Top Tips for Autumn Lawn Care

After a long hot summer, it's time to nurture our lawns as the weather cools in autumn as well as prepare them for cold winter temperatures ahead. 

Here are our top tips for lawn lovers this Autumn:

Is your lawn a little uneven? Maybe you bowled too many overs on the same backyard pitch, or your kids and pets have created an uneven surface? Don't despair! Mow the area down low and top dress with 80/20 (80% sand, 20% loam) to bring the low spots up to the level you require. It's best to spread 1-2cm at a time over the area to level it out, and then water well.

After a busy summer of backyard games and heavy traffic, it's very common for lawns to be compacted or have hard spots. With some tender love and care, it'll be picture perfect in no time!

Aeration is one of the key steps to having a beautiful lawn.

These are the main lawn aeration options:

• Use a large garden fork to create multiple holes over the compacted area
• Buy an inexpensive manual corer
• Hire a machine corer
• Organise a contractor to do the job

Mow the area down low and water the day before to soften the soil and aim to create 5cm-7.5cm deep cores approximately 2.5cm apart in the hard-compacted soil, then spread 80/20 lawn top dressing at 1m³ per 10m2 over the area and water in thoroughly.

With cooler autumn temperatures, many weeds will start to grow. Our Professional Buffalo Booster Weed & Feed is an ideal product to control many broadleaf weeds like thistles and dandelions.

Winter Grass will begin to germinate and establish during Autumn and best control results are achieved either before or just after germination. To prevent and get winter grass under control use Munns Professional Winter Grass Killer. It contains propyzamide, a pre and post emergent herbicide which controls germinating winter grass seed and young winter grass seedlings. Apply in autumn to established buffalo, kikuyu, common couch and Queensland blue couch lawns and water in well. 

Bare patches in the lawn look untidy and make it easy for weeds to establish. Autumn is the perfect time to fix these bare spots with Munns Professional Quick Fix Lawn Seed. It contains a blend of premium turf grade seed, coated in an advanced germination booster. 

Establishing a new lawn can be a daunting process but the start of autumn is one of the best times to sow a new lawn. The air temperatures are milder, but the soil is still warm enough to promote new lawn root growth.

Lawn seeds come in two different types: warm season and cool season grasses.

If you are planting a new lawn during March or April, you can have great success sowing cool season grasses like Tall fescue, Rye and Kentucky Bluegrass.

Early March in the northern parts of Australia is still ideal to sow warm season grasses such as Couch and Kikuyu.

For a green, thick and healthy lawn, feeding in autumn is an important part of yearly lawn care. 

Feeding your lawn in autumn will promote lovely green growth, stimulate strong root development and will help the lawn stay greener for longer during the cooler months, particularly for warm season grasses such as Couch, Buffalo and Kikuyu.

Autumn fertilising is also a great way to encourage spring green up in grasses that experience even a small amount of dormancy. During Autumn they look to retract into themselves, taking available nutrients which they then use to break dormancy in Spring.

In Autumn we recommend using Munns Professional Buffalo Booster Lawn Fertiliser, Munns Professional Golf Course Green Lawn Fertiliser or Munns Professional Green Keeper Lawn Fertiliser.

These fertilisers can be applied via hand or using a lawn spreader. Measure the lawn first to calculate how much fertiliser is required and then apply evenly over the area.

It's always a good idea to edge trim your lawn before mowing to keep your lawn neat and tidy with crisp edges. You can create clean lawn edges using a whipper snipper or rotary turf edger.

For more information on how to care for your lawn, make sure you follow Munns on Facebook, or chat to one of our helpful Horticulturalists online Munns | Yates Australia

Have a great autumn!

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