Your lawn may of taken a bit of a beating over the summer. So put the love back this autumn which will give it time to take effect before temperatures fall and growth stops.

Scarify

Scarifying or raking will remove old grass, moss and other debris that has built up and can hinder water and fertiliser penetrating.

For larger areas you can add an attachment to your mower to do this. If you suffer from a lot of moss in your lawn use a moss killer to kill it off beforehand which will take around two weeks then you can collect up the dead debris when you scarify.

Aerate

Some areas of the lawn that are heavily used can get compacted, aerating by pushing a fork in the ground as far as you can and wiggling it back and forward will allow air and water to the roots which will help the lawn manage better when there are extreme conditions.

For larger lawns a motorised aerating machine or hollow tiner is available to hire.

Top Dressing

Brush a sandy top dressing across the surface of the lawn to fill up the holes you have made you can buy these ready mixed from garden centres or you can make up a mix yourself of three parts sandy loam, six parts sharp sand and one part compost, work it in the holes with the back of a rake.

Repair

If you have any bare patches that need reseeding, loosen the bare soil with a fork, sprinkle over some seed, top with a thin layer of compost, water well and keep the birds off by loosely covering with fleece.

Feed

To finish off, feed with an autumn lawn fertiliser, which are high in potash and phosphates and will help roots to develop and produce healthy leaves.

Don’t be tempted to use a spring fertiliser and these contain high levels of nitrogen, which encourages sappy soft leaf growth, which could be damaged by frost.

The Quick Fix

If time is of the essence or you don’t feel your lawn is too bad you can just apply an autumn fertiliser this year and perhaps give it the full treatment next year.

30 minutes to spare . . .

Sow a few packs of hardy annuals now, such as poppies, scabious and English marigold and you will benefit from flowers up to six weeks earlier than those sown in the spring.

If you sow a pack of viola now they will be flowering about eight weeks from sowing and will keep going all through the winter.

Wallflowers need to put their roots down well before flowering, so need to be planted as soon as possible.