How To Help Your Lawn Recover From Drought

08 September 2025 (Last updated: 8 Sep 2025 15:33)

The summer of 2025 was quite possibly one of the most difficult seasons for lawn care in decades. Hot sun and relentless drought saw unirrigated lawns turn into straw coloured dust bowls. Soils baked hard and crevasse-like splits opened up in the surface. Lawn grasses are known for their resilience, but summer 2025 certainly tested their mettle.

As autumn approaches and the TV weather folk are promising rain, it’s time to explore ways to help your lawn recover from drought. And, to discover how the services of a lawn care professional will be invaluable in your quest to prepare your lawn for the year ahead.

What Do You Need To Do To Help Your Lawn Recover From Drought

This year (2025) autumn lawn renovations are more important than ever. Lawn renovation is a cost-effective way of helping your lawn recover from drought without resorting to the upheaval of re-turfing. This is what’s involved in the lawn renovation process.

Scarifying: Removes dead and weak vegetation to make room for strong new growth
Aeration: Opens up soil structure so that air, water and nutrients can circulate around the grass roots.
Levelling: Use a technique known as topdressing to level out any bumps and hollows formed by drought-related soil shrinkage and/or normal wear and tear. Topdressing can also help create the ideal conditions for overseeding.
Overseeding: Thicken up that sward and possibly introduce some drought resistant grass species.
Nutrition: Encourage and support healthy re-growth with a good balance of plant nutrients
Pest and diseases control: Identifying and treating lawn pests and diseases before they wreak havoc on an already-stressed lawn.

When To Start Renovating A Drought Stricken Lawn

Helping your UK lawn to recover from drought can start as early in the year as late august or early September. At this time of year, the soil is normally still warm enough to encourage speedy grass seed generation and reasonably long daylight hours will enable the plants to harvest energy from the sun to help with root development.

How Can I Renovate A Drought Stressed Lawn?

Renovating a drought stressed lawn is a really satisfying process. It will feel as though you are making a mess - but with anything in life worth having, you have to make a mess to clear one up. Don’t expect instant results, but when your lawn does spring back to life, you’ll be one proud gardener.

Clear away dead and weak vegetation. Any lawn will naturally form a layer of thatch between the green grass blades and the soil beneath. Thatch is mainly dead vegetation that gets lodged around the growing crowns of the grass plants. It’s perfectly normal but a thick thatch layer can create a barrier that slows down the flow of water into the lawn. Drought stricken lawns do tend to develop a substantial amount of thatch. This needs to create better growing conditions for the recovering plants and any new seedlings.

Scarifying is the term for removing thatch from lawns. It can be done using a spring tine rake, but that is a time consuming job that is not just boring, it’s physically exhausting too. Keen lawn lovers can rent a scarifying machine and do the job themselves, but quite honestly, it’s quicker and easier to hire a professional to do the job.

Next comes aeration. Remember, you are aiming to create the best possible conditions for grass to grow, and that means making sure that the soil structure allows good drainage, plenty of air flow and an easy run for tender young roots.

Aeration involves creating holes in the soil beneath the lawn in order to relieve compaction, facilitate drainage and create protective pockets where fresh grass seed can be nurtured. If the soil beneath a lawn is particularly poor, a lawn care technician may also introduce better quality soil into the holes created by aeration. For example, where the natural soil has a high clay content, they may apply either sandy soil or organic matter to improve the growing conditions.

Aeration CAN be done using a garden fork to create holes in the surface, but that’s only practical on a very small lawn. Besides, aeration is far more effective when done with specialist machinery. Aeration machines can usually be rented from tool hire companies but hiring a professional lawn care company to do your lawn renovation is much less hassle and you know that the job will be done properly.

At this point, your lawn will probably look quite sorry for itself - don’t worry - the next stages of renovation will perk it up no end.

Autumn Lawn Feed

Grass needs water in order to absorb nutrients, so in a particularly dry year, lawns that have not been watered will be hungry. That being said, please don’t attempt to add ‘extra’ feed to your lawn, you will definitely do more harm than good.

Applying an autumn-winter formula feed after mechanical renovations will help your lawn to develop robust roots and to be less susceptible to common lawn diseases. Choose your lawn feed wisely. Too much nitrogen at this time of year could lead to weak, sappy growth. Find out too whether your lawn feed needs to be watered in - your lawn is particularly vulnerable in the aftermath of a drought and can easily be scorched. Always follow the manufacturers recommendations.

Alternatively, have a professional-grade lawn feed expertly applied to your lawn. UKLCA members have access to lawn feeds that are not normally found on the garden centre shelves. They can recommend the exact balance of nutrients that your grass (and the soil beneath it) needs, and their delicately calibrated spreading equipment ensures a nice, even application.

Overseeding

Helping your lawn recover from drought means accepting that some of the grass plants will have been stressed to the point of no return. After scarification and aeration it will become obvious that the plant population is depleted and that in order to achieve the texture you want - and to ensure that the grass can outcompete moss and weeds - the sward needs to be much thicker.

Overseeding is a cost effective and more sustainable alternative to returfing and it affords the opportunity to introduce grass varieties that are best suited to the conditions in your garden. Most ‘off the shelf’ seed mixes are a one-size fits all solution and may not be ideal for your particular plot. However, a professional lawn care company will be able to help you research varieties and create a bespoke seed mix. Consider factors such as your preferred mowing regime, summer greenness, winter greenness, shade tolerance, disease resistance, growth rate and drought tolerance.

Timing is everything when it comes to overseeding in autumn. Ideally the soil will remain warm and moist for several weeks while the new plants establish. Longer daylight hours will also help get the plants off to a good start. Be prepared to water your lawn if the soil starts to dry out.

Pest Control

A quick word about autumn pest and disease control. Early autumn is the optimal time of year to treat your lawn for leatherjackets. Ironically, at this time of year, they are almost impossible to spot, but if left untreated, come spring, they may well decimate your carefully renovated lawn. Read more about leatherjackets here and ask your lawn care professional about suitable treatments. https://www.uklawncare.net/news/69/leatherjacket_season_what_uk_lawn_owners_need_to_do_now/

And Finally - Conditioning Your Lawn To Cope With Extreme Weather

If scientists are to be believed, our lawns and gardens are likely to face all kinds of extreme weather conditions in the seasons to come. Frosts, flooding, drought - we saw them all in 2025 and we’ll likely see them again.

As gardeners and lawn lovers it’s important to optimise growing conditions and ensure that our plants and soil have everything they need to be able to withstand those pressures. Regular lawn renovations, careful nutrition and appropriate mowing regimes are set to be more important than ever as our climate changes.

When it comes to plant physiology, soil science, and disease control, the expertise of a dedicated lawn care professional is second to none. If you want a lawn to be proud of all year round, it’s well worth getting to know your local UK Lawn Care Association member and making the most of the services they have to offer. You’ll find a link to the UKLCA website at the end of this article.

How Can A Lawn Care Professional Help Your Lawn Recover From Drought?

Mechanical renovations such as scarifying and aeration to improve growing conditions
Overseeding with grass varieties tailored to your garden and the way you want to use your lawn
Tailored nutritional programs to support your lawn’s recovery and growth
Expert advice on the best mowing regime for your lawn and lifestyle
Pest and disease control

Ready to help our lawn recover from drought? Click here to find a lawn care professional near you https://www.uklawncare.net/default.aspx

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