It's officially Spring!

After what feels like a wet Winter, it's exciting to see some warmer weather on the horizon! While this bout of warm weather is right on cue for Spring, what can you do to prepare your lawn for what is likely to be a warmer and dryer Spring and Summer?

Spring is by far the best time of year for lawns – with the combination of warmth and rain, lawns literally jump out of the ground. It’s the season for installing instant turf, sowing seed, fertilising, repairing damage, and renovation works like coring, scarifying and topdressing.

Aside from the tail end of August, this Winter has been wetter than usual. If you have a couch, Kikuyu or buffalo lawn, you may have lost a fair bit of colour brought on by these cold, damp conditions.  As the ambient temperature increases, so too does the soil temperature, which is what triggers the lawn to climb out of Winter dormancy. While I've already seen some improvement in our display lawns, recovery times will usually extend through September into October. 

What should you do now?

For information on what to do now by way of early Spring maintenance, have a look at last week's blog, where I go through in some detail the things that you can do now to help restore colour and get your lawn going for the season. 

Spring Projects

If you're like me, you may have found yourself in the garden last weekend, inspired by the first day in a long time where the ambient temperature crept into the 20s in the metro area. It felt good to be warm and in the sun and inspired me to consider what needs doing this Spring!  This probably won't be news to any serious gardener, however, I'll say it anyway...  now and right throughout Spring is the perfect time to get stuck into a lawn project around your home. The combination of mild warmth and rain are ideal conditions for establishing lawns and make for fast establishment. 

For those of you who are thinking about embarking on a DIY lawn project, you'll no doubt have a lot of questions. This is where we come in, and I can say that we're here to help, no strings attached. If you need help or advice, feel free to give us a call or drop into our store @ Hove, where our staff can help with anything and everything to do with lawns and irrigation.

We'll be able to help you answer questions like:

• How do you prepare your soil?
• Which type of lawn should you install?
• Seed or instant turf?
• How do you plan for and install an irrigation system?

A good place to get started is to bring a sample of your soil down to our store at Hove. It may sound strange, but soil good preparation is one of the most critical steps in installing a new lawn. Having a look at your soil gives us a clear picture of what you have and allows us to give you tailored advice on what you'll need to do. Often people simply dig out their natural soil and replace it with loam, and while this is sometimes required, you might be surprised to know that it isn't always the case. Avoiding dig outs can save you a lot of time and money!

Another way we can help is by making it easy for you to design and install an irrigation system. This can seem daunting for a DIY project, especially if you haven't done it before, and it's why we've created our DIY irrigation planner tool.   This tool will help you gather all the information you'll need for us to design and quote a tailored irrigation system for you. It's a free, no-obligation service that we offer to help you plan for your project. Once completed, we'll be able to provide you with an easy-to-follow irrigation design and a competitive quote for the parts you'll need, plus give you all the backup advice and tips you'll need to get the job done, even if you're a novice. 

These are just a few ways we can help you with your landscape projects this Spring. 

Happy gardening South Australia and welcome to Spring!