Best Grasses For Different Climates
Turf grass generally falls into two distinct categories: grasses that do well in warm climates , as well as grasses that are better suited for areas of the country that experience winter and significant seasonal temperature fluctuations .
Here are a few types of those grasses :
Warm Season Grasses: These grow best in midsummer temperatures that reach 75-90 degrees Fahrenheit .
- Bahiagrass Pensacola
Tall Fescue
How To Grow Grass Fast
These 5 tips will help speed up the lawn growing process.
Want to grow a lawn without having to wait forever for it to fill in? If youre hoping to grow grass fast, hang with us, and dont be intimidated or confusedwere here to help! While you might not think that you can grow grass fast by using grass seed, you absolutely can if you know what youre doing and use the right products. Just follow these 5 basic steps and youll be on the fast track to growing a beautiful lawn.
Mow At The Right Height
According to the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, cutting the lawn with a mower set at a proper mowing height can save you from having to bag your grass clippings, even if you don’t own a mulching mower. The rule of thumb suggested by the Cornell Extension is, “Mow when your grass is dry and 3 to 3-1/2 inches tall. Never cut it shorter than 2 to 2-1/2 inches or remove more than one-third of the leaf surface at any one mowing.”
The point behind this mowing tip is that the valuable nutrients in the grass clippings can do your lawn some good, left right where they lie after cutting, as long as their bulk is kept at a minimum. By following this rule of thumb and cutting only about an inch off the top of your lawn at any one time, the bulk of the grass clippings is kept low.
Following this mowing tip means more frequent cutting, to be sure . But the result will be a healthier lawn that is fed by nutrients that you would otherwise be hauling away. Cutting a lawn too short can stress it out, especially during periods of hot weather. In addition, cutting the lawn stimulates growth and increases thickness. You are, in effect, “pinching” your grass plants each time you mow, just as you pinch many houseplants or garden flowers to make them sturdier plants.
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Basic Tools To Grow A Healthy Lawn
- Garden Hose A quality garden hose brings valuable water from the faucet to every inch of your yard. Gilmours durable Flexogen Super Duty Hose holds up for years.
- Sprinkler Watering is arguably the single most important task that needs to be done consistently to keep lawns healthy and thriving. And with so many sprinklers to choose from, youll be able to find the best one for the job.
- Wheelbarrow or Garden Cart This useful tool on wheels can be used to haul everything needed for your lawn and garden. Easily transport soil, fertilizer, seeds and tools. You can even use it to store all your garden tools in one place for easy access.
- Trowel The pointed blade of this hand tool makes it ideal for breaking up soil and digging small holes. Use it to help fill in small holes or dig up weeds with extensive root systems.
- Garden Shears A heavy-duty version of scissors, these small shears are perfect to trim along garden beds or snip the heads off bothersome weeds.
- Lawn Rake Use a lawn rake to clean up fall leaves, remove grass clippings and tidy up the yard. Look for a rake with metal prongs for longevity.
Growing A Lawn From Sod
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Determine If Your Lawn Is Getting Enough Nutrients
A lot of people dismissively think of their grass as a single lawn, but they dont consider the fact that grass is made of millions and millions of small, individual plants. Like any other plants growing in a garden or flower box, grass also requires plenty of nutrients to thrive and maintain a bright green color.
Spreading fertilizers is an excellent way to help grow greener grass, but it may not make an instant, noticeable change. As grass continues to take in nutrients, its root systems will expand, moving into previously patchy or bare spots.
This also doubles as bad news for weeds. As grass grows healthier and fills in bare spots, weeds suffer. A healthy lawn full of nutrient-rich grass crowds out weeds and naturally steals their nutrients. Rather than focusing on spraying weed killers or tirelessly plucking individual weeds from the grass, homeowners can focus directly on the health of the grass and kill weeds at the same time.
Ensure that you are selecting the right kind of fertilizer for your grass variety and type. Randomly selecting a fertilizer is a gamble: If the one you choose isnt suited for your grass, you could potentially damage your lawn. On top of that, ineffective fertilizer will be a waste of money. Research fertilizer brands to make an informed, budget-conscious choice.
Water And Protect The Grass
It’s critically important to keep your seeded area watered, but you want to do it incrementally as the grass develops. Use a mist lightly water deeply water process like this:
- After seeding and fertilizing, youll want to keep the top inch of soil moist until the seeds start to germinate . This means misting the area once a day, maybe twice if its unusually hot out therebut dont let the area get soggy.
- After seeds begin to germinate, youll need to keep the top 2 inches of soil moist with light watering until the grass is about 3 inches tall.
- At this point, your grass is developing its root structure, so you want to begin watering deeply so that moisture reaches down through the top 6 to 8 inches of soil.
As youre watering and the grass is growing, youll want to keep foot traffic and pet action to an absolute minimum . Plan to keep people and pets off the grass for at least a month, during which time your other yard spaces or nearby parks will become your best friends.
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How Do I Fix My Brown Grass
Damage can be repaired at any time, though fall is best. To repair existing brown spots, rake the affected area to remove the dead grass, then applying Scotts® EZ Seed® Patch & Repair for small areas or Scotts® Turf Builder® Grass Seed for larger areas. With all of these products, be sure to follow label directions.
How To Green Up Grass
- What can I put on my grass to make it green?
- How can I make my grass thicker and greener?
- How do you get green grass back?
- How can I make my grass green fast?
- How can I make my brown grass green fast?
- How can I thicken my grass?
- Will grass thicken on its own?
- What is the best fertilizer to green up a lawn?
- Can yellow grass turn green again?
- How long does it take for brown grass to turn green again?
- How do I bring back my old grass?
- Does Epsom salt turn grass green?
- What fertilizer makes grass dark green?
- Will watering dead grass bring it back?
- How do you revive a brown lawn?
- How do I fix my brown grass?
- Does cutting grass more often make it grow thicker?
- How do you fix thin patchy grass?
How to Green Up a Lawn Fast Mow your lawn regularly. During the summer, this could mean every three to four days. Water your lawn deeply at least twice a week. Spread a nitrogen-rich fertilizer on your lawn and water after applying. Add an iron supplement to your lawn.
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Fertilization Throughout The Year
If your grass is struggling with its color, it could also be a fertilization problem. Fertilizing your lawn with much-needed nutrients is really important when it comes to assisting it in greening up. But its more than just that initial wake-up fertilizer. You need to continue to feed it throughout the growing season in order to help it maintain that beautiful color, even though the harsh heat that comes with summer.
Scrimping or skipping fertilization visits is only going to set you up for problems. At Turf’s Up, our typical lawn care treatment program includes 8 visits per year to apply product as the lawn needs it . A total of 5 of those visits include fertilizationbecause its that important.
Even so, youll see plenty of marketing gimmicks that try to oversimplify the process with one- or two-time products. These simply cannot be effective as the lawn needs different rates of fertilization at different times of the year. And it definitely needs more than a once or twice application.
Choosing a lawn fertilizer service in Ashburn, Aldie, or Leesburg, VA that understands the value of this type of service is essential when it comes to ensuring your lawn is as green as it can be.
Seeding With A New Grass Type
Sometimes a lack of color can actually be traced to the grass seed that is used or a prevalent species in your lawn. Certain grass types are not as green as others and this may really bother some homeowners. Perennial Ryegrass, for instance, is not known to be as deep green.
Turf-type tall fescue is the best-adapted turfgrass for Virginia lawns and also has that beautiful green color that homeowners look for. Seeding with this grass type will go a long way in helping to produce a greener lawn.
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Follow A Fertilizer Schedule
The Scotts company, a major fertilizer manufacturer, recommends applying lawn fertilizers in four stages. The exact dates will, of course, vary from region to region. Another factor is the kind of grass you grow. So always read the package labels carefully before applying, and pick the brains of the staff at local garden centers or a local extension service.
As an example of a typical fertilizer schedule, if you live in the northeastern United States and if your lawn is a mix of cool-season grasses, you might begin by feeding the grass in May with a product that contains a pre-emergent to prevent crabgrass from growing. Follow that up in June with another lawn fertilizer that performs two jobs at once. In this case, the other job is controlling broad-leaved weeds. For the latter, you need a product that contains a post-emergent herbicide designed to kill weeds that have begun growing in your lawn.
In mid-summer, bugs and drought are two of the greatest enemies of your grass.
Last but not least, when you winterize your yard in autumn, don’t forget your grass. It’s not difficult to remember which fertilizers to shop for at this time, because they will often contain “winterizer” in their names. These products are designed to help your grass build a deeper root system to weather the winter.
How Much Is Too Much
Adequate nitrogen is crucial for lush, healthy, green grass. However, there can be too much of a good thing. The general rule of thumb is this: you should apply no more than one pound of nitrogen for every thousand square feet of lawn, and you should do so no more than twice per year .
So, say youre using a fertilizer with 5% nitrogen, you should use 20 pounds maximum.
What to do when youve applied too much?
Many of us have experienced a phenomenon called fertilizer burn, where we used too much fertilizer and our grass ends up with yellow and brown stripes, or patches of dying or dead grass.
Fortunately, there are things we can do to correct this:
- Leach excess fertilizer. Use a sprinkler head and a garden hose to fully saturate the overfertilized area. The water will drain through the soil, bringing the fertilizer with it. Apply about an inch of water and repeat this every day for a week.
- Remove dead grass. Use a rake to remove the fertilizer-burned areas, add to a compost pile or trash can.
- Plant new grass seed. When spring arrives, plant new grass seeds.
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Stop Weeds Without Harmful Chemicals
This is the hardest part to do naturally, but you can do it!
Did you know that weeds can be an indication that lawn health isnt optimal? Improve the soil and you will already be a long way toward reducing weed growth. Many herbicides are harmful to humans and animals too! Studies show chemicals in conventional lawn care contribute to thyroid problems and even non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Glyphosate is a whole other story, and definitely does not belong on a lawn where kids and pets play.
The organic lawn care solution: leaving grass longer also helps control weed population by leaving a larger surface area for grass to photosynthesize.
Steps to Reduce Weeds Naturally:
- Many weeds are actually herbs with many benefits. Dont remove them at all!
- Leave grass longer so it will resist weeds naturally.
- Add a second plant to your lawn like white clover to compete with weeds and replenish soil.
- Avoid harmful herbicides and use natural methods instead.
When To Plant Seed On Your Lawn
The best time to plant grass seed when you are planting cool weather grasses is when there is no danger of frost, and when the soil temperature is warm enough to germinate the seeds. This usually means either mid-to-late spring or early fall. During these periods, the soil is the right temperature, there is typically enough rain to keep the soil moist and aid germination, and there is enough daylight to ensure that the grass thrives. Ideally, the daytime temperatures should be between 60 degrees to 75 degrees to support healthy growth.
Warm weather grasses, usually grown in the southern half of the U.S., should be planted in late spring or early summer, their most active growing period. When daytime temperatures average about 80 degrees is the best time to plant.
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Putting Down Seed Or Sod
How Long Does It Take Burnt Grass To Grow Back
How long it takes for burnt grass to recover depends on their stage of burn. If caught early, burnt grass can revive by the end of the week. Later stages may require weeks of care to recover.
The burns wont disappear but the great thing about grass is that it grows. If you can save the grass, you can mow the lawn, remove the foliage with the burns, and itll be as if it never happened.
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Mow To Ideal Cutting Height
Each type of grass has an ideal cutting height for good health and strong growth.
If it is cut back to this height before it gets too long, it will usually outcompete weeds as long as its also fertilised and watered properly.
Longer grass helps prevent weeds by shading the ground, keeping it cooler and slowing weed germination.
And if weed seeds sprout, they have insufficient sunlight for hardy growth. Its important to mow your grass when its about 30% longer than the ideal cutting height.
Depending on the weather conditions and the time of year, that can mean mowing each week or fortnight, or every four to five days.
Keeping the height in check also means youre clipping off the seed heads of weeds before they can spread.
Dont mow after its been raining, or youll leave giant clumps of sodden clippings that will smother the grass beneath.
You will also need to clean a thick layer of matted clippings from under your mower deck.
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