How To Keep Your Lawn Green All Year Round
Everyone wants a lush green lawn in winter, but at this time of year the continued cold weather and frosts can leave your lawn looking dull and lifeless. At Coolabah Turf we grow low water, drought tolerant turf types, otherwise referred to as warm season grasses, which thrive in our hot Australian climate.
We breed them to look amazing in summer, to ensure they help keep our yards cool and feel soft underfoot for the kids when they want to run down the slip and slide or cartwheel around the backyard BBQ.
But just like a big grizzly bear, these varieties of warm season grasses go to sleep during the winter for a period known as dormancy, to rest and rejuvenate.
This is awesome because unlike some other varieties, which need to be mown just as much in winter as they do in summer, warm season grasses dont require any watering or mowing during these chilly winter months. However, the inevitable downside is, they may be susceptible to varying degrees of discolouration during this period of slow/no growth.
But have no fear! There is a solution.
Lawn ColourGuard can give you the best lawn on the street in any season, and do it all in an instant! Yep, sometimes you’ve just got to fake it ’til you make it!
S To A Healthy Fall Winter Lawn
While summer will be winding down soon in some parts of the U.S., thoughts will turn to fall landscape preparation. And given that the drought is easing in several parts of the country, the next few months will provide a great opportunity for property owners to establish healthy winter lawns for their residents.
Winter ryegrass is an effective grass that can be over-seeded on northern and southern lawns to keep yards looking green throughout the winter. The past couple of years, however, have been difficult for the seed industry and for landscapers to get the full benefit of winter rye.
Because of crop failure related to drought, seed prices have increased significantly in many markets, says Chris Lee, president of Earthworks DFW. Lack of demand and some city restrictions that ban ryegrass forced some seed farms to turn to other types of grass.
Seed over the last couple of years has been expensive, but because of conditions this year, it might actually come back into line, Lee said. Everywhere across the country its been a little cooler and wetter than in previous years, so the conditions are more amenable to seeding this year.
The time is right, however, for winter landscapes to make a comeback. A cooler-than-normal and wetter summer in parts of the Southwest is setting the stage for what appears to be a favorable winter growing season. Seed inventories are expected to increase.
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
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How Do I Get The Mowing Right
Mowing is one of the most frequent tasks and the most important to achieve a green lawn, and therefore it is vital to get it right. The quality of the cut will depend, not only on your turf type, but also your choice of mower.
A cylinder mower is fitted with several blades arranged in a spiral located on a front cylinder. The cutting action is similar to that of a pair of scissors, and the more blades fitted, the finer the cut. These mowers are used where an immaculate sward is required. Choose a cylinder mower with a roller if you want to achieve a striped green lawn.
A rotary mower on the other hand is more suitable for general mowing of most turf areas. These are fitted with a horizontal blade that spins at high speed and cuts with a similar action to a scythe. Both cylinder and rotary mowers are available as either petrol driven or electric models. Your choice will come down to budget and suitability. A hover mower is a rotary mower that floats on a cushion of air and is useful for cutting slopes or even steep banks.
Unless you have a mulching mower, its best to collect lawn clippings, either during cutting using a box fitted to the mower, or after, by raking them off the surface of the lawn. Over time, if these clippings were left on the lawn they would cause a build up of thatch leading to drainage problems.
With electric mowers make sure a RCD is fitted. If you should accidentally cut through the cable, then the RCD will turn off the power.
Keep Your Grass Longer
Mow your grass on a higher setting. Longer grass will allow for the establishment of longer roots, which can reach more moisture in the soil even when the weather is hot and dry. Keeping grass longer will prevent it from drying out too quickly and ensure that roots are better protected by the longer blades.
Mowing the grass too short can cause damage. It can leave the lawn scorched to the point where the grass may not be able to recover. Luckily, this problem is totally avoidable. As a general practice, avoid mowing your grass shorter than three to three-and-a-half inches or cutting more than one-third of its height at once. Mowing more frequently will make it easier to mow to the right length while still adhering to these guidelines.
Keep in mind that if you choose to mow your grass short, you will have to water it more often and more lightly. Light and frequent watering will cause shorter roots. In turn, this increases stress during droughts.
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Keep Weeds Under Control Through Feeding
We understand that we need to fertilize our tomato plants in the garden or the houseplants on our window sills. However, its easy to ignore the need of fertilizing our lawns. Perhaps its because the individual grass plants all work together to create what we call the lawn. But that should be thought of as all the greens that will require feeding on the regular.
Fertilizing your grass and controlling weeds go hand in hand. As your grass absorbs the nutrients from the fertilizer, its root system expands and begins to fill any dry areas. Weed seeds rely on bare areas to germinate. When you get rid of those areas, youre actually hurting the weeds. You should be able to reach a stage where your lawn is so strong that it doesnt allow for weeds to grow due to your fertilization and other care efforts.
Winter Lawn Care Tips
During the winter, the grass is dormant and does not require as much care.
You can prepare for spring as early as the first frost by:
- Cutting the grass short in the late fall or early winter
- Aerating and fertilizing before the first frost
- Avoiding excess foot traffic to prevent damage, especially during frosty conditions
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Green Grass All Year: How Do They Do That
By Beaufort County Cooperative Extension
- GO GREEN, STAY GREEN: This photo of the Augusta National Golf Club at the Masters Tournament shows how perennial ryegrass over a Bermuda base can keep the course or lawn green all year long.
Im a very seasonal kind of guy I like different things from each season of the year.
In the spring, I look forward to lacrosse and watching the grass green up. To me, nothing says summer like an iron skillet full of squash and onions! This time of year, I look forward to things beginning to slow down. The leaves are an array of colors, and I love these cooler days so I can make a big pot of chili using my tomatoes from the summer garden. I also love checking out the local high school football teams. The greatest refuge of my teen years was sports, and this time of year is playoff time for high school football! It brings back great memories of great guys and great times. It sounds cliché now, but one thing I remember was the grass was always green. It was normal in Maryland where I grew up, but when I came to North Carolina to play lacrosse in college, the grass was never green in the winter. Lacrosse being a spring sport, it was dry, itchy and, well, just dead when we were in season.
Have you ever slowed down to ponder how they keep the grass on athletic fields so green this time of year? As a self-professed plant nerd, I had to find out why!
- Good idea
How To Keep Your Lawn Green In The Summer
There are several steps that can be taken to keep your lawn healthy and green even during the hottest, driest days of summer. Keeping your grass green throughout the summer months doesnt have to be overly complex. By following these tips with consistency, your lawn should remain beautiful all season long.
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Add Protective Chemicals In A Predetermined Order:
Not only are lawn chemicals potentially hazardous to the surrounding environment, but they are also designed for use in specific procedures. Haphazardly slathering your lawn in chemicals can work against you.
After starting with fertilizer infused with herbicide, do another round of fertilizer and couple it by spot-killing weeds that have infiltrated your lawn. This cycle should last about 1.5 months.
What Do I Need To Do To The Lawn In Autumn
It is important to keep on top of lawn care in the autumn months and one helpful tip is to remove the build up of dead grass or thatch using a metal tined rake. The removal of this thatch will reinvigorate the grass minimising the risk of fungal disease in warm, damp autumns.
Aerating the lawn is an equally important aspect of lawn care which you can do using a hollow tiner to push down into the lawn about 6cm. Then repeat this action moving backwards at 15cm intervals over the entire lawn. Creating these slots will enable air to get in, relieving compaction and improving drainage
Areas of bare lawn can be top dressed with old potting compost mixed with grass seed. Brush this in with a stiff birch besom or other broom so that some of the seed is worked into the soil surface.
You can also apply an autumn feed to give the lawn a boost going into winter. Unlike spring fertilisers, which are high in nitrogen, autumn fertilisers are high in potash to encourage root growth rather than leafy growth.
Fallen leaves need removing from the lawn surface or they can suffocate the grass beneath. Instead of raking up fallen leaves, try raising the height on your rotary mower and use it to suck them up. The collected mixture of chopped leaves and grass clippings will be great for the compost heap.
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How To Get A Thicker Lawn And Keep It
Thicker, lusher, healthier and more beautiful. If those words describe your lawn goals, success may be closer than you think. Transforming thin, lackluster grass into a thicker, healthier lawn isn’t difficult to achieve. With three easy stepsor one simple, three-in-one lawn boostyou can get a thicker lawn and put thin grass behind you. Then add three best practices to keep a thicker lawn, and you’ll enjoy a lawn that looks and feels great for years to come.
How to Get a Thicker Lawn:
How To Take Care Of Your Lawn Year Round
Regular year-round lawn care and maintenance is essential for a green, healthy lawn. Without it, your grass can become overgrown and more susceptible to all types of lawn diseases and outdoor pests. Seasonal lawn care and maintenance requirements change as temperatures rise and fall, so its important to pay attention to the time of year for proper care. Heres a helpful guide on how to take care of your lawn year-round in Northern NJ.
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Avoid Creating Run Off
If water is starting to puddle or run off its time to turn off or move the sprinkler to another spot. If it started to run off before you could give it a good soak then turn the sprinkler off for 15-20 minutes to allow the water to soak in before turning it back on again. Hoselinks Oscillating Sprinkler can be beneficial in this scenario as the constant movement gives the soil a brief break in which to absorb the water before more is sprayed on. This type of sprinkler is also fully adjustable, allowing it to reach right across the lawn or concentrate on one small space.
Final Thoughts On How To Make Your Lawn Green
If this seems like a lotdont stress it. Were here to help. Feel free to give us a call at any time to talk about how to make your neighbors green with envy because of a lawn thats just as green! Also, if you have any other tried and tested tips for supporting healthy grass, let us know in the comments!
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How To Match Fertilizer With Grass Styles
When it comes to choosing the right fertilizer for you and your lawn, its important to not only consider what type of grass you have, but also your goals. After youve done a soil test, youll know what sort of nutrients are lacking, and from that you can choose a fertilizer thats higher in one or a few of the essential components , phosphorus , potassium ).
Beyond that, there are specific fertilizers for well-established lawns , as well as those that have just been seeded . There are also fertilizers that contain additional herbicides to prevent weeds, as well as those that are phosphorus-free .
Take Care Of The Thatch
Thatch is a naturally occurring covering of pretty much just dead grass sticking to the soil. It is made up of stems, rhizomes, stolons, and roots that have not yet disintegrated. If the thatch layer grows to be more than 1/2 inch thick, it may be harmful to your green lawn and should be removed using a dethatching procedure.
If the thatch accumulation on your grass is less than 1/2 inch, you have a small thatch issue that is quite simple to solve. A vertical mower is required if the layer has become too thick.
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Overseeding Bermudagrass With A Cool
It works like this: A bermudagrass lawn is overseeded with a cool-season grass around September or October. As autumn approaches, the bermudagrass begins to go dormant while the freshly sown cool-season grass begins to germinate. By the arrival of winter, the cool-season grass has grown in and thrives in the cooler weather, hiding the dormant bermudagrass and providing a lush green look. By the arrival of spring, the cool-season grass has served its purpose and begins to die off as temperatures heat up and the bermudagrass begins its transition back out of dormancy. Finally, as summer returns the bermudagrass has reclaimed full control of the lawn and you have just achieved a year-round green lawn.
Lawns Need Air To Breathe
Lawns need oxygen as well as water so its important to keep your lawn aerated. Aeration involves perforating the soil at intervals to alleviate compaction, allowing water, air and nutrients to penetrate deep below the surface. The easiest and cheapest method is to push a garden fork into the ground at 15cm intervals over the entire lawn, although for large areas it may be easier to hire a machine to do the hard work so you dont have to. An aerated lawn will also be better at absorbing water rather than letting it run off.
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How Short To Cut Your Grass In The Summer
When it comes to mowing, during the summer months youll want to raise your mower blade. Why? Taller grass tends to have deeper roots, which allows plants to more easily access nutrients and withstand the demands of drought conditions. In addition, taller grass blades mean more shade, which discourages the growth of weeds, which compete with your turf for valuable moisture and food.
You can mow warm-season grassesSt. Augustine, Zoysia, Bermuda grass and Buffalo grassto between two and three inches tall during the hottest times of the year. Ryegrass, tall fescue and bluegrass are cool-season grasses and can be mowed to as high as your blade can go, or between three and four inches. Allow leaf clippings to remain on the lawn to help your landscape retain moisture. As with any time of year, avoid mowing more than a third of the grass blade at a time. Also, ensure that your mower blades are sharp, so that you are cutting and not tearing your grass, as this can add extra stress to your plants at an already challenging time of year.
Keep in mind that both mowing and watering needs in residential areas can vary widely, especially in a state as big as Texas. If your lawn is still struggling during the summer months, despite your best efforts, try calling in a lawn care professional to see if there is something else going on with your grass.
Now that you know more about how to water and mow during the summer, lets discuss a lawn maintenance schedule for this time of year.
