If you want your house to have the most stunning curb appeal, having a lush green turf is essential.
But giving your grass the required care and attention is just too time consuming for most busy people.
And after just a few weeks of falling behind, you’ll be dealing with issues like pests and poor turf health in no time.
So do consider our services to help you maintain your grass and keep your turf looking its best.
Lawn care tip #1 – When to Water your Lawn
Avoid watering your grass at night because it needs to dry off. Leaving it damp and wet all night from an evening watering causes brown patches and encourages fungus to set in.
It is best to be watering the lawn early in the morning before the sun it too hot (leads to evaporation) and during the least amount of wind. Aim for between 5 and 8 A.M.
Lawn care tip #2 – Dusty Grass
If you have a country property located on or near some dusty roads, your grass is suffering. Even just a light coating of dust can reduce the rate of photosynthesis which can negatively impact your lawn’s health.
You will actually need to clean off the dust by spraying it down every few days, especially when there isn’t much rainfall.
Lawn care tip #3 – Prune Shady Areas
If there are a lot of large trees and shrubs casting shade, you can actually improve those areas by pruning out some of the dense branches to allow more light to filter through.
Having some shade will protect your lawn from the blazing summer sun, but too much shade can also block out the light.
Selective pruning will solve this.
Lawn care tip #4 – Encourage Earthworms in Your Lawn
Worms are your lawn’s friends! Earthworms help to aerate the soil inder your lawn and produce fertilizer. They will essentially plow the soil, and this helps with better air and water penetration as well as breaking up compacted areas.
If you have healthy soil, the worms can create over 1000 tunnels in every square foot of dirt. Roots will use those tunnels as channels for growth.
By using organic lawn fertilizers you will naturally attract more earthworms into your soil.
This will attract them to your property like bears to honey.
Lawn care tip #5 – Use Organic Top Dressing
Take the time to spread a thin layer of organic matter on top of the lawn such as mushroom compost.
Yes, we are talking about the exact same product used by mushroom farms to grow their mushrooms in.
The mixture they use is often a combination of aged horse manure, gypsum, limestone and some straw.
You should use this frequently to spread over your lawn just as you would regular compost.
Lawn care tip #6 – Use a Mulching Mower
If you cut the lawn with mulcher mower, it can help you cut down and use less fertilizer. With a mulcher mower, it will chop up and drop the finely cut grass clippings back onto your lawn where they will decompose.
Since most grass clippings are comprised of 4% nitrogen, 1% phosphorous, and 3% potassium, which is close to the same as a lot of the organic fertilizers.
This is a wonderful way to attract worms to live in your soil as well.
Also, during the hottest parts of the summer, using a mulcher mower is also a great way of helping your lawn conserve moisture.
You should know that the grass clippings will not cause thatch but can possibly cause a problem if your turf already has a heavy thatch layer.
Also, if you have a weed problem, using a mulching mower is NOT a good idea as this will only help in spreading the weeds.
Lawn care tip #7 – Mow the Lawn with Sharp Blades
Do you ever find that shortly after mowing your lawn your grass starts to become less green looking and takes on an almost a tan cast?
Usually this is a sign that your mower blades are too dull.
You see, when a sharp blade is used to cut off the top, it will only leave a very thin tan line at the top of each blade.
On the other hand, cutting with a dull blade actually tears the grass which will leave a ragged edge with a bigger wounded area that turns brown. For that reason your lawn will look a brownish green a few days after cutting the grass with a dull blade.
So keep the blades sharp to avoid this issue! And make sure you mow often enough.
Related: How Often Should You Mow Your Lawn?
Lawn care tip #8 – Water Your Grass Enough
When your lawn is getting enough moisture, you don’t need to be too worried about it getting and looking trampled.
This is because adequate watering will allow your grass to have enough strength to bounce back and recover.
So make sure that you water your lawn properly each time by using a sprinkler that will spray uniformly and by watering deeply. What you want is for the moisture to sink down 6 to 8 inches below the surface.
Proper watering will help encourage strong and deep roots that can stand up to periodic drought.
Frequent and short watering will green up your lawn but will not facilitate a deep root system, making your lawn far more susceptible to look trampled from heavy traffic and to turning brown shortly after a drought.
Lawn care tip #9 – Avoid Using Soft Water on Your Grass
If you are watering your lawn using soft water, this can be is risky. This is especially true for areas that get little rainfall.
What happens is the extra salt in soft water can kill a lawn, but if there is a lot of natural rain it will help to wash the salts from the soil before they do any damage.
However, it is much better to set up the water softener system so that it does not connect to the outside faucets. This way the problem is avoided completely.
