What should I do to my lawn in spring?

Spring lawn advice is mostly a list of everything that can be done to a lawn, presented as things that should be. In practice the lawn is doing the work — it wants to grow — and your job is to stop getting in the way, then add nitrogen once the soil is warm enough for it to be used rather than washed away.

What you'll need

• A lawn rake
• A mower with a sharp blade
• Spring lawn feed (optional)
• Grass seed for patches (optional)

Step by step

1. Wait for the ground to firm up.Walking a saturated lawn in February compacts it, and compaction is the root of most lawn problems. If your boots leave impressions, stay off it.
2. Rake off the winter litter.Leaves, twigs and worm casts smothering the sward. A light rake, not a scarify — you are clearing the surface, not stripping it.
3. Brush worm casts when they are dry.Casts are a sign of a healthy soil, so leave the worms alone. Brushed dry they scatter harmlessly; flattened wet by a mower they make bare mud patches that weeds germinate in.
4. Sharpen the mower blade before the first cut.A blunt blade tears the leaf and leaves a whitish haze that browns and lets in disease. This is the cheapest single improvement most lawns get.
5. Make the first cut high, once growth has started.Grass starts growing when soil temperatures reach roughly 6C, which in most of the UK is somewhere in March, later in the north and on heavy ground. The first cut should just top the lawn, not reduce it.
6. Work down to the summer height over several cuts.Never more than a third of the leaf in one cut. Coming down from winter length to 30mm in one pass is the classic April scalping that starts a year of moss.
7. Feed in mid to late spring, not early.Nitrogen applied to cold soil in February is largely wasted and can be washed into drains and watercourses. Wait until the grass is visibly growing and rain is forecast within a few days, so the feed washes in rather than scorching.
8. Spot-treat weeds when they are growing strongly.Selective lawn weedkillers work through the leaf and need active growth, so late April to June is the window. Spot-treat rather than blanket-treating a whole lawn for a few dandelions, and keep pets and children off until dry — the label carries the conditions and it governs.
9. Patch the bare areas.Rake the patch, loosen the surface, add a little loam, sow, firm and keep damp. Mid-spring soil is warm enough and there is usually rain.
10. Leave the heavy work for September.Scarifying, hollow-tining and full overseeding all work better in early autumn. Doing them in spring thins the lawn just before the months when it will be walked on and rained on least.

Tips

• The first cut of the year is a topping, not a haircut. Set the mower at its highest and take the seed heads and winter growth off.
• Do not roll a lawn in spring. It compacts the high spots and leaves the hollows exactly where they were.
• If the lawn is soaking in March every year, the spring job that matters is drainage, not feeding.

Common mistakes

• Scalping the lawn in the first cut of the year — It removes the leaf the grass needs to power its own spring growth, and it opens the sward to moss and weed just as their seed is germinating.
• Feeding in February because the box says early spring — Cold soil means the grass cannot use the nitrogen, so it leaches. Wait for growth and for a forecast of rain.
• Applying weed-and-feed to a whole lawn out of habit — It puts herbicide across the whole area to deal with weeds that occupy a fraction of it, and it is one of the commonest ways pets and pollinators get exposed to lawn chemicals unnecessarily.

If it doesn't work

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