Lawn Care

Things that are ubiquitous, are, understandably, often taken for granted, (and can suffer as a result). As far as plants go ‘grasses’ are as ubiquitous as it gets. In this context, pedantically speaking, we don’t think about tending to our grasses, instead we use the term ‘Lawn’ in the singular.

From a horticultural perspective, this has the potential to lead us astray, because a lawn is not an entity in of itself, but rather a patchwork of thousands and thousands and thousands of plants. If you desire a beautiful lawn, try to remember this.

Buffalo has become the preferred grass of choice in Sydney. A broader leaf lawn grass, if fed and watered well it has a lovely, verdant green. It has varieties that can cope with shade well, generally out competes most weeds in summer and is easily repairable.

As with any plant, if we want it to thrive we need to be conscious of sunlight, soil, water and nutrition. Grasses like lots of light and thrive in a well aerated, friable (light), well drained soil, with good access to nitrogen and water. And unlike the quadrangles of Oxford colleges we use our lawns, for more than an aesthetic, so we need to be watchful for things like wear and tear and compaction in high traffic areas.

And if you want your lawn at its best in summer clip it once a week with a good mower, water it every few days (in the early morning) and aerate and feed it at the start of spring.