http://bit.ly/Turf_Care - Always fertilise your lawn before winter, late autumn and straight after winter and early spring. When your lawn is green leave it alone, if it looks a bit pale in the summer time then give it a slight fertilise.

1. Lawn Maintenance - Fertilising - Watering – Weeds
Fertilising Your Lawn:
Always fertilise your lawn before winter, late autumn and
straight after winter and early spring. When your lawn is
green leave it alone, if it looks a bit pale in the summer time
then give it a slight fertilise.
Use a good NPK fertilizer. Nitrogen Phosphorus (K) Calcium.
A slow release fertiliser or even a high acting one, a high
nitrogen fertiliser depending on how hungry and yellow the
lawn is looking and the turn of the time.

2. Going into winter I'd be putting in a high nitrogen based
fertilizer. Once summer is around and the lawn's growing
actively and green, put on a slow release fertiliser.
The reason we say these times to fertilise is because going
into autumn you want to get the lawn fed and fertilized before
it goes in to dormancy so it has the nutrition in its system to
carry through the cold months.
Coming out of winter you're going into the warmer months so
you want to activate the lawn to start growing before any
weeds have a chance to penetrate.

3. When you do this, if there are any sections of the lawn that
have thinned out or struggled through winter the lawn will
quickly run over and thicken up the area to keep foliage cover
over the sub soil to minimise predators like weeds to come
through.
Watering Your Lawn Turf
Everyone's irrigation systems and water pressure are
different.
A soaker hose is a good way to go of an afternoon and the only
way to check your work is to go and stick your finger in the
ground and see how deep the moisture has gotten in there.

4. 20 to 25mm penetration in the ground is what you're after. In
the real hot days when you're driving home and you see
everyone's grass at the side of the road all browning off, that's
the time to definitely be watering your lawn.
In water restriction times:
In times of water restriction what you should try to do is top
dress your lawn with a standard soil at the end of winter. Try
and get your grey water on your lawn and use rain water when
possible. You could even get a water tank to store up water.

5. Remember a lawn is a living thing and needs to be irrigated in
those hot times. If rain is around get out there and fertilise
your lawn straight away to get maximum growth out of the
lawn while the ground is damp.
Try not to let your lawn get too long before you mow it and
stress it out. Keep it maintained at a reasonable level. Keep
the leaf nice and healthy.
Weeds and Lawn Maintenance
This is probably not what you'd expect to hear when talking
about out-competing weeds but check this out…

6. Regardless of what lawn you have It should be watered at least
once or twice a week and I mean a good soaking and what I
mean when I say a good soaking is 20 to 25mm penetration in
the ground. That way the root structure of the lawn will search
deeper and deeper for moisture.
To be fertilised before winter and straight after winter. Keep
the lawn actively healthy. Keep the ground cover covered with
a healthy lawn.
If that is done correctly, the act of having weeds coming
through your lawn should be greatly minimised.

7. You're not giving them a good chance to survive. If you have
bare ground, the little weed seedlings will have a good chance
to germinate.
If weeds do come in and there are only a few, you can just go
in and pick them out. You want to try and avoid spraying the
lawn for weeds. If you do end up with a weed situation - which
is very rare - then there are chemicals which you'd go out
there and spray but that would be the last resort. Prevention
and keeping a healthy active growing lawn is far better than
having to treat your area for weeds.

8. Weeds aren't really much of an issue if your lawn is kept
healthy. As the lawn grows - if it's kept healthy - the lawn
thatch will be pushed up and the mower will knock the head
off the weeds and they will disappear.