Palmers Guide to Laying Successful Lawns

A well cared for garden will look its best with a healthy lawn. This guide provides some key points which will assist you in developing and maintaining a quality lawn with an easy care programme.

WHEN TO PLANT
Spring (August to November) and autumn (March to May) are ideal sowing seasons. In the warmer northern areas of New Zealand, lawn seed can be sown all year round, although germination will be slower during the winter months. Allow 3-7 days during the warmer summer months and 10-20 days during the cooler months.

PREPARATION
Preparation is the key to success.

1. Remove existing grasses and weeds by spraying with Round Up. Do not rotary hoe or dig weeds under, as many will re-appear.

2. Remove all dead vegetative matter and rake out any rubbish and rocks.

3. Work up the soil to a depth of about 8cm using a rotary hoe or garden fork until the soil is a fine bed. A load of sterilised top soil will help you with this. Remove any clods or lumps.

4. Apply a pre seeding dressing of Butlers Lawn Fertiliser.

5. Level and compact lightly, making the surfaces as even as you can to avoid "humps" and "hollows". If the soil has become very soft, it may be advantageous to compact by heeling systematically across the area to be sown.

6. Rake the top 15-20mm just prior to sowing to form a seed bed.

SELECTING THE SEED
Butlers range of lawn seed allows you to select the seed type which would be most suitable to your conditions. All Butlers lawn seed is growth coated with bird repellent as well as a fertiliser based coating.

Superfine: For ornamental lawns of the highest quality. A premium blend of fine fescue and browntop, to create a beautiful green carpet.

Premium: For low maintenance lawns. A hard wearing quality lawn seed to produce lawn that requires less mowing and maintenance.

Hardwearing: For establishing economy lawns. Tough and easy to grow, this mixture gives you a hard wearing lawn that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

SOWING
Before sowing, the soil should have settled down so that when it's walked over, it doesn't leave deep footprints.

1. Apply the seed as evenly as possible over the area at 30g per square metre. Split seeds in half, first sow east to west and then north to south. Rake lightly into the soil surface.

Keep a little seed in reserve for over-sowing patches you may have missed the first time.

2. Firm down the surface by rolling with a medium roller to ensure good soil and seed contact. This helps germination.

WATERING
Once the seeding process is completed, give the area a good watering, ensuring the soil is saturated. This is important to start the seed germination process.

Keep the lawn moist with daily watering, mornings and evenings. Never let it dry out as the grass seed will die.

When lawn is showing clearly, water daily then reduce watering to a soaking once a week (or twice a week in summer months) after the third or fourth mow.

MOWING
The first mowing should not be until the new seedlings have reached the two leaf stage (30mm) and then only mow off the top 1/3 of the young grass's length.

The height of the cut should be 20mm. This encourages root growth. This cut height should be maintained for the first three months.

As the lawn matures, ensure mowing is not lower than 20mm on successive cuts.

FERTILISER
After the pre-seeding fertiliser, the next fertiliser application should be at the two leaf stage and after the first mowing.

Apply a light application of Butlers Lawn Fertiliser and repeat every four to five weeks.

WEED, MOSS, DISEASE & PEST CONTROL
Do not spray for weeds in the first two months. While some weeds will appear after sowing, these can be easily controlled by hand weeding. Do not use Lawn Weed Spray or Yates Turfix at full strength until the lawn is 6 months old.

In a new lawn, moss can generally be kept out by keeping the lawn healthy.

Damage can occur to newly sown lawns through insects. To control springtails, porina, stem weevil and greasy cutworm, apply Yates soil insect killer one week after the grass seed begins to germinate. Reapply five to six weeks later.