Four steps to the perfect green space
1. Mower march: First mow the lawn as short as possible and collect the clippings.
2. Get busy without moss: The thatch needs to come out. This requires a scarifier. If you don't have one, you can rent one from garden centers; if the lawn isn't too large, you can even use a hand-held scarifier. Scarify from two directions, one after the other; preferably in a crisscross pattern. This will create enough scarification in the turf to release the moss.
3. Don't leave anything lying around: The third step is to thoroughly remove the mounds of moss with a tightly spaced rake to ensure nothing is left behind. It's astonishing how much moss accumulates during scarification. Moss is easy to compost; it loses volume quickly.
4. Load the fertilizer spreader: Now the lawn has some breathing room, all it needs is a few new nutrients to get the grass blades growing. Fill the spreader with a slow-release lawn fertilizer: not directly on the lawn, but on a firm surface from which you can sweep up any fertilizer that trickles out. Then adjust the fertilizer spreader according to the manufacturer's instructions and off you go. Overlap your spreads slightly (so that fertilizer reaches the area where the wheels roll) and spread at the same speed, if possible. This will ensure the fertilizer is evenly distributed over the entire area.
TEXT: Martina Raabe
