Summer Lawn Care: Beat The Heat

Lawn care expert and social media icon, Ben Sims shares his top tips for keeping your lawn tip-top this Summer.

With more than 114,000 subscribers on his Lawn Tips YouTube channel and 18 million video views on his work, it’s safe to say greenkeeper Ben Sims is considered a bit of an expert when it comes to lawn care.

With summer holidays and entertaining upon us, we thought it was time to hit Ben up for his top tips for keeping your patch green this Summer:

• Make sure you water properly! 
  An important part of looking after your lawn in Summer is watering it properly and not overwatering. Warm season grasses like Kikuyu, Couch and Bufflao require infrequent watering to keep it healthy through the hotter months. Ben recommends you water 13mm of irrigation twice a week if there are no rain events. For example, give it 13mm on Monday and then water it again on Thursday with another 13mm. 
  Keep in mind that infrequent watering trains your lawn to stretch out and not require water every day, while watering daily can shorten the lawn’s root system and can also cause issues with fungus. 
• Consider using wetting agents
  Wetting agents are great to help retain moisture in your lawn during the warmer months. Soil can become hydrophobic, which means it repels water. Wetting agents help break the surface tension and allow water to penetrate into hydrophobic soils. 
• Keep up the mowing
  Try and keep up mowing at least once or twice a week. Cutting off just a third of the leaf blade will stop the lawn getting stressed and allow it to recover faster after a mow. 
• Apply products in the morning or evening
  If you are going to fertilise or apply herbicides to your lawn in summer, Ben highly recommends applying them in the coolest parts of the day. This will reduce the risk of these products burning your lawn

Ben puts JD mowers to the test

Who better to put some equipment to the test than a lawn guru? In July this year, we asked Ben to put the Z530M zero turn mower, X380 ride-on mower, and the Gator™ XUV through their paces on his property in Orange.

While he has been impressed by all of these beauties for different reasons, Ben says his current favourite is the Z530M because of how much it speeds up maintenance for him.

“I have a couple of acres to mow so the zero turn zips under the trees and large areas quickly. I’m a big fan of the mulch kit on the mower as well. If you regularly mow like I do, it gives a tidier cut and recycles the clippings back into the lawn, which can act as a natural fertiliser and nourish the soil.”

When he’s not sharing videos on social media, Ben is busy selling lawn plans and turf supplies and talking clients through how to get the best out of their lawn. Check out his website: www.lawntips.net
And for more on Ben’s vehicle road test or to check out his latest lawn tips, visit his YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UC47hWf2NTrfOvB-e5kpp04g