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Are you wondering how to take care of your lawn?
Lawns require a lot of loving care. If you don’t take care of your lawn, it won’t take long to become mossy, bald, or overrun by weeds.
The issue is that lawns have to withstand so much wear and tear. Children, pets, and the weather all have an impact on lawns.
It will help if you check out a piece of gleaming lawn worthy of a feature in Homes & Garden. But it won’t happen unless you set aside some time and effort to maintain your lawn.
Luckily, if you’re non-green fingered, caring and maintaining a lawn doesn’t have to take the entire weekend. Here are 8 lawn maintenance tips to help you keep it green and bright.
1. Nourish Your Soil
Feed your soil! Fertilizer doesn’t nourish the soil. It nourishes plants. Organic matter nourishes the soil, producing food for microorganisms.
These microbes transform chemicals in the soil into forms that plants may use as food. Also, organic matter inhibits weeds and prevents plant disease.
When planting fresh turf grass, you should work compost around 2″ to 3″ deep into the soil. If at all feasible, use compost made from manure.
Manure is a natural fertilizer that enriches the soil with nutrients. Nitrogen-rich manure is the greatest choice for them. This is because lawns want nitrogen, which promotes green growth.
You should top-dress existing lawns with 14-inch manure-rich compost. It would be best if you did this once per month during the growing season.
Manure may help maintain healthy grass. This is because of its high nitrogen and phosphate concentration. This will make your soil more porous.
Hence, allow it to drain faster and keep root rot at bay.
Simply adding this initial step—nourishing your soil—will result in a healthier lawn with fewer weeds. Continue to top-dress with 14-inch compost and enrich the soil each year.
2. Remove Weeds, Moss, and Thatch
These annoying plants can stifle growth by preventing air and nutrients from reaching the roots. Learn how below.
Weeds
Weeds can emerge everywhere. This is because there are several ways for them to enter the garden. For instance, birds flying overhead, dogs, and other animals roaming through the grass can carry them. Also, you can carry them with your clothing and footwear.
Lawn weeds can appear as seed heads or blooms. Also, you can find many other varieties in lawns.
The simplest method is to pull out the entire plant, including roots. You may do this by hand or with a tool. But if there are a lot of weeds, consider spraying them directly with a low toxicity herbicide.
Thatch
This organic layer can form between the leaves and the soil. It consists of dead leaves, grass, and root stems.
The accumulation forms a dam, preventing critical moisture and nutrients from accessing the soil and reaching the roots.
You can easily identify these regions. This is because the ground has a spongy feel to it. A lack of nutrients causes dull, dead spots on the grass.
Scarification is the greatest way to eliminate thatch. You can use equipment like a lawn scarifier in this procedure.
Moss
Mosses are non-flowering plants that may wreak havoc on your lawn. They flourish in places with excessive wetness, shade, and low grass quality.
If left undetected or untreated, the level of moss will rise. This can limit the capability of the grass to grow. The following are the first circumstances that allow mosses to grow:
Poor drainage
• Drought
• Shade
• Clay within the soil
• High quantities of thatch
To eliminate the moss, you should identify and mitigate the source of the problem. You can use feeding and scarifying to monitor and maintain it.
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3. Fertilize Your Lawn
During spring, use a complete fertilizer(synthetic or organic) that is well-balanced. When to apply fertilizer is still a point of contention.
Some specialists recommend beginning with a quick-release fertilizer in early spring (late March/April). This is to boost the turfgrass and enhance recovery after a long winter.
Several others recommend waiting up to late spring (May/June). Then, sprinkle a slow-release fertilizer to replenish the depleted carbohydrate stores in the roots.
In any case, a little spray in the spring will benefit your lawn. Just don’t go overboard!
You may need to dethatch your lawn in late spring. This can happen if your thatch is heavy and preventing grassroots from obtaining air and water.
A soggy lawn is one sign of too much thatch. Alternatively, if you insert your finger into the soil, it won’t be easy to penetrate.
Dethatching is quite destructive on fragile new grass shoots. So hold on until late spring.
Also, fertilize your lawn in late summer. September is good. This is to encourage restoration from summer stress.
This will aid in the development of the root system for the winter. It also aids in the prevention of diseases and damage throughout the winter.
Cool-season grasses include tall fescue, fine-leaf fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and perennial ryegrass. Utilize a high-nitrogen fertilizer.
4. Mow Grass
Your mowing habits affect your lawn’s health. Here are some lawn care tips to get you started.
Check that the blades are sharp and that you have replaced the oil. Also, use fresh gas instead of last season’s gasoline.
Read the manual for your mower. Before using it, make sure you understand all the safety features.
Don’t trim your lawn too short, especially if it’s cool-season grass. Taller grass has a deeper root structure and is less prone to promote invading weeds. It also prevents scorching on your lawn.
Establish the ideal grass and height for maximum health. Mowing wet grass promotes mold and fungal growth. It will also blunt lawnmower blades and chew your lawn.
Change your course. Cut the grass in a new direction with every single mowing—especially if you have a lawn with shorter grass. Changing the direction guarantees an equal cut because grass blades develop more straight and are less prone to grow into a set pattern.
Mow a maximum of one-third of a grass leaf at once. You can do it in multiple mowing sessions with three or more days between each session. But this should happen if your grass becomes too tall and you need to trim it down.
5. Aerate Your Lawn
You may consider aerating your lawn. It’s among the best lawn care tips.
This should happen if you continue to have problems with a thick thatch top and tough, compacted soil. Aeration is the mechanical removal of small plugs of thatch and dirt from the grass for nutrients, air, and water to enter the roots.
Root development is critical for a healthy lawn.
During the process of building, the natural soil was severely disturbed in many house lawns. The building process also took humus-rich topsoil.
It left subsoil that is more compact and higher in clay content. Also, it’s less suitable for good grass growth.
Even when pouring topsoil before lawn planting, it is usually too thin to allow normal turfgrass roots. This will extend 8″ below the surface. Besides, walking on the grass and watering the lawn compress the soil even more.
You can perform aeration by renting an aerator from a home improvement store. Also, you can get it by hiring a lawn service.
Aeration is most effective in the fall. It will accelerate thatch decomposition and enable oxygen and water to get to the roots. Also, it will improve fertilizer absorption.
6. Watering
Deep watering promotes the development of deep roots that tap into underground water sources. Light sprinklings wet the grass and soil top.
This stimulates shallow root development. It also increases the requirement for more regular watering. Lawns typically require 1 to 2 inches of water each week, provided every three or four days.
The water should come from Mother Nature or you. However, this varies greatly depending on the soil condition, the temperature, and the type of grass.
Lawns in sandy soils may require twice as much water. This is because sandy soils drain faster. Lawns on slow-draining clay soils may require half the amount.
You should water if your lawn loses its resilience or bounce. Also, do it when it wilts, showing the dull green bottoms of the blades.
Water until the soil is wet 4″ to 5″ down. After that, wait until the top 1″ or 2″ dries out before watering again.
To determine how much water your sprinkler distributes, place a cake plate on the ground. Then, turn on the sprinkler. Record to see how long it will take for the water to get to one-inch depth.
Early morning is the most OK time of day to water. Evaporation is low, and water pressure is high. Also, your grass has enough time to dry up before dark.
Wet lawns are more prone to diseases induced by moisture-loving mold and other fungi. This happens when it remains wet throughout the night.
Poorly watered lawns get short daily watering. This encourages shallow root development.
Oscillating sprinklers throw water in a wide arc. This causes more water to evaporate before it reaches the soil.
7. Reseeding and Renovating
Older lawns may contain grass types that cannot tolerate heat from the sun. The grass can grow in clumps or have thick, unattractive blades.
A hot summer can also cause dry patches and thin parts on the grass. There are new grass types created to withstand searing temperatures while looking beautiful.
The most appropriate time for lawn fertilization is in early spring or in the fall.
Allow adequate time for seeds to germinate and establish themselves. If this is not practicable, do not forego pre-emergent weed management. It is preferable to manage the bulk of your yard now and save any lawn repairs for the fall.
Scuff up the region with a steel rake before seeding. Make the soil looser. Throw some manure into the areas.
Apply grass seed to the affected area. Maintain wet soil. You should use straw matting or other materials to cover the seeds. Even grass leaves may suffice.
All you need to do is cover the area with some material to keep the seeds intact.
The lawn fertilization should happen in any area on the lawn soonest. This should happen if you apply pre-emergent herbicides.
You can visit https://www.holmesutah.com/ to learn more about lawn fertilization.
In a few weeks, sprouts will develop and cover the brown patches. Sod is a preferable option if the brown areas are too large.
Clover Lawn is designed explicitly with strawberry clover to grow fast. Adding clover to your current lawn is an excellent method. This is because it will produce a green, low-maintenance lawn that requires little water.
Its strong roots keep your grass greener for a long time amid short-term droughts. Also, after mowing, it self-fertilizes if you take back the clover clippings to the lawn. This means less work for you!
8. Redraw Beds
During the spring, you may want to redraw the border between your plant beds and the lawn. More expansive beds also require less lawn upkeep.
Here are quick and easy landscaping tips for doing it yourself:
Make a good line for your garden beds using a garden hose. After that, pick a sharp metal edger on the bed line and push it as far as it will go into the earth.
Dig down the hose line. Then, take out the grass to make a good bed.
After that, cover the bed with two to three inches of mulch (pine bark is an excellent choice). Otherwise, you’ll end up with a bed of weeds!
Apply These Tips on How to Take Care of Your Lawn to Keep it Healthy
Lawn maintenance may be as complicated as you want it to be. If you want to keep your yard beautiful, you will have to dedicate a few hours each week to it.
You can consider hiring lawn care services. This is if you’re doing it alone and think that your efforts are not yielding fruits.
We hope you’ve learned something helpful from our tips on how to take care of your lawn. Keep checking our website for more exciting articles.
