Dreaming of that immaculate eye popping lawn. Do you want the be the envy of the neighborhood? Read this and find all the secrets to having a perfect lawn.
You have just purchased a great home on a good sized lot with dead grass. Oh no, the neighbors all have beautiful landscapes and yours leaves out everything to be desired. Well, don’t fret, yours can look like that too. The first and most simple place to begin is the water. If you have an underground sprinkler all ready in place you are already on your way. Get it programmed to water your lawn at least three times a week, twenty minutes a day, in the early morning just around dawn. If you water at dusk, most believe the water that isn’t absorbed by the soil can sit and begin to promote lawn diseases. Watering in the early morning gives the water just enough time to absorb and then the sunlight gets rid of the extra that wasn’t used. Of course, your goal is to water just enough, and twenty minutes should do it. If you don’t have a sprinkler system then you need to run down to the hardware store and pick up some above ground, rotating sprinkler heads and some hose. Align them so every square foot of your lawn is able to be watered, and then you will need to remember to turn your water on three times a week for about twenty minutes.
After the watering is taken care of, the next step is getting rid of the weeds and thatch. Thatch is matted, dead grass that prevents new grass from growing. To thatch you can do it yourself; by using a thatching tool from your hardware store, or you can hire a landscaper and they can use a professional thatcher to remove all that old dead grass. The weed removal is fairly simple. You need to diagnose your weed invasion and go down to your hardware store and choose a weed and feed that fits your situation. Some weeds are tougher that others and need to be dealt with differently. You made need to dig them out or in severe cases you may have to buy the liquid weed killer that kills your lawn also. Be very careful with the liquid, spray weed killer, if you spray more than just the weed you can end up with huge brown patches in your lawn.
If your lawn has been without proper care for awhile you are going to need to aerate the soil. This helps promote healthy roots and new growth. If the soil has no space left for new roots your grass will become stunted. What you see will become all you get. Aerating can be done yourself with an aerating tool, or, again, you can hire a landscaper to get the job done. It is worth it if you are looking for that thick, green lawn.
No that your weeds are gone, the grass is beginning to look healthy and green it is time to talk a little about lawn maintenance. Your lawn probably looks a bit patchy and beat up at this point, but it should be beginning to show signs of life and new fresh growth. You are going to have to maintain this new look to keep it growing in the right direction. Make sure that you raise your blade for any new growth. Many people kill their lawns because they cut it too short. Those grass blades are like satellites for collecting sun rays. If you cut them down they can’t get the nutrience from the sun and will die. Also a torn blade of grass is more prone to disease then a sharp, straight edged cut. Sharpen your blade regularly. The grass can heal faster and get back to growing. It is also healthy to mow your lawn once a week to prevent it from getting too tall. If you cut a four inch blade of grass in half compared to cutting a third off of a three inch blade of grass, it is really going to make a difference with stressing the lawn. The quicker you can get your lawn to heal, the greener and thicker it will be.
Now we have a well manicured, weedless lawn. Let’s green it up. Go down to the hardware store again and have the name of your grass on a sheet of paper. Choose the correct fertilizer for your lawn and make it green. You should only need to fertilize three or four times a year. Once with each season. A good rule of thumb is Spring - weed and feed, Summer - straight fertilizer, Fall - Moss kill/fertilizer, Winter - Winterizer. Warning! If you over fertilize you will over grow your lawn and this is just as unhealthy as not watering your lawn. Fertilize it just enough, not too much.
Here are some helpful tricks.
If fertilizing just isn’t getting it green enough try some iron. You can buy a big bag of iron supplement for your lawn, and it is usually located just next to the fertilizer. Iron won’t help or hurt your lawns growth but it does turn it green.
Are you finding yellow patches mysteriously appearing in the middle of your lawn? You are not crazy! This is usually caused from animals using your lawn as a litterbox. You can use a chemical found at your local pet store that ends this nuisance. This chemical makes your lawn unpleasant for the animal and they will go somewhere else. After you use the liquid, remove the dead grass from the dead spots and loosen the soil a bit. Sprinkle some grass seed over the spots and keep it watered.
Not sure if you are over or under watering? Put some small containers around your yard and check them after you water. This will give you an idea as to how much water is getting different parts of your lawn.
Make sure you are cutting your lawn before it begins to seed. If you let your grass go to seed you are stunting its growth. After the grass grows its seed; it has a natural instinct to go dormant. If you keep the seeds from growing you are able to keep it producing new growth and this will green up your lawn.
Green lawns are what all homeowner and some renters dream of. You’ll love your new lawn. Good luck and have a picnic.
