Gayton gardener Jamie Marsh talks about lawn care

In his weekly Jamie’s Little Allotment column, Jamie Marsh tells you how to look after your lawn…

September is the perfect month to concentrate on either sowing a new lawn or trying to get your existing lawn back into shape.

Let’s start with new lawns. You can read ten different people’s ways of seeding a new grassed area and each time you will get a lawn, but this method has worked for me in the past.

Try and think about starting to prep your new lawn site a couple of weeks early if possible. Depending on what your ground is like, you might need to turn the top over with a fork, just the top few inches. Obviously this is okay if it’s a small lawn but if it’s too big, you will have to bring in a rotavator.

If you do use a rotavator try your best to weed the area before cultivation, because if you have perennial weeds in there it will chop up the roots and spread them far and wide, then within a couple of weeks it will be a thousand times worse.

Once your soil has been cultivated, try and get as many of the large stones out as possible, it will pay dividends later if you do it at this point. If you can leave the ground a couple of weeks to settle, do so.

Now the soil is weed and stone-free, and nice and settled, you will need to make it flat again. If it’s a large area you might need to use a roller, but with a small area, the two-footed shuffle will work well. And it’s exactly that, feet together and walk, or shuffle, up and down the area you are working on. Once you’ve finished shuffling, rake over the soil then do the shuffle again, but the opposite way this time, and once again rake it over. This is now your prepared seed bed.

Before all this has taken place you need to purchase the grass seed for your new lawn. There are a few things you have to take into consideration when choosing the seed. The main things are: Is the lawn going to be in sun or shade?; is it going to be a high-traffic area, for example, will the lawn have children playing on it, and dogs running around?

I could list so many different types of seed but it’s much easier for you to go online where you will find lawn seed calculators which will tell you what seed will be best for your situation and how much you will need.

Once you have your chosen seed, split it into two buckets and start from one end and in nice sweeping movements broadcast the seed across the bed then with the second half walk the opposite way and do the same. This will help get the seed as even as possible.

Rake over the site lightly and water it with a fine spray. You will have to water it every few days if there’s no rain forecast. Also, be wary of birds eating the seed - you might have to cover it with horticultural fleece.

When the grass starts to come through and it gets to roughly two to three inches, it will be a great benefit if you can roll it with a garden roller. A few days after that it can have its first cut, but only take a maximum one third of the length off.

That’s sowing a new lawn, it’s also a great time to scarify your lawn and aerate it.

if you’ve lots of moss or thatch in your lawn, you can rake it out using a spring tine rake. Once you’ve raked all the moss out it will look quite patchy. Now it’s raked and the surface has been loosened, you can sow some seed in the patchy areas: just follow what I’ve said above.

One more thing which you can do this time of year which is great for your lawn is to aerate it.

There are several reasons you should aerate your lawn. Aeration involves perforating the soil with small holes to allow air, water and nutrients to penetrate the grass roots. This helps the roots grow deeply and produces a stronger, more vigorous lawn. The main reason for aerating is to alleviate soil compaction.

The easiest way to do this is to take a garden fork and just push it into the lawn to a few inches depth. Take your time to sow the whole lawn evenly - it will help.

Harvest and Scarecrow Festival

- On a slightly different note, I will be featuring at the harvest and scarecrow festival at the assembly rooms in Swaffham on Sunday, September 29.

The festival will have a range of fun things to take part in and have a look at. I will personally have a selection of what I’ve been growing this year and also might have a little giveaway for anyone who comes to see me.

As usual any questions about anything gardening, please email me at Jamieslittleallotment@gmail.com