Your first task is to make changes to your mowing method, I would suggest raising the height of cut by 1cm above your summer mowing height which will give you an ultimate mowing height of 3cm (1 ΒΌ inches). The reason why you raise the cut to this height in autumn is to allow for the slowing of grass growth, on top of this I would usually mow just once a week once this growth begins to slow.
Should your lawns suffer from slow growth in the spring or during dry spells in the summer you may consider applying an to develop strong roots and hardiness. If you feel your lawn is not all it should be and would benefit from this autumn pampering then by all means apply the fertiliser but ensure it is specially formulated for autumn application, an autumn lawn feed such as this contains phosphates and potash whilst omitting nitrogen which would cause unwanted growth.
Many gardens may have goalmouths and beaten paths to washing lines that are tread-bare, sparsely populated by grass or compacted. Address these now to have them ship-shape for next season, start by driving the prongs of a garden fork
To thicken up your grass sward in these high traffic areas we must introduce fresh seed, so firstly we must create a seedbed. Add a light layer of clean loamy topsoil (This is available bagged in most garden centres), rake this with a flat garden rake to the consistency of large cake crumbs and follow this by shaking on some lawn seed
As well as being a good month for reseeding bare areas, September is also a good time to sow new lawn from seed, with many being sown over the early autumn weeks.
View further information on this topic in the Irish gardeners forum >>>>
Back to articles >>