Grassroots campaign: Take action in your lawn

March is the perfect time to take action when it comes to your lawn, writes Peter Dowdall

Wildflowers like these, if left to grow, aren’t just beautiful to look at, they will sustain myriad bees and other wildlife species. Picture: iStock

SPRING is a time of preparation and now as growth beneath our feet is beginning to be more visible each day as early spring bulbs and even some perennials break the surface and begin to open up into flower we have to get cracking, for once more, nature will not wait, the pages of the calendar will turn whether we have our tasks done or not.

LAWN CARE

The biggest element of nearly all gardens is that patch of green that we refer to as a lawn. I describe it as such as there are many different entities which can be referred to as lawns. You may want the perfectly manicured and preened, golf course — standard lawn and will be happy with nothing less.

Or maybe a small bit or even a lot, of moss doesn’t bother you, so long as it looks nice and green. Perhaps you are happy to let a few weeds or wildflowers do their thing and feed the bees and other pollinators or, you bring it a step further by allowing that green area to become totally wild and you add wildflower seeds to the area each year.

ACTION STATIONS

Whatever type of lawn you have, March is time to get out there and take action. If it’s the perfect putting green look that you are after then March is the time to do some aerating and top dressing to ensure correct pH, with no moss and weed growth.

SUSTENANCE

I’m not a fan of the perfectly maintained lawn, I’d rather leave the dandelions bloom and look upon them as sustaining life, for they are important for bees, as the queens re-emerge from their nests now and are in search of sustenance.

I have learned to find their bright yellow blooms attractive and not look on them as invaders to have chemicals poured upon them. The issue for me with “perfect” lawns is that they tend to be drowned in damaging chemicals in a kind of “blanket bombing” approach to garden maintenance.

SOW SEEDS

March is the time to sow new lawns, whether you are starting from seed or are laying rolls of turf. The ground should have been prepared over the winter to expose weeds, heavy clods and any soil-borne pests so that frost and predators will have done their work. From now on as the temperatures increase, seed germination will happen quite quickly and in the case of turf, their roots will begin to grow into the surrounding soil quite quickly during the next month. Doing this job in March means that the new lawn has a chance to get established well before any summer drought and perhaps hosepipe ban takes hold.

WILDFLOWERS

The same is true for wildflower lawns/meadows. Sow the seed now and it will establish quite quickly over the next few weeks and months.

Do bear in mind that many wildflower mixes will contain annuals, biennials and perennials and thus, many will flower in this first year, with more coming into bloom in the second year and each year will see more species establish and provide even more colour, sustaining an even broader range of wildlife.

MAINTENANCE

The maintenance of a wildflower area is different to a conventional lawn. Whilst a lawn needs to be cut once a year and depending on how “perfect” you want it, will require further maintenance in terms of aerating, fertilising and weed control, a wildflower area can be left to its own devices until September.

At that stage, strim the patch, leave the strimmings in situ for two or three weeks so that seeds disperse back into the soil and beyond, then remove the debris to the compost bin.

Whilst I feel it is essential that local authorities and owners of large areas of land should leave large proportions go wild and let nature do her thing, it is important to remember that it is not for everyone, particularly for many living in suburban and urban areas.

NUTRIENTS

If you are maintaining a lawn as just that and want to have a well-tended patch, then there are more and more environmentally sound products available now than ever before.

Many of the “weed and feed” products are very damaging and should be avoided as you will end up spreading chemical fertiliser and damaging weedkiller all over your lawn, the majority of which may not need anything.

The Lawn Gold range of lawn care products is an environmentally sound range of Irish produced lawn treatments which promote a more back to basics approach to lawn-care, by focusing on maintaining the correct pH and nutrient mixture for optimum grass growth and thus preventing moss and weeds getting a hold in the first place.