My lawn is completely overgrown! Help!

Closeup LawnWhether you have moved into a new home with jungle or you’ve let the lawn get overgrown yourself, this is not a great situation for either the look of your property or the health of your lawn. The way to remedy an overgrown lawn depends on the variety of grass you have at your place. 

Buffalo

Severe lawn moving of buffalo lawn is not recommended as you run a very real risk of the lawn dying in places or entirely. Extra care is advised to get a buffalo lawn back under control. Buffalo only possess above ground runners or stolons so when the lawn grows long and high, so too will the crowns which are essentially the centre of the grass plants; remove the crowns and the grass plants will die.

Harden Park Lawns recommends getting your buffalo lawn back to an appropriate and healthy length over a period of time. Lower your mowing height a little each time and undertake multiple lawn mowings. Using this method the lawn will be ‘retrained’ to grow the crowns lower down so further mowing will not remove them. If the lawn is particularly overgrown then a certain amount of dying off may be unavoidable; limiting the damage as much as possible will help the lawn to recover.

Lower the mowing height every second mow and mow each week until the optimal length (35-65mms) is achieved. Ideally you will complete this process during the warmer weather when the lawn is in its growing phase.

Couch, Kikuyu and Zoysia

These varieties of lawn differ from buffalo grass in that they contain both above ground runners or stolons and below ground runners or rhizomes. This means that they can recover from severe lawn mowing using the below ground runners should the crowns above be removed. Again it’s best to get the lawn back into shape over a few mowings rather than all in one go to avoid undue damage, shock and stress to the grass plants.

More lawn care information can be found on the Harden Park Lawns blog here

 

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