Do you long for a lush green lawn? Here are some tips on how to make your lawn look like a golf course!
Photos by: Unsplash
The secret of a perfect lawn is not really a secret. It is a combination of choosing the right type of grass for the property and knowing how to properly water, fertilize and mow your lawn to protect it from disease and pests. Are you looking for a perfectly manicured lawn? Do you hope that your front yard is a symbol of impeccable lawn care and the envy of all your neighbors? This is how you can reach this bright green, spot-free lawn.
Choose the right grass
A lawn owner can choose between plugs, lawn and seeds for his lawn. Some grasses are hybrids and cannot be grown from seeds. However, there are many other types of grass that can be grown from seeds. This is a cheaper option and much easier to install compared to turf or plugs. When buying grass seeds, avoid the cheap options that are stuffed in displays and sold in large stores or even in hardware stores. When it comes to grass seeds, a garden owner should consult a lawn care professional. Before it is time to buy seeds, a homeowner should do his own research. If you want to hope for the perfect lawn, you have to find a type of grass that thrives in your regional climate and evaluate whether it is a cold or a warm season. A homeowner should also understand how much maintenance a particular type of grass requires. Some grasses need to be watered and fertilized routinely to stay lush and green, while other types of grass do not require intensive maintenance after they are established. Other factors that you as a homeowner should consider when choosing the right grass for the lawn are how much traffic there is on your lawn. Do you have pets and small children that will play on the lawn? You should also make sure that the grass is dry, cold, and heat-resistant. If you want the grass to grow under the trees on the property, you also need to know if the grass is shade tolerant. Most lawn grass isn't, but there are varieties that tolerate shade better than most.
Have the right floor
A lawn owner can buy the highest quality seeds he can afford. However, if the soil is of poor quality, the lawn will not be what it should be. The soil for a new lawn should be revitalized with nutrients from humus and compost, and its pH must be checked. Grass, like many plants, prefers soil on the acidic side, which would result in a pH just below 7.0. Although sowing seeds is easier than rolling out turfs and planting one plug after another in the yard, it still works. For a successful run, the trick is to sow or sow more seeds than is recommended on the bag, as not every grass seed will sprout. Be sure to sow grass in the cool season in spring or early autumn, while grass in the warm season should be sown in early summer. Different spreaders are best suited for different types of grass seed, so the owner should confirm that they have the right spreader. When sowing seeds, it is best to start at the edge of the property and maneuver the spreader around as if you were mowing the lawn. After that, the seeds and fertilizer should be covered with a layer of soil no thicker than 1 cm. Some homeowners will add straw to mulch the new lawn. After the seed has been sown, water the lawn until the soil is moist to an inch deep. This can mean that the sprinkler is turned on 1-2 hours a day until the seeds start to sprout. Once the seed has sprouted, the top 3 inches of the soil should remain moist until the grass is high enough to mow. This is about 3 inches. When the grass reaches this height, make sure the soil is watered 4 to 8 inches deep once or twice a week, depending on the weather. Whatever you do, don't water your lawn after the sun goes down.
Mow frequently
Although the lawn is ready to mow when the blades of grass are about 3 inches tall, it is best to stop mowing until it reaches that 3-inch mark, as the roots of taller grass penetrate the ground to a greater depth . When it's finally time to mow, the mower's knife needs to be sharp to avoid crushing the grass. The lawn mower should not be more than 1/3 off the top of the blade of grass.
Apply the right fertilizer
After the grass is established, it should be fertilized every month during the growing season. However, there are a few exceptions. Your lawn should not be fed when it is at rest or during a drought.
Keep weeds at bay
Weeds like to grow at around the same time as the grass. It is therefore advisable to control weeds before they even appear. This is the job of a pre-emergence herbicide that is applied in very late winter or very early spring. There are herbicides against broad-leaved and fine-leafed weeds that keep your lawn grass in top condition. If you want to avoid herbicides, you can also control weeds by simply uprooting them the first time they germinate.
Remove pests from your lawn
Pests usually appear around the same time as weeds. A healthy lawn is its own ecosystem, so there are useful insects that can hunt unwanted insects. You can support useful insects by introducing more useful organisms such as milk-killing milky spores and nematodes into your garden or yard. With the right pest control strategies, your perfect lawn is within reach.