Give your lawn some autumn TLC

Give your lawn some autumn TLC before tucking it up for winter and it'll bounce back in spring with redoubled vigour, giving you the greenest, smoothest start to your new year.

Lawns are getting tired by now after a long summer as football pitch, pet playground and sunbathing spot, so take a long critical look and work out what needs fixing.

Start by raking out the 'thatch', dead grass and moss which accumulates over the year and can choke the roots of growing grass. Then assess whether you have a drainage problem - a common difficulty with lawns subject to thundering feet pounding them flat all year.

Apart from actual puddles and flooding, moss and coarse grasses are often a sign that your lawn needs help.  Take a border fork or, in severe cases, a hollow-tined aerator and spike to around 15cm deep at 20cm intervals right across the area.

Finally, top dress with a mix of topsoil, sand and compost with a handful of low-nitrogen autumn feed added in. If you don't fancy mixing your own, you'll find a ready-made lawn top dressing at our garden centre here in Co. Limerick. Scatter generously across the lawn and brush it in to feed the grass well into next year.