Top Tips for Autumn Lawn Care

It's been a long summer with hot days and for many drought conditions. We hope you managed some BBQs and boisterous behaviour in the backyard. But it's autumn now with cooler conditions, and it's time to nurture our lawns and prepare them for the cold of winter.

Some activities 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 our hot summer 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 keys to having a beautiful lawn.

There are 3 options:

• Buy an inexpensive manual corer (small lawns),
• Hire a machine corer or,
• 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 at 1m³ per 10m2 over the area, rub in once dry. Your lawn will thank you for it.

Once we receive the opening autumn rains, the weeds will start to grow. Our Professional Buffalo Booster Weed and Feed is an ideal product to use on many broadleaf weeds.

Wintergrass is beginning to establish during Autumn and best control results are achieved either before or just after germination. To get winter grass under control use Munns Professional Winter Grass Killer. It contains propyzamide, a pre and post emergent herbicide. Apply in autumn to suitable lawn types to prevent winter grass or during autumn and winter to control winter grass seedlings. For more information on controlling winter grass check out our blog here.

After a very hot summer, it's common for bare patches to appear. Autumn is the perfect time to fix this. We have partnered with Horticultural expert Kim Syrus, who's showed us exactly how to repair bare patches and get your lawn back in shape using our Munns Professional Quick Fix Lawn Seed.

Planting a lawn can be a daunting process but the start of the autumn season is one of the best times to sow a new lawn.

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

If you are planting a new lawn during March, April or May, 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 greener lawn in Spring fertilise in Autumn…

Autumn fertilising is 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.

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

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 are best applied using a lawn spreader to ensure even distribution over your lawn.

Check out Kim's video to see how easy it is to fertilise your lawn.

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 www.munns.com.au.

Have a great autumn!

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