Keep the lawn looking good

Remove dead material and keep the soil healthy

- Ruth Hayes

IF there's one area of the garden that is almost inevitably going to suffer in winter, it is the lawn. Even if you lavish care and attention on your lawn all year, there is every chance it will pose problems in winter.

Compacted soil, waterlogging, diseases, worm casts - these will all impact on its looks and its health.

To make matters worse, even walking on a lawn to carry out repairs can damage it further, so I try to do any repair works in early autumn and leave the lawn alone as much as possible in winter.

I start by scarifying with a rake to remove 'thatch', the dead moss and grass around the base of the grass, then aerate compacted areas of soil by pronging it deeply with a garden fork.

This will improve air flow and drainage, and reduce the risk of fungal diseases such as red thread, fairy rings and fusarium patch that spring up in soggy, poorly ventilated lawns.

Other problems include leather jackets and chafer grubs that eat grass roots, causing dead patches in the lawn. These can be tackled with nematodes - microscopic parasites that target the pests - which are widely available in garden centres and online.