💚 Autumn Lawn Care Megathread & ask Lawn Solutions Australia anything! 💚

[u/MrsKittenHeel]

Hello Aussie gardeners!

We hope you are enjoying the shift to cooler weather.

For this season's lawns mega thread, Lawn Solutions Australia u/LawnSolutionsAU have kindly offered to help with diagnosing lawn issues or answering any questions. Lawn Solutions are a national network of turf growers with experts in Aussie climates.

They are new to reddit and have started a dedicated lawn subreddit. Give r/lawnsolutionsaus a join.

And check out their YouTube Lawn Solutions Australia - YouTube for great advice and a few familiar faces, e.g.

• Talking Turf with Charlie Albone (Selling Houses Australia & Better Homes and Gardens)
• Talking Turf with Jason Hodges and Joe Rogers - YouTube (Better Homes and Gardens & Buxus Balls of Berry)

They'll be around in the comments, but to summon them with a notification, please start your message with: Hi u/LawnSolutionsAU

^{As usual, we will be redirecting the grass and lawn automod to this thread.}

[u/TheBoyInTheBlueBox]

Hi u/LawnSolutionsAU any tips for getting my lawn ready for winter?

I have Sir Walter in Melbourne.

My lawn gets torn up by my dog running around during winter and it takes most of the spring/summer to come back. I would like to give it a fighting chance.

[u/LawnSolutionsAu → u/TheBoyInTheBlueBox]

Key thing you can do is send your lawn into winter as healthy as possible. So before temps drop off too much you want to have nice thick coverage through regular mowing and watering if required. Autumn is then time to prepare it, aerate if compaction has developed to your soil, a mid autumn fertilise with a slow release granular and just gently raise the mowing height a notch as its slowing down. Any warm season grass is going to be somewhat defenseless to an active pet in winter, but if you do some aeration throughout winter and keep the height of the lawn a bit higher you can help it along. Also important to remember that a brownish dormant lawn is normal and loss of colour is to be expected. I would also recommend taking a look at a pre emergent herbicide application in autumn to try and prevent some winter weed emergence, particularly winter grass. During winter fertilising isnt really necessary, but if you do, a liquid foliar product is preferred so its absorbed into the leaf quickly. We have a couple of different liquid products, Exceed can be ideal for a boost or something with iron can help provide a bit of colour.