As recommended by the Einhell garden expert: Eight steps to a verdant lawn

With the arrival of the first warm and sunny days, the urge to get out there, whip the garden into shape and remove all traces of winter also rises. Anyone making a prompt start and preparing their lawn for healthy growth can look forward to a lush expanse of green after just a few weeks. Michael Gröstenberger, Category Manager at Einhell Germany AG, passes on some valuable tips.

Step 1: Once the last snow has melted away and there’s no longer the danger of a hard frost, it’s time to get going. Use a rake to get rid of leaves and twigs on the surface of the lawn so that your grass is fully exposed to the air and sun again. Be careful, though: You should only exert as much pressure as is required to remove surface moss and dead stalks of grass.

Step 2: If there are places where rainwater tends to collect and not drain away, you should make small holes in the soil here using a garden fork, for instance.

Step 3: Grass will begin to grow as soon as the temperatures regularly exceed eight degrees Celsius. Once the grass is about seven centimeters high and the whole lawn has dried out well, you can mow it for the first time – but don’t cut it too short: You should leave at least four to five centimeters. The first cut in the spring also encourages constant growth.

Step 4: Do not leave the cut grass on the lawn, as you would for mulching later on. This is because the grass cuttings remove nitrogen from the soil for the natural decomposition process. However, that is what the lawn needs in this phase in order to grow. Mulching makes sense later in the year, when the soil is already well fertilized.

Step 5: Once the forsythias start blooming, which is from the beginning of April, it’s time to really get the lawn into shape. This is when you should fertilize your grass for the first time. The important thing is to spread the fertilizer while it is overcast, otherwise it could burn the lawn.

Step 6: Anyone wanting to go into full detail will subject the soil to analysis. Almost all DIY and garden stores have such tests for sale. All there is to say is that the pH value can be determined even with simple tests, allowing you to ascertain whether the soil is too acidic and needs to be treated with lime.

Step 7: Only once the roots of the grass have gradually got thicker do things really get going. That’s when you need to put the lawn mower on its lowest setting and mow the whole area carefully.

Step 8: The scarifier then comes into play. Move the machine first lengthways and then sideways across the lawn so that a fine chessboard pattern begins to emerge. It’s important that the blades do not cut too deeply into the soil, otherwise it will damage the sward, but deep enough to remove moss, thatch and the shallow rooting “meadow grass”. Three millimeters would be a happy medium. Once the excess cuttings have been raked up and disposed of, it's advisable to resow bald patches with fresh grass seed. Heavy, cohesive soil can also be strewn with a thin layer of sand in order to loosen up the soil so that its air balance is improved.

And don’t forget: “For a clean cut that doesn’t fray the grass, the blades of the mower need to be very sharp. It makes sense, then, to sharpen the lawn mower blades at least once a year, either in your own workshop or by the dealer. To check, just look at a few stalks. If you see fraying and uneven cuts, the blades are blunt,” says Einhell garden expert Michael Gröstenberger.

Über die Einhell Germany AG

Einhell ist führender Hersteller hochmoderner Werkzeuge rund um Haus und Garten und feiert im Jahr 2024 sein 60-jähriges Jubiläum. Durch den stetigen Ausbau seiner innovativen Akku-Plattform Power X-Change ist das international erfolgreiche Unternehmen mit Sitz in Landau/Isar (Bayern) Vorreiter im Bereich akkubetriebener Werkzeuge und Gartengeräte. Seit Jahren setzt Einhell mit seinen Produkten Standards in puncto Ausdauer, Leistungsstärke und Sicherheit. Die Einhell Kunden schätzen zudem die kabellose Freiheit bei allen Do-It-Yourself-Projekten, das attraktive Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis und den erstklassigen Kundenservice.