Baytree Garden Centre offers its top tips on the perfect lawn

Baytree Garden Centre’s Mark Cox spells out what to do to get the perfect lawn in this week’s column...

Last week, whilst playing golf with the great and the good of South Holland (those are the circles that I mix in now!) I found myself playing out of my skin. My magnificent drive straight down the middle of the 18th fairway left me just a wedge into the green and the course record was in real danger of being smashed.

I eyed up the shot, pictured it thoroughly in my mind and set about hitting it. With my trademark silky smooth swing I sent the ball hurtling skywards, I watched opened mouthed as it tracked towards the hole like a cruise missile (that is, if a cruise missile was shaped liked a golf ball). The ball landed taking a sharp kick to the right leaving me 30 yards off the green behind a tree!

Whilst keeping my composure I marched towards the green with my playing partners to find that the green keepers had started the process of hollow tining the greens and top dressing them ready for the winter. This had left the normally pristine surface looking like the surface of the moon.

Normally this would have angered me greatly, leading to a tirade of expletives, but since I was with such esteemed company I decided to look at the positive.

Thanking the good green keepers for reminding me that my lawn also needed doing, I decided that I should leave forthwith and treat my lawn rather than risk explaining to the green keepers exactly where they could store their hollow tine spikes.

The first stage of preparing the lawn is to simply go over it with a mower to tidy it up a bit. I have deployed the same product – called Aftercut Autumn All in One Weed and Feed - for a number of years now as I find it so simple to use and you can see real benefits to your lawn in the spring.

The second step is to wait a couple of days before applying the product. It’s best to apply the feed to a dry-ish lawn by sprinkling the feed either by hand or by machine to the surface of the lawn.

The iron in the formulation will help to kill the moss in your lawn which in turn means the grass has less competition and can dominate the area. The potassium in the product is taken down into the roots and helps the grass store energy through the winter.

At this time of the year I don’t bother to water the product in because if it’s not raining generally it’s about too. However, if it has not rained after 48 hours then you’ll have to water it in by hand. Plus, until it has been absorbed do not allow pets onto the lawn.

About seven days after watering in you’ll be able to notice a real difference in the appearance of your lawn and it’s at this point that I’ll take my rake from the shed and scarify the lawn. This is the process of removing dead moss and thatch. It will look like you’ve destroyed your lawn after doing this so please do not worry, it’s normal.

The final stage is to take a garden fork and to aerate the soil. Don’t worry it’s a fancy name for just pressing the tines of the fork into the soil to a depth of about 6 inches which you repeat all over the lawn leaving about 12 inches between each neat set of holes. These holes will allow any rainfall and nutrients to be transported directly to the lawns roots.

And there you have it, all the instructions you need to make you lawn look like the surface of the moon for a week or two. Good luck!