There’s something about gearing up for the first month of a new year that always gives us chills—and not just because, well, it’s actually pretty chilly outside. No. We get this almost giddy excitement about what the year ahead might bring: new adventures, new outlooks, new promises, maybe even a new haircut and a new determination to just do a bit more, such as keeping on top of the lawn so that it survives the rest of winter and then thrives throughout the summer.
For the most part, January is about filling your new thermos-flask with that new flavour of coffee you were given by your new neighbours for Christmas as you do those little tidbit tasks like servicing your mower, sharpening the blades ahead of the spring rush and brushing away any worm casts you find. But there are still a few other tasks that will have you feeling like you’ve stuck to your resolution to stay on top of things this year.
So with that in mind, here are some easy-peasy lawn care tasks you can focus on this month that will have your lawn looking lush, green and healthy as you prepare it for the upcoming spring:
Easy-Peasy Task No1: Clear The Debris
There can only be one place to start, and that’s pulling on your wellies, wiggling your fingers into some gloves and digging your rake out of your shed so that you can begin removing any leaves, twigs and other debris that may have accumulated on your lawn over the autumn and winter months. By doing this, your lawn will find it wayyy easier to breathe fresh air, nutrients to get down to the roots and new growth to come through.
Easy-Peasy Task No2: Aeration
Aerating your lawn is a pretty surefire way to help improve the actual soil structure beneath your lawn, which can in turn help to promote some seriously healthy root growth. What more could you want? Of course, we’ve probably led you astray by the whole “easy-peasy” thing because, errr, it’s actually quite hard work, unless you hire Joe’s and have our lawn experts unleash the power aerator on your lawn.
Easy-Peasy Task No3: Top Dressing
After the first couple of months of winter, when your lawn is laying dormant and nutrients are somewhat scarce, the best thing you can do is apply a thin layer of compost (or a different type of organic matter) to your lawn, which will help to add those much-needed nutrients to the soil and improve the overall health of your lawn. It’s a win-win situation.
Easy-Peasy Task No4: Check for Pests
Next time you make your morning coffee, instead of scrolling through TikTok or putting the news on the tellybox, take a walk around your lawn instead. Not only will you get to fill your lungs with some glorious fresh air, but you’ll be able to complete an important lawn care task in the form of pest spotting. Simply look for any signs of pests, such as brown patches or holes in the grass and, should you suspect the root cause of the problem is a pest of some kind, then call in the professionals from your favourite lawn care service (cough, us, cough) to assess and treat the problem.
Easy-Peasy Task No5: Even out Hollows n’ Bumps
Yepp. We’ve come to that time in the year when lumps and bumps are a common issue, which isn’t an issue in itself, unless you are a fan of a well-kept lawn. In that case, head over to any lumps, bumps or hollows you can see, cut an H-shape into the turf, peel back the grass and then either fill the hollow with soil or remove some of the soil from the bump. Once that’s been done, re-lay the turf, firm it into place and pinch the cut edges together. Easy as pie.
Easy-Peasy Task No6: Prepare Your Equipment
As we mentioned somewhere up there, January is the perfect time to potter about and prepare your equipment for those busy lawn care seasons known as spring and summer. But seriously, do it. Use the quiet time now to make sure that all of your lawn care equipment – from your mowers to your trimmers, weed killers to lawn edgers – are in excellent working order. Trust us: getting off to an epic start come spring will make the rest of your lawn care season so much easier.
Easy-Peasy Task No7: Avoid Walking on a Frosty Lawn
Never walk on a frosty lawn. Never-ever. Unless you need to save an injured fawn or your kid just took a tumble on the trampoline, never walk across a frosty lawn. Why? Because these seemingly innocent move will actually cause some serious damage to your blades of grass. That’s because the frost will freeze the moisture inside your grass blades, making them extremely brittle, so that when you stand on them, they snap, leaving the expanded moisture to burst out of the cell walls. As for an aesthetics point of view, they may even leave brown footprints, which can take ages to disappear.
Easy-Peasy Task No8: Plan for Spring
January is the ideal time to take a look over the lawn, make a plan for what might need to be done, create a list of upcoming tasks and projects you want to get stuck into this spring, such as planting, seeding and fertilising, and then commit to it.
The Key Takeaway:
Remember, in January, most lawns are dormant, so you might not see much growth. The focus of January lawn care tasks is to prepare the lawn for the upcoming spring season. Also, depending on the region you live in, the temperature, and the weather conditions, you might have to adjust these tasks accordingly.
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