As wintertime approaches, a lot of house gardeners in Mediterranean and comparable climates are inclined to believe that the chores and tasks associated with lawn care are above for the 12 months, and that they can neglect about garden remedy until finally the pursuing spring. It is effortless to see why, as most of the grass versions employed in this sort of areas are dormant for the duration of the winter season, whilst feeding and dethatching in the autumn look to make tiny distinction to the lawn’s visual appeal at this time.
Even so, feeding, if carried out properly, and dethatching in which suitable, assist the lawn to get better a lot quicker and expand far better at the begin of the subsequent year’s expanding year. What then is correct feeding when is dethatching needed, and how should it be completed?
Garden Food
Garden fertilizer used at the stop of the summer season or the starting of autumn, can incorporate a fairly substantial share of nitrogen, in purchase to get gain of the remaining six months or so of developing period, just before the onset of winter. The closer to wintertime however, the existence of accessible nitrogen gets progressively irrelevant. In equally situations even though, it is very best to apply a lawn fertilizer that contains a substantial percentage of potassium, as this encourages satisfactory root growth, whose benefits as described, will be visible in the spring and help in making a garden that is hardier to pests, ailment and drought.
Mowing of feeding is to use a gradual release fertilizer. In the drop, the percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, expressed from left to appropriate on the deal as N-P-K, should be reduced in nitrogen and phosphorous, (N and P respectively) but substantial in Potassium (K). Alternatively, one particular can use an natural and organic fertilizer, although cumbersome natural and organic issue, this sort of as compost, while essential for the rest of the yard, is less appealing for garden care, as it is difficult to unfold evenly, and is liable to exacerbate the thatch problem.
Dethatching Lawns
Eliminating the thatch that has created up by means of the summer is a single of the most crucial duties in garden care and therapy, particularly with a lot of of the species utilised in sizzling, dry, summertime climates this sort of as Bermuda, Zoysia, and Kikuyu varieties. Although numerous home gardeners are informed that dethatching is important in the spring, significantly less know that it is desirable in the autumn too, as it drastically increases the rate at which rainwater percolates by means of the soil. It requirements to be carried out far less aggressively than in the spring, and only on individuals species that get better from the remedy. Great treatment must be exercised with grasses like Buffalo, or St.Augustine, which can be irreparably destroyed by over-zealous dethatching.
In excess of Seeding Lawns
An exceptional way of greening up a perennial garden that turns into dormant in the winter is to more than seed with a assortment that grows properly in the winter season, only to fade absent through the summer season. For this goal, dethatching the garden prior to spreading the seeds, significantly aids in rising the germination fee, which assists the lawn look a good deal fuller and greener by way of the winter season.