How to make grass green

Feeding your grass to make it green

One of the easiest and fastest ways to make your grass green is by feeding it. A sign that your lawn needs to be fed is pale grass, or an uneven colour with some areas being extremely green – and others not so much. Nitrogen is one of the key elements that makes your grass green, so when this nutrient is lacking in your lawn - it shows! Depending how fast or how long you want the greeness in your lawn to last, there are a couple of feeding options on the table.

Short-term feeding for green grass

Quick release fertilisers work by doing just what they say on the tin, or in our case, the bag or bottle! They get to work fast on your lawn but last a shorter amount of time. Our liquid fertiliser Make it Green lasts up to 6 weeks, as does our QUICK RELEASE: Spring / Summer. Both feeds will begin to work in under 1 week and last for 6 weeks. These are nitrogen rich, meaning they will give your lawn a boost of greenness almost instantaneously.

The easiest way to understand just how much nitrogen your lawn is getting is by looking at the NPK of your fertiliser. The N stands for nitrogen. The bigger the number is, in comparison to your ‘P’ (phosphorous) and ‘K’ (potassium) the more you are getting in your product and the larger effect it will have! For example, Make it Green’s NPK is 15.3.3, and QUICK RELEASE: Spring/Summer is 11.5.5. From this we can understand that Make it Green will make your lawn greener, whilst QUICK RELEASE: Spring / Summer provides greenness but will also help your lawn benefit from more of an all-around feed. Make it Green is ideal if you are hosting a bbq or garden party and need a quick turnaround for speedy greenness, whilst QUICK RELEASE: Spring / Summer is an excellent solution to give your lawn a full health kick at the last minute.

Long-term feeding for green grass

Feeding your lawn regularly, and not just when it needs it, will help your lawn stay green all year round. The best way to achieve all year-round colour for your lawn is by feeding it twice a year at a minimum. This means a SLOW RELEASE: Spring / Summer in March, feeding your lawn up to 4 months, and a SLOW RELEASE: Autumn / Winter in August also feeding your lawn for 4 months. This means that for 8 months of the year, your lawn will be steadily fed the nutrients it needs to keep it looking green. For the other 4 months of the year when your lawn isn’t fed you can use a top up quick release treatment like our Make it Green / Make it Grow during spring / summer, or our Make it Strong come autumn / winter.  

Other ways to make your grass green

If we consider that your grass’ healthy green hue is down to how well you are treating it, then there’s a number of other things, aside from feeding,  that you can can do to keep it looking its best. After all, a green lawn is a healthy lawn!

Overseeding

All lawns will fall foul to patchiness and thinning, but it’s not always a bad thing. Typically, this just means you have been too busy enjoying your lawn! Other reasons can be not using the correct grass seed for your lawn, for example if you have a heavy traffic lawn or if you have problematic soils like clay or sandy or , then you should try to use a seed specific to those problems.

Overseeding seasonally – in spring and in autumn, can ensure that your grass stays thick green and luscious with a regular top up of seed to keep it looking fresh. To find out how to overseed your lawn, read more here.

Aerating

Aerating is the practice of putting holes in your lawn – on purpose! These holes help your lawn to breathe a sigh of relief. Lawns can become easily compacted due to heavy use or if you have clay soils. By spiking your lawn, you can help release some of this compaction to allow the free flow of water and nutrients in your soil again. After aerating, you’ll quickly begin to notice your lawns greenness return. For a small size area, you can spike your lawn with a garden fork. For a larger area, use a hollow tine aerator that will create cores. An easy way to understand if your lawn is compacted is to try and rake it. If the soil doesn’t break away easily, this is a good indication that it needs to be aerated.

Scarifying

Scarifying is another way to help your lawn breathe easier. Thatch – a layer of moss, leaves and other debris can build up quickly on your lawn throughout the seasons. This suffocates your healthy grass making it difficult for it to thrive. By raking or scarifying the dead layer of matter from your lawn not only can you see where you may need to fill in some sparse parts, but your lawn will thank you for it! A light scarify is ideal in spring, whilst a heavier scarify is recommended for autumn. Removing all the dead matter from your lawn will not only help it look greener right away, but also in the long run!

Reasons for yellow grass

If you find that your grass is yellow and straw like, this could be a sign that it may not bounce back easily with any of the above suggestions. Grass can become yellow due to dog pee patches, pests like leatherjackets or chafer grubs or underwatering or overwatering. Before trying any treatment, it’s worth finding out what might be causing these issues. If you aren’t sure what it might be, make sure to contact us and speak to one of our friendly lawn experts!