HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT LAWN
You can have original flowerbeds and impressive trees, but if the lawn of the garden is not cared for there is a risk of giving the whole a sense of neglect. Of course, caring for your lawn requires time, patience and maintenance. The English are notoriously masters of turf care. After all, history has it that since the 17th century the English lords have been working hard to give their villas a refined appearance and the lawn was their main concern. Even today, English techniques are still an important point of reference for both small gardens and vast expanses.
PREPARING THE SEEDBED
You can install a lawn where you want and autumn is the best season for sowing, although using special seeds you can get good results even in the coldest period of the year. You can devote yourself to preparing the soil between the beginning of spring and the end of summer, while the best periods for sowing are the two-month periods April-May and September-October. However, if you live in a very hot area you can wait until the month of November.
A suitable seedbed requires a light layer of fertilizer and horse manure is perfect for this. If you are dealing with particularly hard soil, you could soften it with sand and peat, which are excellent soil conditioners.
You should make a soft layer of about 30 cm that contains lawn fertilizer and soil conditioners, so you have to work with spade or hoes. Clean the area and prepare the soil, you just have to level and rake the seedbed.
HOW TO SOW THE LAWN
When sowing, you must operate in the absence of wind, while taking care that there is no excessive humidity. Autumn is the best season as the soil is moist and warm enough. If you sow in spring, be careful of late frosts. More precisely, you could proceed two to five days before the full moon. Sowing can be done by hand or using a seed drill and the right amount of seeds is in the order of 50 grams per square meter of soil. If you do not have a seed drill, be careful to spread the seeds with the help of poles and wires, although there is always the possibility of correcting the shot with a reseed. A good way to proceed is to spread half of the seeds in one direction and the other half advancing at right angles.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE SEEDS
The choice of seeds should be made taking into account the type of soil, climate and irrigation. The most suitable seeds for lawns are certainly those that are part of the family of grasses. The agrostide is a type of seed that originates a turf thick and resistant to footsteps. The fescue is suitable for dry soils, while the English ryegrass is suitable for a wide range of soils, grows quickly and is resistant to footsteps. Take care not to step on the lawn in the two months following sowing, you should rather avoid using it for an entire season so as to give the grass time to strengthen.
DRAINING AND FERTILIZING THE LAWN
Once sowing is complete, you’ll have to water the soil thoroughly and take care to take away the excess water using wild musk. In fact, a well-maintained turf is first and foremost professionally drained. Alternatively, when preparing the seedbed you could sprinkle some gravel to obtain an excellent drainage. Fertilizers that are applied during soil preparation only feed the grass in the first period, after which you will need to start an annual fertilization program. Aesthetic appearance and resistance to disease and adverse weather conditions depend to a large extent on fertilization. Ideally, you should fertilize your garden lawn 4 times a year: nitrogen fertilization is recommended in spring and autumn, and potassium and nitrogen fertilization is useful in summer and winter. Slow release lawn fertilizers are recommended in order to extend the time between fertilizations. During the vegetating season, you can consider iron fertilization to give the grass the typical color of a lawn. Regarding the amount of fertilizer, you can spread about 3 kg per 100 square meters.
LAWN MAINTENANCE
For the perfect lawn, you need to mow the grass regularly and water it abundantly (at dawn or dusk) 1-2 times a week. Cut the lawn twice a month in the first period and then once a week, making sure that the height of the grass is between 2 and 4 cm. After all, the cut grass residues act as fertilizer as they supply potassium and nitrogen. To restore barren areas, you could reseed in the spring. A small amount of peat could be useful in the event that the turf does not grow compactly. In winter you should avoid treading on your lawn as much as possible as the icy grass is particularly fragile. Regularly removing twigs and dry leaves will prevent them from rotting in the grass. In short, an English style lawn requires constant maintenance.
