Maintaining a Healthy Lawn
A lawn that is well kept and maintained throughout the season plays a significant role in any home owner’s life. It helps to increase the value of any home as well as making the home more eye catching to all that pass by consistently.
The essential key for any immaculate lawn is consistency in lawn care, such as mowing, mulching and seeding. Most owners find, however, that maintaining this type of consistent lawn care can be time consuming and often choose not to go through with it.
With the tips and guidelines listed below, most home owners will find that, with small amounts of time and outside work, any lawn around the country can be made to look beautiful when all is said and done.
• Fertilizer should be used early in the spring and late in the fall to maintain the health of the grass and the soil. The nutrients within the fertilizer assist in making the grass strong against outside forces, such as lack of water and stamping from feet or other heavy sources. All home owners should speak with a lawn care specialist to determine the type of fertilizer that should be used during each season as well as the amount that should be laid down evenly across their lawn.
• Make sure that all weeds, crab grass and pests are treated as soon as possible. These outside sources will cause havoc upon your lawn and will not clear up without proper attention. Most hardware and lawn stores will have an over abundance of materials to rid any grass of these nuisances as well as create a shield of protection for any future attacks.
• It is best to use a lawn mower that allows for any grass clippings to stay on the grass after a mow has been done. These grass clippings can filter their way back down into the lawn and soil and provide extra food and nutrients that can further enrich soil and promote healthy growth.
• Treat the bare spots that happen over time. The beginning and end of each lawn season will bring about bare spots that may have succumbed to the effects of Mother Nature or over saturation. These spots should be properly maintained in the spring with soil dispersion and fertilizer at the very beginning of the season so that there is ample time for the seeds to grow. The same process should be followed in the months of fall so that the seeds can be properly laid in the ground in preparation for normal grown once spring has arrived.
• Evenly mow and edge the entire lawn accordingly. This step is essential towards providing a pleasant looking grass as well as avoiding any areas that may foster pests and or weeds due to over saturation.
• Mulch or edge any areas that are not to be cut, such as trees and flowers beds. This will assist in decreasing your time mowing the lawn as well as avoiding any accidents that will tear up the blades of your edging machine and or lawn mower.
• Never mow the grass in the same way each time. Most lawn care professionals alternate between different patterns for mowing to promote irrigation to all parts of the soil on a consistent basis after each cut.
The essential key for any immaculate lawn is consistency in lawn care, such as mowing, mulching and seeding. Most owners find, however, that maintaining this type of consistent lawn care can be time consuming and often choose not to go through with it.
With the tips and guidelines listed below, most home owners will find that, with small amounts of time and outside work, any lawn around the country can be made to look beautiful when all is said and done.
• Fertilizer should be used early in the spring and late in the fall to maintain the health of the grass and the soil. The nutrients within the fertilizer assist in making the grass strong against outside forces, such as lack of water and stamping from feet or other heavy sources. All home owners should speak with a lawn care specialist to determine the type of fertilizer that should be used during each season as well as the amount that should be laid down evenly across their lawn.
• Make sure that all weeds, crab grass and pests are treated as soon as possible. These outside sources will cause havoc upon your lawn and will not clear up without proper attention. Most hardware and lawn stores will have an over abundance of materials to rid any grass of these nuisances as well as create a shield of protection for any future attacks.
• It is best to use a lawn mower that allows for any grass clippings to stay on the grass after a mow has been done. These grass clippings can filter their way back down into the lawn and soil and provide extra food and nutrients that can further enrich soil and promote healthy growth.
• Treat the bare spots that happen over time. The beginning and end of each lawn season will bring about bare spots that may have succumbed to the effects of Mother Nature or over saturation. These spots should be properly maintained in the spring with soil dispersion and fertilizer at the very beginning of the season so that there is ample time for the seeds to grow. The same process should be followed in the months of fall so that the seeds can be properly laid in the ground in preparation for normal grown once spring has arrived.
• Evenly mow and edge the entire lawn accordingly. This step is essential towards providing a pleasant looking grass as well as avoiding any areas that may foster pests and or weeds due to over saturation.
• Mulch or edge any areas that are not to be cut, such as trees and flowers beds. This will assist in decreasing your time mowing the lawn as well as avoiding any accidents that will tear up the blades of your edging machine and or lawn mower.
• Never mow the grass in the same way each time. Most lawn care professionals alternate between different patterns for mowing to promote irrigation to all parts of the soil on a consistent basis after each cut.
Spring Lawn Care
Each year, as winter loosens it’s grip and the landscape starts to show small signs of life once again, we turn our thoughts to our lawns and how we can finally get that lush green grass we’ve always wanted.
However, most of us fight year after year without success, and sometimes it seems that the more effort we put into our lawns, the worse they look. This is most likely caused not by doing the wrong things, but by doing the right things at the wrong time and hurting our chances of getting a great looking lawn.
Having a lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood isn’t something that happens just because we water a little in the spring. Lawn maintenance is something we should be aware of all year, but springtime is where the real action happens.
Remember that the exact time to perform these specific lawn maintenance tasks is determined by your geographic location. However, a good rule of thumb is to start when the snow season is over where you live.
This doesn’t mean waiting until the temperature has risen to the point that there’s no chance of snow at all, just that it’s risen to the point that you’re pretty sure there won’t be any more snow.
However, most of us fight year after year without success, and sometimes it seems that the more effort we put into our lawns, the worse they look. This is most likely caused not by doing the wrong things, but by doing the right things at the wrong time and hurting our chances of getting a great looking lawn.
Having a lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood isn’t something that happens just because we water a little in the spring. Lawn maintenance is something we should be aware of all year, but springtime is where the real action happens.
Remember that the exact time to perform these specific lawn maintenance tasks is determined by your geographic location. However, a good rule of thumb is to start when the snow season is over where you live.
This doesn’t mean waiting until the temperature has risen to the point that there’s no chance of snow at all, just that it’s risen to the point that you’re pretty sure there won’t be any more snow.
Summer Lawn Care
A healthy lawn does not necessarily mean that it has to be short. When cutting into your lawn, the blades need to be set as high as possible. The length of grass, preferably high, provides numerous amounts of benefits towards keeping the soil healthy and productive.
Tall blades of grass are able to obtain more light during peak sun hours and, in turn, will use this energy to produce and provide more nutrients to the roots and surrounding soil. Taller blades will also provide shade that allows for the soil surrounding each blade of grass to maintain moisture throughout the dry heat of most summer days.
Grass Clippings The waste produced in regards to your mowing should not be considered waste. The clippings that you produce during your mowing time should be redistributed across the lawn.
There are certain mowers that do not collect clippings in bags but rather just cut and allow for the shredded lawn to fall back into the grass and the soil. These cut blades of grass will be able to supply the soil with an added supply of nutrients as well as additional shade to further along the growth of a healthy lawn.
Fertilization Fertilization at both the beginning of the spring season as well as at the end of the fall season is vital to your grass maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Most organic fertilizers used in the spring allow for the soil to be kick started with an abundance of nutrients to inhibit growth at a more rapid pace. On the opposite side of the spectrum, most winterizing fertilizers allow for the soil to capture nutrients and store there to maintain a healthy landscape during the harsh snow and inclement weather of the winter.
Seeding Any patches of lawn that do not seem to grow properly needs to be seeded accordingly. Patience is the key in this situation because some homeowners tend to seed barren lawn patches more than once which in turn will cause the soil to be overworked.
Seeding once and maintaining a proper water schedule on those parts will show some improvements in the days and weeks to come.
Weeding Weeds are a nuisance to any lawn across the country. There has to be a conscious effort to walk your lawn on an every other day basis to find any instance of weeds and remove as soon as possible. This will allow you to catch newly formed weeds before they have a chance to grow roots and stake a claim in the soil of your lawn.
Tall blades of grass are able to obtain more light during peak sun hours and, in turn, will use this energy to produce and provide more nutrients to the roots and surrounding soil. Taller blades will also provide shade that allows for the soil surrounding each blade of grass to maintain moisture throughout the dry heat of most summer days.
Grass Clippings The waste produced in regards to your mowing should not be considered waste. The clippings that you produce during your mowing time should be redistributed across the lawn.
There are certain mowers that do not collect clippings in bags but rather just cut and allow for the shredded lawn to fall back into the grass and the soil. These cut blades of grass will be able to supply the soil with an added supply of nutrients as well as additional shade to further along the growth of a healthy lawn.
Fertilization Fertilization at both the beginning of the spring season as well as at the end of the fall season is vital to your grass maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Most organic fertilizers used in the spring allow for the soil to be kick started with an abundance of nutrients to inhibit growth at a more rapid pace. On the opposite side of the spectrum, most winterizing fertilizers allow for the soil to capture nutrients and store there to maintain a healthy landscape during the harsh snow and inclement weather of the winter.
Seeding Any patches of lawn that do not seem to grow properly needs to be seeded accordingly. Patience is the key in this situation because some homeowners tend to seed barren lawn patches more than once which in turn will cause the soil to be overworked.
Seeding once and maintaining a proper water schedule on those parts will show some improvements in the days and weeks to come.
Weeding Weeds are a nuisance to any lawn across the country. There has to be a conscious effort to walk your lawn on an every other day basis to find any instance of weeds and remove as soon as possible. This will allow you to catch newly formed weeds before they have a chance to grow roots and stake a claim in the soil of your lawn.
Fall Lawn Care
Fertilize in the Fall Since most of the grasses that are traditionally used in lawns throughout North America were brought to the region from Europe, they require fertilization to provide the nutrients they would have received naturally in their original climates.
Warm weather grasses don’t require as much care in the fall as cool season grasses do because the warm weather grasses go dormant more quickly.
To maintain a healthy cool season lawn, add fertilizer during the early fall to replace the nutrients that were lost over the warm summer months.
The fertilizer will also stimulate the growth of new root systems during the dormant winter months, which will cause the grass to grow more thickly in the spring.
Fall Weed Control Fall is the best time to control broad leaf weeds that can mar a beautiful lawn in the spring. Dandelions and clover tend to prepare for the winter months by pulling all of the nutrients from their leaves down into their roots.
Autumn is an ideal time to use an herbicide because the poison will be drawn down into the roots along with the plant’s leafy nutrients.
If you treat your weed problem in the fall, you will notice a dramatic difference in the amount of weeds that pop up once the weather turns warm again. Don’t worry about any brown spots that might appear where the weeds were. Healthy grass will quickly fill in the dead spots.
Check Thatch Levels The fall is also when you need to check the amount of thatch that has built up in your yard over the summer. Thatch is composed of dead grass clippings, clumped root systems, and other collections of tightly packed greenery that can choke your lawn and keep it from thriving.
The best way to see how much thatch has developed is to use a shovel and dig a small cross section from the top of your lawn. If there is more than an inch of thatch built up, you will need to aerate the lawn to give the grass more room to grow.
Seeding and Sodding in the Fall Lawns that are seeded or sodded in the fall will be the healthiest in the spring. The best thing you can do for your lawn is give it plenty of time to grow and develop deep root systems.
If you plant your seeds in the fall, they will have all winter to germinate and begin to grow. Planting seeds in the spring or summer means that they will try to grow more quickly, which can make the lawn sparse.
Sodding in the fall allows the root system to develop much more slowly and deliberately than sodding in the spring, which means your yard will be green and lush earlier the following season.
Clear Falling Leaves Sometimes it can seem like a losing battle, but it is important for your lawn that you continue to clear falling leaves away as often as possible.
Stacks of dead leaves will shield your grass from the sun and cause it to die fairly quickly. Moist dead leaves can also lead to diseases and mold that can be very harmful to your lawn. Clear the leaves away at least once a week for the best results.
Dead leaves make excellent organic compost that can be used to fertilize your lawn once it has decomposed properly.
Warm weather grasses don’t require as much care in the fall as cool season grasses do because the warm weather grasses go dormant more quickly.
To maintain a healthy cool season lawn, add fertilizer during the early fall to replace the nutrients that were lost over the warm summer months.
The fertilizer will also stimulate the growth of new root systems during the dormant winter months, which will cause the grass to grow more thickly in the spring.
Fall Weed Control Fall is the best time to control broad leaf weeds that can mar a beautiful lawn in the spring. Dandelions and clover tend to prepare for the winter months by pulling all of the nutrients from their leaves down into their roots.
Autumn is an ideal time to use an herbicide because the poison will be drawn down into the roots along with the plant’s leafy nutrients.
If you treat your weed problem in the fall, you will notice a dramatic difference in the amount of weeds that pop up once the weather turns warm again. Don’t worry about any brown spots that might appear where the weeds were. Healthy grass will quickly fill in the dead spots.
Check Thatch Levels The fall is also when you need to check the amount of thatch that has built up in your yard over the summer. Thatch is composed of dead grass clippings, clumped root systems, and other collections of tightly packed greenery that can choke your lawn and keep it from thriving.
The best way to see how much thatch has developed is to use a shovel and dig a small cross section from the top of your lawn. If there is more than an inch of thatch built up, you will need to aerate the lawn to give the grass more room to grow.
Seeding and Sodding in the Fall Lawns that are seeded or sodded in the fall will be the healthiest in the spring. The best thing you can do for your lawn is give it plenty of time to grow and develop deep root systems.
If you plant your seeds in the fall, they will have all winter to germinate and begin to grow. Planting seeds in the spring or summer means that they will try to grow more quickly, which can make the lawn sparse.
Sodding in the fall allows the root system to develop much more slowly and deliberately than sodding in the spring, which means your yard will be green and lush earlier the following season.
Clear Falling Leaves Sometimes it can seem like a losing battle, but it is important for your lawn that you continue to clear falling leaves away as often as possible.
Stacks of dead leaves will shield your grass from the sun and cause it to die fairly quickly. Moist dead leaves can also lead to diseases and mold that can be very harmful to your lawn. Clear the leaves away at least once a week for the best results.
Dead leaves make excellent organic compost that can be used to fertilize your lawn once it has decomposed properly.
Winter Lawn Care
Fertilizing in the Winter Late fall or early winter are the best times to fertilize cool season grasses. Since the majority of the lawns in North America are made from these grasses, like Bermuda and bluegrass, it is a good bet your yard has a typical cool season blend.
Before the first freeze, give your lawn a thorough fertilizing to replace all of the nutrients that can be lost from the soil during the hot summer months. Once the weather turns cold, the fertilizer will remain in the soil and feed your lawn’s roots all winter long.
When spring comes your lawn will be full of healthy, lush, green grass that has been feeding on good fertilizer nutrients underneath the snow.
Before the first freeze, give your lawn a thorough fertilizing to replace all of the nutrients that can be lost from the soil during the hot summer months. Once the weather turns cold, the fertilizer will remain in the soil and feed your lawn’s roots all winter long.
When spring comes your lawn will be full of healthy, lush, green grass that has been feeding on good fertilizer nutrients underneath the snow.