Aerating This is a must-do Autumn activity, particularly if you have compacted or heavy soil. Aerating helps de-compact the soil and allows water and air to move down into the profile. And it’s easy - drive a fork halfway down into the ground and wiggle it, remove, repeat across the lawn. If you have a large area, it can pay to hire a coring machine or aerator. This is best done once every 12months
Mowing Autumn is the time to get this right - cool season grasses like tall fescue, rye and bluegrass can be mown shorter to let the sun & warmth into the thatch, especially in shaded areas. For warm season grasses that grow with runners, it’s best not to cut too close during cooler months. This higher mowing level will protect the plant to some degree from frost and will help the turf bounce back in spring.
Top Dressing Any well-worn patches can be top-dressed now – give the area a good fork over initially, and top dress using a fine top soil, lightly raked in and levelled across the area. A little bit of fertiliser can be added as well.
Weeding As Neale explains - “One year’s seed is seven years weed”. Weeds can out compete turf grass over the cooler months, so it is always best to hand remove any weeds when they appearand use a catcher on the mower to catch any weed seeds. Watering and fertilising lawns well throughout the year can reduce the numbers of weeds in lawn areas.
Watering Giving your grass a good, deep watering once or twice a week during Autumn will help it stay green as it heads into winter. Check the moisture of the soil using the “screwdriver” test – push a screwdriver into the soil, and if it won’t go easily past three or four inches, you need to up the irrigation.
Feeding This is a great thing to do in Autumn, especially if you have a warm season grass like Couch, Kikuyu and Buffalo that will go dormant over winter. A gentle feed with some pelletised poultry manure or cow manure is perfect. It’s also a good idea to sweeten the soil if its acid with some dolomite or lime; about a handful per square metre is normally about right, more on very acid soils maybe needed.
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