How to Make my Grass Thick

Creating fullness and density in your lawn is not as quick or simple as making it green. The two go together however to make your grass the best it can be. Full, lush and green lawns also signify health and that you have got your lawn care right.

What is a Dense Thick Lawn?

A thick lawn is full of healthy grass plants that have not only spread their roots in the soil but is also full of bushy grass plants. Think of it like this; take a thousand bushes and stick them together and you won’t see any soil, just bush. Now take a thousand trees and stick them together and you’ll always see lots of ground underneath. Trees are tall and thinnish whilst bushes are short and well, bushy! We want our grass to be bushy. And as any gardener knows if you want a bushy bush, you prune it.

Mow Little and Often for a Fuller Looking Lawn

In effect you’re pruning the lawn at the top when you mow. Keep cutting the top off (no more than one third at a time) by regular mowing forces the grass to tiller more and grow sideways. So, mow little and often for a bushy lawn.

See Mowing the Lawn

Scarifying helps make Grass Shoot Sideways and Thicken

This is usually an annual operation and best done in autumn to avoid seeding weeds as this does cause severe grass damage. Using blades vertically (rather than horizontally as in mowing) you are cutting the grass plants down the side right down to the soil. As well as removing thatch and dead plants you are pruning the stolons and rhizomes of the grass which will regrow and spread into much thicker and wider plants. Adding new grass seed afterwards increases the density even further.

Learn more about Scarifying

Verticutting makes the Lawn more Dense

This is rarely done on a domestic lawn because you can quickly decimate the lawn if the surface isn't smooth. This is a regular practice on golf greens and creates fantastic density so that a little white ball can roll true.

Want to learn about Verticutting

Feeding Improves Growth and Thickness

Doing the above is all well and good but if your lawn, having had lumps chopped off it regularly at the top and sides, doesn’t have the food and nutrients to re-grow than it all comes to nothing. Keep your grass fed particularly during the growing season when you are using and mowing the most.

When to Feed the Grass

Aerate for a Healthy Lawn

Air at the roots is as important to a grass plant as air is to you and me. So, aerate your soil as often as possible throughout the year. The heavier the use and traffic the more you need to do it. If your lawn is suffocating nothing will make your lawn thicken!

When to Aerate the Lawn

Sunlight

Absolutely essential. You’ll notice that grass in a shady area grows tall and thin, a bit like conifers in a forest. Because there is not much light the trees or grass plants grow vertically to try and get to the light. They are competing with their neighbouring tree or plant so will always grow up and not sideways creating a very thin lawn indeed. This is even more pronounced on shady lawns in the winter. This means planting in the sunniest areas and trying to limit shade on the lawn.

Water

Too much and the grass roots get asphyxiated and too little and there is no water to grow. There is always the need for some water which is why there is a big market for lawn sprinklers.