Lawn Treatment In the Autumn � The Right Time For Feeding And Dethatching:

As approaches, many home gardeners in Mediranean and similar clims tend to assume that the chores and tasks associd with lawn care are o for the year, and that they can forget about lawn ttm until the follog spring. It is y to see why, as most of the grass varieties used in such as are dormant during the , while feeding and dethhing in the autumn seem to make little difference to the lawn's appearance at this time.

Howe, feeding, if carried out properly, and dethhing where appropri, help the lawn to reco quicker and grow bet at the start of the follog year's grog son. What then is correct feeding; when is dethhing necary, and how should it be done?

Lawn Food

Lawn fertilizer applied at the end of the summer or the beginning of autumn, can contain a relatively high percage of nitrogen, in order to take advantage of the remaining 6 weeks or so of grog son, before the onset of . The closer to howe, the presence of available nitrogen becomes incsingly irrelevant. In both cases though, it is best to apply a lawn fertilizer containing a high percage of potassium, as this encourages satisfactory root developm, whose benefits as mioned, will be visible in the spring and help in cting a lawn that is hardier to pests, dise and drought.

The iest method of feeding is to use a slow rele fertilizer. In the fall, the percages of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, expred from left to right on the package as N-P-K, should be low in nitrogen and phosphorous, (N and P respectively) but high in Potassium (K). Alnatively, one can use an organic fertilizer, although bulky organic mat, such as compost, while ial for the rest of the garden, is l desirable for lawn care, as it is difficult to spd evenly, and is liable to exacerb the thh problem.

Dethhing Lawns

Removing the thh that has built up through the summer is one of the most important tasks in lawn care and ttm, particularly with many of the species used in hot, dry, summer clims such as Bermuda, Zoysia, and Kikuyu varieties. While many home gardeners are aware that dethhing is ial in the spring, l know that it is desirable in the autumn too, as it significantly improves the r at which rainwa percols through the soil. It needs to be carried out far l aggrively than in the spring, and only on those species that reco from the ttm. Gt care must be exercised with grasses like Buffalo, or St.Augustine, which can be irreparably damaged by o-zealous dethhing.

O Seeding Lawns

An excell way of greening up a perennial lawn that becomes dormant in the is to o seed with a variety that grows well in the , only to fade away through the summer. For this purpose, dethhing the lawn prior to spding the seeds, gtly aids in incsing the germination r, which helps the lawn look a lot fuller and greener through the .