Lawn Care Guide – January

Simple steps to super lawns

If there is a mild spell in January you can lay new turf and make repairs to lawn edges. Consider laying stepping stones across areas that have suffered from constant wear, with walking to the shed or greenhouse for example.

Water logging can be alleviated by spiking and aerating, either using your garden tractor accessories for large areas or a garden fork. Fill holes with a sharp sand and loam mixture, brushing this in and clearing any worm casts at the same time. Remove mole hills – the soil can go on the compost heap.

Q. We have a lot of brown patches on the lawn which started after snow cleared and we had a mild spell. The grass went yellow at first then seemed to die back to brown. What can we do?


A. This could be Fusarium Patch which is also known as snow mould. It is caused by a fungus and can be difficult to control. It attacks all types of grass, meadow grass, fescues, perennial rye and bents (Agrostis species). To control this without using chemicals you can improve aeration by scarifying, spiking and hollow or solid tining.

Prune back any shrubs or trees overhanging the lawn. If you want to use a fungicide there is a Bayer product for controlling garden lawn disease which can be used with other preventative methods.