If you have a lawn then now is the time to undertake your annual makeover and get it ready for next Summer. Over the year your lawn will become tired and congested with a thatch of mowed clippings, weeds and general detritus. To bring your lawn back to life you have to be totally ruthless and take your lawn through a near death experience.
When I told my Cruella (my wife) that I was going to scarify the lawn she was delighted and immediately went and told her girls. I could hear them all chuckling and chatting away in chickenese. At first I couldn’t work out why she would be so thrilled at lawn repairs, but then it gradually dawned on me. Halloween, is coming up soon and she assumed that scarifying was linked to Halloween. Anyway more of this nonsense later, there is a lawn to repair.
11th October 2025. Things I have been doing lately:
Undertaking the annual lawn makeover. I know not many people in Spain have lawns (for the obvious reason). However, if you do have a lawn then don’t take it for granted. Yes, of course you should cut it and feed and weed it. But every one or two years you need to dethatch and aerate your lawn otherwise it just becomes a congested mat that gradually goes from green to brown.
There are a number of stages to the annual makeover process:
- Mow the lawn twice
- Scarify and aerate
- Top dress and brush
- Water in and feed
Mow the lawn twice. The starting point for your annual makeover is to cut the grass as short as you can. The best way to do this is in two stages as this will do the least damage to the grass. On the first day set your mower blades to half way and mow the lawn. On the second day the grass should be standing upright again and you now need to mow on the lowest cut possible without scalping the lawn. The reasoning behind getting the grass as short as possible is that when scarifying you wont tear the grass out by its shoots. The photos below show my first and second mows.
Scarify and aerate. Once you have got the grass as short as possible it is time to scarify and aerate. In essence this means raking the lawn with a specialised lawn tine rake to remove all the thatch and then pricking all over with a fork. This can be amazingly tiring, so if you have lots to do get yourself an electric scarifier and aerater.
I bought an electric scarifier years ago, and although it is only used once per year, it has proved invaluable in saving me hours of back breaking work. The photo below shows the scarifier and the outcome. I know the lawn looks dead, but just you wait.
Top dress and brush in. The next and most tiring stage is to apply a top dressing of fine compost. Here in Spain this is known as Mantillo. In total I used 18 50 litre bags – you should see my muscles. The photo below shows the 9 bags of Mantillo that I thought would suffice, only to be forced to go and buy 9 more, together with my first of many loads.
To top dress you spread shovels of Mantillo lightly across the lawn in manageable stages. Once the Mantillo is down you then need to brush it in with a besom type broom first one way then the other to ensure an even spread. Luckily, my house has a ready supply of Witches besoms.
As you can imagine the brushing in stage takes a long time the photos below shows the process in action.
I was at the point of maximum tiredness when I hit upon a brilliant idea. When Cruella (my wife) walked by and asked what I was doing I told her I was scarifying the lawn for Halloween. I explained that in effect I was preparing the lawn as I had been contracted to produce a witches gardening calendar and that the lawn had looked too green and cheerful to be in the photo shoot.
When she asked what was involved I explained that each month would feature a witch undertaking gardening activity. I then explained that I was stumped as I did not yet have a Miss October. Instantly she said could her and her girls feature. At first I said really I am looking for a professional model but eventually I relented and went and sat in the shade whilst she strutted her stuff. Occasionally I strolled out and took photos of her which I assured her would be sent to “the Agency”. The photos below show her in action.
When she had finished I told her that her agent should contact me as there may be future work; I even hinted at a film. Her and her girls ran off chattering away in Chickenese about what they would wear to the Oscars. Anyway, the photos below show my fully top dressed lawn.
Water in and feed. The final stages of the annual lawn makeover would normally involve copiously watering of the lawn to ensure that the top dressing filters down to the soil, followed by the application of a good lawn food. Well if you live in this part of Spain you will know that the watering in was taken care of by a three day thunder storm. The feeding I will do in a few days when the grass is dry. The photo below shows my sodden lawn with the Mantillo well and truly washed into the soil.
Finally I thought you might like to see a photo of Cruella (my wife) after her hard day sweeping the lawn. I had no sooner shouted “it’s a wrap” than she had fallen fast asleep with Helga her favourite chicken in her arms.
Spanish Garden 
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