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Recovery plan for a drought damaged lawn
If your lawn has suffered from a long period of dry weather, it will be looking in a rather sorry state. Therefore it is important to have a plan to bring it back to good health before winter arrives. The main thing that your lawn needs is for the soil to fully re-hydrate, and when adequate rain finally arrives or regular watering is carried out it should start to recover naturally. This could take many months though, especially if the lawn has gone into a dormant state and turned brown, which is natures way of protecting the grass against extreme dry conditions. Our step by step guide explains how to ensure your lawn recovers fully.
Lawns can die back and become very patchy if they have been exposed to long periods of dry weather so it is important to wait for the appropriate time of year to carry out remedial renovation work so that the lawn has the best possible chance of recovery. Lawns will recover at different rates, depending on how badly they have been affected by the dry conditions. Autumn is the best time to carry out lawn remedial work after a dry summer and it’s a great opportunity to revitalise your lawn so that it will look better than ever.
1. Timing
The best time to carry out lawn repair and renovation is between Mid-August and October when the hot summer months are over, and moisture returns.
2. Scarify
Scarify the lawn to remove the dead material and thatch in multiple passes with a scarifier. Visit our scarifying page for more information.
3. Aerate
Create thousands of holes in the lawn to break up the surface of the soil and relieve compaction. Visit our lawn aeration page for more information.
4. Over seed
Now you have scarified and aerated, over-seeding is the magic ingredient which will ensure your lawn returns to splendour. The most important thing to ensure over-seeding is successful is to ensure there is good soil contact with the seed, which is why we recommend scarifying and aeration beforehand.
5. Top Dressing
Top dressing is a mixture of sand and loam or sand and organic compost which is spread over the lawn to assist seed germination and iron out imperfections in the surface of the lawn. Not all lawns will require top dressing as part of a renovation as it depends on the severity of the renovation required. Visit our top dressing page for more information.
6. Autumn Fertiliser
With the renovation complete, apply a pre-seed or autumn fertiliser which will give the lawn the nutrient it needs to green-up and recover quickly as you move into the winter months. By next spring you will have a lawn to be proud of.
Lawntech are proud to be lawn renovation specialists and we have a vast amount of knowledge and equipment to ensure lawns large or small can be renovated to a very high standard.