GUIDE
Lawn basics
4 steps
How to do it
- 1Mow regularly through the growing season, removing no more than a third of the grass height at once.
- 2Raise the mower blades in summer drought and for the first and last cuts of the season.
- 3Feed in spring with a high-nitrogen feed for growth, and optionally in autumn with a high-potassium feed for winter resilience.
- 4Scarify and aerate in autumn if moss or compaction is a problem, then overseed bare patches.
COMMON MISTAKE
Cutting the grass too short ('scalping'), which stresses the lawn and lets moss and weeds move into the weakened turf.