Australian Lawn Care Calendar by Season and Month

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Lawn Care Tips to Make the Best of Local, Seasonal Changes

Everyone’s got to have a passion, and it’s no secret just how much we love turf. Since you’re the kind of person looking for year-round lawn maintenance advice, we’ll bet you’re something of a green-thumb yourself. Well, we’ve mustered all of our experience and knowledge to create a comprehensive Australian lawn care calendar.

In our definitive lawn care calendar, we’ll teach you how to monitor your lawn’s condition through all four seasons and all twelve months of the year.

Don’t worry — we’re not going to overwhelm you with information. By breaking our tips up by month, you’ve only got a few small things to do each month. Our tips are easy to understand and designed to remind you of the most important thing: all you need for a healthy lawn is a little effort, spent consistently.

Let’s get to it.

Spring Lawn Care

In Spring, your grass is rearing to grow; your job is to give it everything it needs to flourish. If you’re wondering when is the best time to weed and feed your lawn in Australia, Spring is your answer. By the way, it’s also the best season to lay turf. 

Spring is the perfect time to check on the state of your soil. Kids and pets running around in the backyard or athletes sprinting across the oval can compact the soil, making it hard for grass roots to grow. You can aerate your grass with a rolling spike aerator, spiked aerator shoes or a good old-fashioned rake. Jab evenly spaced holes across your lawn area, then add a little lime and gypsum to keep the soil loose. 

On the other hand, if you have sandy soil that’s too loose and doesn’t hold water, you can apply a wetting agent to improve it.

Handy tip: you want the grass roots to dig down as deep as possible. You can encourage them by thoroughly watering your lawn once or twice a week. This will also prepare them for the summer days ahead.

September

• Ensure your soil’s pH is around 6.5. You can treat high-pH soil with ammonium sulphate and low-pH with dolomite lime
• Fertilise the lawn to replenish any missing nutrients 
• Use pre-emergent herbicides to prevent the growth of weeds

October

• Use weed control as necessary
• Aerate the soil to allow the turf roots to grow

November

• Loosen the soil to allow moisture to drain and nutrients to spread

Summer Lawn Care

With the summer sunshine and the care it received in spring, your lawn will be growing thick and luscious in summer. In this season, your job is to maintain it so that it can grow freely.

Summer is the best time to fertilise your lawn. Spring’s rains may have leached your soil’s nutrients away, so fertilising the soil will give your grass the goods it needs to thrive. We recommend you spread a premium lawn fertiliser across your garden and then give it a good watering to ensure it spreads evenly throughout the soil.

The more your grass grows, the more bugs and pests flock to it. Lawn grubs are a pain, creating dead, bare patches in your grass, eating your fruits and flowers, and irritating your kids and pets. You’ll need a powerful lawn grub insecticide that’s still safe enough for your lawn and loved ones.

Mow your lawn regularly in summer, as the sun will help it grow much faster. As a rule of thumb, you should only mow off 1/3rd of the height of a blade of grass at a time; do this to avoid stressing the lawn and killing it.

Handy tip: most weeds tend to surface during summer. If you’ve got broadleaf weeds coming in, it’s best to get rid of them by hand. You can easily identify them as tufts of fat leaves poking through your lawn. Simply dig them out with a trowel and throw them in your garden waste bin.

December

• Fertilise your lawn
• If it’s a hot summer with little rain, thoroughly water your lawn to keep it from drying out
• Mow regularly, but ensure you never cut off more than a third of the leaf.

January

• Continue to water your lawn as needed
• If necessary, add a wetting agent to help your soil retain moisture

February

• Use pest control as necessary
• Use pre-emergent herbicides to prevent the growth of weeds

Autumn Lawn Care

As the soil starts to cool during the autumn months, your grass will slow its growth. During this season, your job is to prepare your lawn for the cooler months of winter and ensure it’s got all the nutrients it needs to survive.

As with spring and summer, autumn is an excellent time to fertilise and aerate your lawn. Doing so will ensure the turf’s roots can grow deep and strong.

Handy tip: If you’ve ever had winter weeds before, you know how irritating they can be to get rid of. Fortunately, by adding a pre-emergent weed killer during the latter autumn months, you might be able to head off the problem before it begins. 

March

• Use pre-emergent herbicides to prevent the growth of weeds

April

• Aerate your lawn; then
• Fertilise your lawn
• If your lawn’s colour is fading, use ColourGuard Plus to keep it vibrant

May

• Keeping using ColourGuard Plus as needed

Winter Lawn Care

In winter, your job is simple — kill weeds. As your grass thins in the cold, winter weeds will rush in to take advantage.

Winter grass is a common problem in gardens across Australia. You’ll notice its tufted heads sprouting from your grass. It’ll likely be a different shade of green, too, so it shouldn’t be too hard to spot. Winter grass is notoriously prolific and spreads quickly, so you’ll need to address the issue as soon as you notice it.

The best way to prevent winter weeds is to fertilise your lawn in autumn. But if they still arise, we recommend a strong post-emergence herbicide. 

June

• Use weed control products as needed
• Keeping using ColourGuard Plus as needed
• Mow once a month, as your grass will not grow as quickly in the cold

July

• Keep pests in check with our range of pesticides

August

• Keeping using ColourGuard Plus as needed
• Keep pests in check with our range of pesticides

We hope you’ve learned a thing or two about how to keep your grass in good form throughout the year. In the meantime, have a look through our lawn care shop for anything you might need to keep your grass green and happy.