TURF - AFTERCARE

Once you have laid your new turf, you will want to ensure that you are looking after it correctly. If you don’t get this aftercare correct, you could quite easily end up spending a lot of money for a dead lawn! The amount of effort required to care for your turf shall reduce over time, so stick with it. 

0-2 Weeks

The first 2 weeks are the most important in getting a lawn that is healthy and going to survive, so make sure you follow these steps closely. 

Watering

Water your lawn heavily for the first 2 weeks. The roots will not have grown into the soil and will not be able to set the water that they need, so you need to supplement this. You should be watering it daily as a minimum (unless it has rained) and maybe even twice per day in the summer. This is the main reason as to why it is generally accepted that you should lay turf outside of the summer months. 

Patching

Once the turf has been laid, you will notice patches which need filling in. These may be bits that you have missed or could be due to the turf contracting and opening up gaps between each roll. You can keep some turf spare to do your patching, or use either some top soil or lawn dressing and seed to do this. 

Brush the Turf

The turf will have been trampled on, compressed and flattened both when it was rolled up and during the laying of the new turf, so you need to give it a helping hand. To do this, take a normal long-handled garden brush and give the new turf a brush. What you are looking to do is stand the grass up so that it will all get its fair share of sunlight.

This isn’t a necessity so do not worry too much if you don’t do this step, but it will help the turf to thrive. 

2-4 Weeks

Watering

The roots should be starting to take after 2 weeks and you shouldn’t need to water as much by now. For weeks 2 to 4, you should be fine with watering every 2-3 days, however increase this if the weather is particularly warm. 

Check if the Roots have Taken

Around 2 weeks, take a look to see if the roots are taking. To do this, take the edge of a roll of turf and gently try to lift it. If the roots are taking, then you should feel resistance and shouldn’t be able to lift the turf. When you feel that the turf is starting to take root, then you will be ready to mow it

The First Cut

Only look to do your first cut once the roots are starting to take (roughly 2-3 weeks) otherwise you could very easily make a mess of the new turf. Even so, you will need to be very gentle when doing the first cut, so avoid putting too much pressure on the lawn and be careful with any actions that may move the turf, such as spinning of lawn mower wheels or when turning your lawn mower. 

With our first cut, you only want to take off a very small amount of the height of the grass and you’re best to start with the highest setting on your mower. Normally, you would be aiming to take off ⅓ of the height of the grass, but you only want to take off ¼ with a new lawn. This rule should be maintained for the first 3 months. 

3 months

Once your new turf has been laid for 3 months, you will then have a lawn which is relatively well-established and you shall be able to start with a regular lawn maintenance program. So you shall be able to:

• Apply fertiliser
• Cut to a normal height (⅓ of the height of the grass)
• Lower frequency of watering

The only exception to this is any treatments which are more aggressive, such as raking, scarifying or aeration, which should be avoided until 6 months. 

6 months

Your turf should now be completely fine to carry out a full lawn maintenance program, so this will include:

• Raking
• Scarifying
• Aeration
• Weed Control

Aeration

• Aeration is a really key part of maintaining a new lawn, so it is recommended that you carry this out at the 6 months mark. When you lay turf, you are essentially laying a blanket over the soil. So by aerating the new turf, you are opening up the turf which allows water and air to reach the roots in the soil. For guidance on how to aerate, check out the guidance here.