How To Look After New Roll On Lawns

How To Care For New Roll On Lawn

Special care practices need to be applied to all new roll-on lawns in order that they successfully establish themselves by setting down new roots into the soil and begin successfully and continuing to grow on their own in their new environments.

There are several lawn care routines we must follow with these new lawns, some are mandatory, while others are dependant on environmental conditions at the individual location where the new lawn was planted.

Watering New Roll On Lawns

Watering new lawns is the first and most important factor in new lawns care. New lawns and especially the area directly underneath the new turf and between the soil - must never dry out.

Watering should be adjusted to specific environmental conditions at the time of year to achieve this. This may mean watering 4 times a day in the heat of Summer, while moderate weather may require 2 waterings a day, and mild weather only requiring the new roll-on lawn to be watered once per day. This frequent watering will need to continue until the lawn begins to set down new roots.

As the lawn progressively becomes more established by sending it's roots down into the soil, then watering can slowly be reduced over the next few weeks. By first halving the water for another week, and then continuing to reduce water over the weeks following - eventually reaching a regular watering pattern.

Fertilising New Roll On Lawns

New roll-on lawns should not need fertilising in their first two months. This is because the turf should arrive from the farm with fertiliser already applied to it, this fertiliser is perfectly blended for new lawns, and there is no need to supplement it, doing so may cause damage to the new lawn.

Prior to laying the new roll-on lawn, the soil should have also been prepared with applications of Wetting Agents, as well as an organic fertiliser such as Blood and Bone, Dynamic Lifter or other processed and aged manure based products - never use fresh manure products under any lawns!

The first application of chemical fertiliser should be at half normal manufacturers recommendations, or a New Lawn Fertiliser purchased and applied at manufacturers recommendations. Follow up fertilising can be returned to normal ratios at the next lawn fertilising schedule which should be two months later again.

Lawn Mowing New Roll On Lawns

Lawn mowing should begin when the new roll on lawn has established it's roots into the soil, this is easily checked by grading the leaf of the roll-on lawn and attempting to pull up on it - if it doesn't move - it's time to mow!

Keep all early lawn mowing as high as possible for new roll-on lawn. We just want to keep the lawn tidy and encouraging more green leaf growth. Once the lawn is fully established - we can then begin reducing the lawn mowing height gradually, reducing cutting heights over several services until the desired height is achieved.

Wetting Agents

Wetting Agents are a supplemental product. While it is a good idea to apply them to the soil prior to laying a new lawn in all cases, it is most important to apply them to soils which are naturally water resistant, or hold onto water very poorly.

For poor water absorbing soils, an application of Wetting Agents should not only be directly applied to the soil, but also on top of the new roll-on lawn after installation. Wetting Agents should also be applied at the time of the first application of fertiliser - two months after the new lawn installation.