Your Guide To September Lawn Care Tasks

Your Guide To September Lawn Care Tasks It seems that summer is already coming to a close (Like, seriously,...

Your Guide To September Lawn Care Tasks

Your Guide To September Lawn Care Tasks

It seems that summer is already coming to a close (Like, seriously, June, July and August all deserve speeding tickets because where does the time go?). Luckily: there’s still a couple weeks of fun to be had in the sun before you start layering up in jumpers, jackets and ordering Pumpkin Spiced Lattes. But even more important than that (if that’s even possible), are your September lawn care tasks, the ones you need to tick off in order to get your lawn autumn ready. You can find all your September lawn care tasks in this guide… 

So strap in, saddle up and let’s get your lawn looking tip top after a summer of wear and tear.

Why September is Super-Important

Forget what you may have heard about October, it’s actually September that’s the prime month for autumn lawn care. There’s a bit of warmth, a chance of rainfall and barely any seeding weeds, making it a dreamy time to get your autumn preparation done.

Of course, being able to engage in treatments such as feeding, weed killing, spiking, moss removal, scarification and aeration all depends on how dry the summer was, especially as there could be a lack of time between getting a decent amount of rainfall to help germinate your new grass seed and the oncoming cold weather that will halt that germination.

Keep on Mowing

Before the drop in temperature slows down your lawn’s growth rate, make sure you keep on top of your mowing duties with a weekly cut, so long as there is enough moisture to keep your grass growing, that is. 

Then, once that growth starts to slow-up later on in the month, make sure you raise your mower’s deck a couple of notches, and keep it that way throughout the winter. You may even find you need to raise it a little more if you notice an invasion of moss, by maybe another inch, so that your grass can defend itself a little better. 

Mow in the Afternoon

Step outside with your morning coffee and you’ll suddenly find your toes covered in dew, which means it’s time to start mowing in the afternoon, once the sun has burned off that moisture. If you don’t, you’ll find that damp grass clings to the inside of your mower deck like it’s made of Gorilla Glue. Either way, it’s always worth giving the underside of your mower a good ol’ brush, scrape and maybe even a hose down at least once a week. 

 

Finally Time To Fertilise

There’s a bunch of reasons to love September (yepp, we’re going to mention Spiced Pumpkin Lattes again), but giving your lawn a much-needed autumn fertilise is right up there with the best of them. That’s because you get the double-whammy of helping your lawn to recover from all that summer use as well as preparing it for those cold winter months. 

On top of this, fertilising in September will better prepare your lawn against any winter diseases, moss and weeds, all of which tend to thrive in a lawn that lacks those much needed nutrients. Trust us: if you’ve never tried an autumn fertiliser before, your lawn is about to be the greenest it ever has over winter. 

Whack Those Remaining Weeds

Chances are, you’ve spent a pretty big dollop of your summer dealing with weeds. Well, the good news is, pretty much all weed seeds will have germinated by this point in the year, so the battle is almost over. You’ve just got to remove the few weeds that remain, which will probably be a mix of yarrow, thistles, cinquefoil and hawks beard.

Just make sure you’re not applying weed killer to your dry, scorched or parched lawn as your grass is probably under an immense amount of stress at this time anyway.

What’s more, with the wetter months fast approaching (fingers crossed), you’ll probably notice moss making a bit of a comeback. To deal with this, your best bet are our cultural treatments, a ferrous sulphate based moss killer or using your trusty rake to rip it out of the ground. 

Watering Your Lawn

The idea of watering your lawn in any given September seems like madness, but with the summer weather being so hot and dry, you’ll probably want to do some deep soaks to grow your grass roots, especially if your soil is lacking moisture and you are planning to scarify, aerate or seed your lawn. Just remember to get your hose out in the morning so that you’re not encouraging diseases to run riot. 

 

Aerate Your Compacted Lawn

September might just be the perfect time to unleash our core-aeration machine on your lawn (also known as hollow tining). Not only will this encourage more air, water and nutrients to get down deep into the soil and encourage healthy root growth, but aerating your lawn at the end of summer will also improve your lawn’s drainage right before the wet season starts and help ease up any soil compaction suffered over the busy summer months. 

 

Pro Tip: Try fertilising your lawn after you’ve aerated to boost your deep root hopes. 

 

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