Rights and responsibilities: Your garden When you signed your tenancy agreement you made a promise to look after your garden and any lawn you may have. Legally we are not responsible for maintaining your garden, although we are always on hand to give you advice on how best for you to do it. By following the tips on how to look after your lawn and garden, we hope you can have a garden to enjoy and be proud of. • Spiking – with a garden fork can improve the drainage and helps roots to grow • Raking – Moss and dead grass can be raked away and allow light, water and nutrients to reach the roots of the lawn. Think about using a moss killer to work alongside your raking. • Watering – It’s perfectly normal for your lawn to have some brown patches after a dry spell. Unless it’s a new lawn, it will soon be back green with a little rain. If you are going to water your lawn, do it either early morning or late evening to stop the grass scorching. • Try not to waste water – most lawns can survive dry summers without any problems, but make sure you are careful with the water you use if you are using it on your lawn. Water butts are handy to catch rain water and can be used on your lawns. • Feeding your lawn – fertiliser is important to keep your lawns green, aim to feed once in spring and once in autumn. To help kill weeds, consider using a combined fertiliser/ weed killer feed. • Mowing and edging – be sure to change your mowing pattern from time to time to not compact certain parts of the lawn too much. While edging can be tricky, edging shears or a power trimmer are really helpful in trimming the edges of your lawn.
March Repair edges, roll the turf and apply moss killer if the ground isn’t frozen or waterlogged. Start mowing as soon as the grass begins to grow. April/May You can put down more seed in bare patches, apply fertiliser and weed killer during this time. June/July/August Keep mowing regularly and raise the mover blades in dry weather. Don’t feed your lawn or apply weed killer in dry conditions, as this will burn the grass. September/October This is a time to prepare your lawn for winter; spike the lawn
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