your slippers. maybe that’s just my cat.
However. A lawn needs looking after properly and as my esteemed colleague and fellow beer fancier Dick informed you yesterday in his blog, scarifying is the real secret to a great lawn. It’s about letting the lawn breathe by removing moss and thatch that is choking it and allowing in the nutrients, water and air the lawn needs to grow green and healthy.
And as we are in the growing season now, if you only scarify once, this is the time of year to do it as the grass will recover quicker from any potential scarring and damage as it will grow back and heal. So why not think about adding a scarifier to your armoury. If you take a look at these pages you
If you need to know more, try Dick’s blog as I mentioned before, or you could visit our virtual library of information MowHow, where you will find a few buying guides and some simple and clear information on aerating and scarifying.
