The weather and our gardens start winding down for autumn, and the days are becoming gradually shorter. During this time, our lawns benefit from some extra TLC to recover from summer and prepare for the autumn and winter months. Find out what steps you can take now to protect your lawn during autumn and winter.

Tidy up the lawn

A familiar hallmark of autumn is enjoying the warming colours of leaves as they flutter down from trees and shrubs. Eventually, you may find you have a substantial number of leaves building up on your lawn.

Raking up the leaves and removing them from your lawn can be an essential process for the health of the grass. Leaving it there, either scattered or in piles, inhibits how much sunlight can reach the lawn. It also smothers its access to air, which, after a while, may lead to yellowing of the grass leaves and dead patches.

There are a few benefits to the wider garden for doing this. You could collect up your leaves in a bin liner with pierced holes, or hessian sacks, and leave them somewhere discreet in the garden. Leave them for up to two years, then you can apply them to the garden as a composted leaf mulch and soil improver. Alternatively, you may choose to pile your leaves up somewhere else in the garden as a cosy habitat for beneficial garden visitors, like hedgehogs.

Now is also a great time to give your lawn edges a spruce-up. Having nice, crisp lawn edges gives your garden a fully finished look and helps your garden borders to stand out proudly. The AMES Tools Carbon Steel Lawn Edger is designed to help you produce a clean, straight edge, for a professional appearance. The long wooden shaft, ergonomic handle, and step all work together to help you slice through the earth with little effort and full comfort.

How and why to scarify your lawn

Another great way to support the lawn through the cooler, wetter months, is to scarify it. This removes ‘thatch’ from the lawn, which is a build-up of grass clippings, moss, and other organic debris. The reason this helps the lawn is it competes less with other plants like moss and allows moisture to more easily reach the soil.

The best tool to use is a spring-tined rake, as it effectively removes the thatch without uprooting the grass.

And Ames Tools’ Carbon Steel Wire Leaf Rake has 16 high-quality tines that are tempered to resist the impact of being dragged through the lawn, making it ideal for tasks like scarifying.

Plus, the long handle reduces the strain on your back and allows you to do longer stretches of the lawn in each pass.

Don’t be concerned if your lawn looks slightly patchy and rough once you’ve finished, this is normal. By the winter, it should have fully recovered and will grow back stronger the following spring.

How and why to aerate your lawn

During the summer months, lawns get much more use as we enjoy the summer sunshine in the great outdoors. This is to be expected, but the additional heavy use can lead to the lawn becoming compacted and dense. Therefore, a great practice to get into in autumn is to aerate the lawn every couple of years. Not only does this help grass growth, but it also helps with surface drainage, adds air to the soil, reduces compaction, and allows water to reach much deeper. This prunes the roots, aiding the growth and overall health of the lawn.

One of the best tools you can use for this is AMES Tools Stainless Steel Lawn Aerator. The high-quality stainless steel means it can pierce through your lawn effortlessly and without the risk of warping.

The four evenly spaced, hollow tines remove small plugs of soil across nearly a foot in width, allowing water and air into the space to improve the health of your lawn.

These hollow-tined aerators are particularly helpful for clay or waterlogged soil, allowing more air and moisture in where it is needed. You could either leave these holes empty or fill them with grit or sand to aid drainage.

Taking a few extra steps during autumn to prepare your lawn for winter will ensure a more luscious and healthy space for the next spring. And by using AMES’ lawncare tools, the task will be a much easier and more comfortable experience.