Lawn Renovation Guide

Looking to renovate your lawn this spring? Follow our 7 step guide to get the best tips and tricks for the ultimate lawn renovation!

1. Weed Removal
2. Soil Test
3. Dethatching
4. Aerating
5. Fertilising
6. Top dressing
7. Watering for recovery

It is important to remember, not every lawn will need to complete each one of these renovation steps.

1. Weed Removal

With a rise in temperatures and plant growth, comes with lots of newly germinating weeds appearing in your lawn.

You can always remove weeds by hand or with a weeding tool to remove the entire root system. Any flat or broad leaf weeds can be mown over. A healthy lawn care regime also choke most weed types.

We have a weed identification and control blog post if you need further information.

However, if you have a large amount of weeds, you might have to consider spraying a selective herbicide to control them. Check out our lawn store for our selection of herbicides.

2. Soil Test

Testing the soil is important as an incorrect PH leads to overall poor performance. Soil PH kits can be found on the Lawn Solutions Australia Lawn Store. 6.5 – 7.4 is the optimum PH for your soil. If its higher, use sulphate of ammonia. If its lower, a  50:50 mix of lime or dolomite lime will help to raise it, while adding calcium and magnesium, which are often leached from acidic soils.

3. Dethatching

Dethatching will help air and nutrients reach the soil base of your lawn and help reduced the likelihood of fungal issues.

Dethatching methods include gradually lowering mower height to scalp lawn back, use a dethatch rake or hire a dethatching machine.

For Sir Walter DNA Certified lawns, mow low but not all the way to the soil as it grows from its stolons above the ground.

4. Aerating

How do you know if you should aerate? Grab a screw driver and push it down into your soil approximately 100mm depth. If there is a large amount of resistance, it likely your soil is compacted and is in need of some aeration. Just think if, a screw driver with force struggles to penetrate your soil, imagine the trouble all nutrients is having!

Smaller areas can be aerated with a garden fork or spike sandals, while larger areas Turfco offers lawn aeration services with a specialised spike aeration machine. Contact us to find out more.

5. Fertilising

With all lawn renovations, it is recommended to apply fertiliser to help boost the turf’s growth while the lawn is being repaired.
We recommend using a granular fertiliser, something like our Lawn Solutions Premium Fertiliser is ideal.
Remember, Always thoroughly water your area immediately after application!

6. Top Dressing

Wondering how to top dress your lawn? Once you’ve fertilised and aerated, your lawn is ready for the top dress. When carrying out the top dressing you will only need a few simple tools; Wheelbarrow, shovel, steel rake, level rake and a soft plastic rake.
We recommend getting the washed river sand or top dress mix delivered the day you are top dressing. This way you will minimise mess and soil loss. Start by loading the soil into a wheelbarrow and tipping small piles no taller than a work boot over the yard.
The piles of soil can then be spread around using an upside-down steel rake (so the rake spikes are pointing upwards) which will roughly spread the piles over the lawn. Once the piles have been lessened you can grab your level rake and start pushing the soil evenly into the turf profile but be sure not to smother the leaf.

When topdressing a lawn, never use more than 10-12mm of top dress per application and ensure leaf tips are showing so they can still absorb sunlight. If you have difficult edges or paths you can use the soft plastic rake the rake soil along edges so all of the lawn gets even coverage.
Depending on your grass variety, you should see results between 3/4 weeks.

7.  Watering for recovery

Spring is the time of year that only requires minimal top-up watering applications; other than natural rainfall (depending on your turf variety, soil and location).
You can increase water applications if it’s especially dry over coming weeks, but a minimalist approach will often be rewarded with a healthier lawn, with stronger, deeper roots.
A deep soaking once a week will train the roots to grow deeper into the soil, which will improve your lawn’s drought tolerance.

If you’re looking for a convenient lawn maintenance guide all year ’round, make sure to download the Turfco Lawn Care Calendar from our website!