Love Your Lawn

Lawn Care Tips for November

The dry summer ahead, along with all the associated wear & tear from happy feet and paws, means that your lawn will benefit some TLC to get it into peak condition before the end of the year. Feeding and fixing now will make your lawn much more resilient during the hottest months.

Easy steps to fortify your lawn against summer stress:

1. Feed generously

Healthy, well fed lawns are tough lawns, so fertilising at the end of spring is great preparation for summer. If your lawn started the season off in rough shape, a feed at the end of spring is a great idea, even if you already fed it back in September.

Why feed, you ask? When you feed your lawn, you’re actually feeding the soil microbes: they respond by breaking down fertiliser into a form that lawn grass can absorb. Keeping your soil microbes happy is the secret to a good lawn, because they're feeding the grass for you. As soil temperature rises and everything begins to speed up, grass nutrition is able to accelerate, because most of the nitrogen in slow-release fertilisers is actually 'unlocked' for grass by soil microbes.

Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Lawn Food, which combines composted chicken manure, blood & bone, fish and seaweed is ideal to enrich the structure of the soil. It does this by adding organic content that encourages earthworms and beneficial soil micro-organisms, that in turn help to improve the soils porosity (drainage) and air movement. This all makes it easier for your lawn to grow and root deeper into the soil.

Yates Lawn Fertiliser Quarterly is a clever granular lawn food that combines the benefits of both fast-acting and gradually released nitrogen: the fast release component provides rapid results in 7 days, while the slow release feeds over a prolonged 12 week period.

2. Deep watering

As the weather (and soil) begins to warm up and dry out, lawns should be watered deeply once or twice a week, rather than frequent light watering. Deep watering encourages grass roots to grow deeper into the soil, which helps grass to access more water during hot, dry conditions.

3. Fixing bare spots

Bare patches in the lawn are a magnet for weeds to establish and spoil the look of the lawn. Repair patches in the first half of November with Yates Seed'n'Feed, so the patches will green up by Christmas and won’t be a magnet for weeds.

To fix patches, first remove any weeds or dead grass from the patch. Gently cultivate the soil in the bare patch with a rake or garden fork to create a soft, loose surface. You can also spread some handfuls of lawn mix over the patch. Broadcast seed evenly over the whole patch. Gently rake the area to mix the seed into the softened topsoil. Then lightly cover the sowed seeds with potting mix or lawn mix.

Water regularly for a few weeks until the grass is established. During the first few days of germination, make sure you don't let the seed dry out, at all. Allowing the soil to dry out even for a short time can halt germination and kill delicate embryonic grass. It's likely you'll need to water multiple times a day during the first few days, then continue to keep a close eye on the moisture after that.

4. Weed control

Tidy up any broadleaf weeds (like dandelions, clover and thistles) growing in the lawn, which can ruin the aesthetics and be painfully prickly. Yates Weed n Feed Double Action is available in an easy to use hose-on application or in concentrate form, for dilution in a watering can or garden sprayer. Yates Weed n Feed Double Action Hose On will also give the lawn a quick burst of nutrients to promote rapid green growth. It's ideal for cool-season grass types like fescue, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass and bent/browntop. You can find our tips for getting the best out of Weed'n'Feed here: Weed'n'Feed FAQs.

A word of warning though, if you're oversowing grass seed it pays to time your weedkiller applications carefully. Selective lawn weedkillers can affect the germination rate of grass seed, if you sow too soon after you've applied weedkiller. The rule of thumb is to wait for 4-5 weeks after using lawn weedkiller, before you sow grass seed onto the treated area; this ensures you get peak grass germination and excellent results from your hard work.

If you aren't oversowing, the job is much more straightforward. If you didn't get onto the weeds back in autumn, it's not too late, but make sure you move fast! Many weeds will be starting to flower and set seed; these will happily germinate new weeds in your lawn next autumn. If you control them now before they have a chance to set seed, next season will be easier to manage.

5. Mowing tips

If you've been leaving your lawn longer over the winter, don't cut it savagely short just because it's spring; this can stress the grass and hold back growth during the key growing season. For the first cut, don't cut more than a third off its length....just a slight trim is best. Wait until the soil warms up and grass is noticeably growing before you cut it. After that, cut as frequently as possible, but remove as little growth as possible during each mow.

For established lawns, cut cool season grasses (e.g. ryegrass, fine fescue, tall fescue or browntop) to between 3 and 10 cm, and cut warm season grasses (e.g. kikuyu or couch) shorter, to 2.5 cm high. Keeping the grass long allows for more photosynthesis to really get the lawn cranking, but during a very wet spring shorter is better, to discourage lawn diseases.

If you’re not sure what type of grass you have, it’s a likely bet that your lawn will be a cool season blend in NZ. Usually, warm season grasses are found in coastal areas, in the warmer parts of the country.

6. Prevent insect pests

Late spring is an ideal opportunity to head off grass grubs and porina, because the adults are flying and laying eggs this month. If you've had grass grub damage this winter, it's probably looking quite disastrous about now. It's too late to fix last season's damage, but you can certainly prevent it happening next year. Pro tip: Keeping your lawn strong and healthy really helps it to resist pest pressure.

Adult grass grub beetles are attracted to light, it’s quite common during the second half of spring to see beetles buzzing around street lighting. If your outdoor lighting is close to your lawn area, consider turning it off during spring, or avoid using it for extended periods so it doesn't look like an airport runway for beetles.

Nocturnal porina moths fly in large waves in spring and autumn, laying thousands of eggs. The spring moth flight’s caterpillar symptoms will show up between autumn and early winter.

The good news? We have a really effective solution for both of these destructive pests (it controls lots of other pests too). Yates Lawn Grub and Porina Kill + Protect delivers excellent preventative control against grubs and caterpillars. It continues to perform for some time, giving you up to 6 months protection: it stops grubs and caterpillars before they even get started.