Quick Steps to Lawn Care: Make Your Neighbors Green With Envy

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Quick Steps to Lawn Care: Make Your Neighbors Green With Envy

Thursday, November 15th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

We had a new neighbor move in this year.  His grass at the time looked like a hay field just before harvest, while his next door neighbor’s yard nearly resembled the golf course putting green, so well was it manicured. 

Well, in a few months the new guy wrought a miracle - in the middle of a drought, no less.  While the neighbor’s manicured grass stressed out in the heat and the entire neighborhood suffered lawn fungus (except me!), the new neighbor’s grass became lush and even greener.  He and I knew the quick steps to lawn care that I’m going to share with you.

Water Your Lawn Deeply and Infrequently

Most turf grasses can survive droughts, but not flooding. Watering your grass too much can damage your yard faster than watering too little. Our neighbor with the golf course lawn loved to water 2 - 3 times a week.  This encourages shallow, weak root growth which, when it really gets hot as it did here last summer, creates tremendous stress on the grass. The vast majority of grasses need only 1-1 1/2” of water each week. Use a rain gauge to determine if and how much watering is needed.

An Ounce of Prevention Helps Grow A Pound of Beautiful Lawn Grass

In addition, regular maintenance serves as another of the quick steps to lawn care, and will help to prevent problems with your grass:

• Use herbicides for minor, spot weed treatment
• Pre-emergent herbicides are ideal for grassy weeds (i.e. crabgrass)
• Aerate your lawn once annually in high traffic areas when the grass is growing rapidly.  For cool season lawns, that’s in fall;  and for warm season grasses, in late spring.
• Repair bare sections when needed by overseeding or sodding.

Proper Mowing Hides a Multitude of Lawn Care Sins

Foremost to remember among the quick steps to lawn care: The condition of the mower blade is more important than the variety of mower you use. A dull blade pulls and rips at the grass and creates an ugly brown line across the tops of your grass’s blades. Jagged mower blade edges make your grass more vulnerable to disease and pests. You should sharpen your mower’s blades at least once each year.

Put Your Grass on A Proper Diet

Next in quick steps to lawn care, apply a balanced fertilizer to your lawn. These applications should be only be given during the spring, summer, and fall when the grass is actively growing, and their proper timing depends on the type of lawn grass you have. Avoid overfeeding, and use only slow release fertilizers. Be sure to strictly adhere to the label instructions of any lawn care products.

Think Tall For Summer Mowing
 
The last of the quick steps to lawn care demonstrates that mowing height should be adjusted for the particular time of the year. Mowing height is very important because the grass blade utilizes its length to soak up the sunshine it requires, shade out weeds and to store needed moisture to keep cool in the heat.

During the spring and fall seasons, 2-2 1/2” is the model height for the majority of grasses. The exceptions to this would be zoysia, centipede and hybrid Bermuda lawns, which enjoy lower mowing heights of 1 1/2″.  However, in summertime, you may increase your lawn’s mown height by 1/2″ to better withstand summer’s heat. This last quick step to lawn care was the most striking thing about the new neighbor’s lawn.  His grass was at least 1/2″ taller than the yard of the guy next door, and it looked way greener and more lush. 

At no time should you mow lower than 1/3 of the grass’s height. Removing too much of the grass blade weakens your grass and leaves it susceptible to weeds, fungi and insect infestations. After proper mowing, the clippings should remain on the lawn. This will allow them to decompose and add nutrients to the soil. This grass recycling is important as clippings can contribute as much as a third of your lawn’s yearly feeding needs. Consider investing in a mulching mower to enable the clippings to decompose even faster and leave less debris on the yard’s surface.

Having and maintaining a beautiful lawn is easier than you might believe. These quick steps to lawn care can make your yard the envy of your neighborhood!

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