Grass & Lawn Care For Beginners
Maybe you just bought your first house with a yard. Or maybe youve been a mow it and forget it kind of person for years. Many people have no idea where to start, or even what their lawn needs to thrive. Check out our tips for lawn care for beginners to grow a soft, green yard to enjoy all year long!
How To Take Care Of Your Lawn
This article was co-authored by Jeremy Yamaguchi. Jeremy Yamaguchi is a Lawn Care Specialist and the Founder/CEO of Lawn Love, a digital marketplace for lawn care and gardening services. Jeremy provides instant satellite quotes and can coordinate service from a smartphone or web browser. The company has raised funding from notable investors like Y Combinator, Joe Montana, Alexis Ohanian, Barbara Corcoran and others.There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 88% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 73,433 times.
Dreaming of a lush, green, healthy lawn? Taking good care of your lawn will keep the grass healthy and prevent dreaded brown and bare spots from forming, and it doesnt have to be a constant struggle against the elements. Making simple changes to how you water, mow, and fertilize your lawn can make a big difference. Check out the tips below to learn about the best things you can do for your lawn to keep it healthy!
Can Deceased Sod Come Back To Life
Dead grass isnt coming back, so youll need to take steps to regrow your lawn. You can replace the grass by seeding or sodding or installing a new type of landscaping material such as mulch, rocks or groundcover. Youll need to first remove the dead grass and prep the soil before laying the new sod.
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Lawn Care Tip #1 Fertilize Your Texas Lawn Year
Some people take a winter break from lawn care and landscape maintenance, figuring that since the grass doesnt grow as fast during the Texas cold season, they can lay off lawn care basics like fertilizing. But, this is just not the case. Consistency is the key!
We recommend a year-round lawn care program that includes fertilization, pre-emergent and post-emergent weed control.
Now, lets focus on fertilization. Your lawn needs ongoing nutrition. Consistent, year-round fertilization prevents regression in the lawn. Then, weeds can more easily crop up, and a weak lawn can trigger other issues in the upcoming growing season. We know it takes longer to rescue a lawn that has declined in winter than if a homeowner would have stayed the course with fertilization.
Scraping And Raking Of Lawn:
The lower part of an old lawn may get matted and woody along with the formation of a hard crust. For such lawn, the grass is scraped at the ground level with the help of a sickle in months of April and may. Buy sickle online in India.
Scraping is followed by raking to break the crust. Where the condition of the lawn is good, hard and thorough raking is done both ways to loosen the old runners and to aerate the soil. Click here to buy garden rake online in India.
You may like to read about 10 tips for raking leaves.
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How To Get A Beautiful Green Lawn Without Chemicals
Nothing sets off your home and garden like a lush, green lawn. It’s a living framework that makes trees, flowerbeds and shrub borders look their best. Lawns are the ideal carpet for outdoor recreation and entertaining. They draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and give off oxygen, and they help keep air temperatures cooler in the summertime.
But our love affair with lawns comes with a cost. Each year U.S. homeowners apply more than 3 million tons of synthetic lawn fertilizers and 70 million pounds of lawn pesticides and herbicides. These chemicals pose serious hazards to our children, our pets and wildlife of all kinds. To make matters worse, it’s estimated that 65 percent of these chemicals find their way into our lakes, rivers and underground aquifers. With water shortages and droughts becoming commonplace, it’s also becoming much more difficult and more expensive to pamper a chemical- and water-addicted lawn.
Converting to a natural, low-maintenance lawnone that you can feel good about and that’s also low maintenanceis easier than you may think.
The Most Important Lawn Care Tips For Texas Homeowners
What does it take to get the best lawn on the block? Maintaining your Texas lawn might feel like a lot of work. You might be wondering what lawn care steps you really have to take to keep your yard in good shape.
Youre not the only one.
Do you have time to give your lawn the care it really needs to look great? What if you mess something up or overlook a critical task? And, do you have time to maintain your lawn as you should?
Homeowners sometimes ask us for lawn care tips, and we like to educate property owners about lawn care and maintenance so they understand whats involved in achieving a beautiful lawn.
The good news is, you can hire a pro to help care for your Denton or Collin County, TX lawn if all this feels like more than you can handle. And, a great lawn care company will care about your lawn maybe even more than you do.
Here are 7 of the most important Texas lawn care tips, in our opinion. Based on decades of in-field experience delivering lawn care and landscape services in the Flower Mound, Highland Village and Lewisville, TX area, weve found if you follow these key guidelines consistently, you will improve the health and appearance of your lawn.
Ready to get started?
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Protect Animals And Insects
It is important to protect birds, beneficial insects, earthworms, and other organisms that play an important role in keeping your lawn healthy.
- Birds and predatory insects feed on grubs and other pests.
- Insects, earthworms, beneficial fungi, and other micro-organisms break down thatch and aerate the soil.
The best way to protect these beneficial animals and insects is to only use insecticides and fungicides when absolutely needed. See Understanding your lawn’s lifecycle for more information.
Handling Weeds In Your New Grass
It happens. That’s because dormant weed seeds are always present in the soil, and they’re waiting to sprout when they get a chance. Weeds pop up now and then among newly planted grass, but that doesnt mean you should treat them right away. A good rule of thumb is to wait until you’ve mowed your new grass at least 4 times before you treat the weeds with weed-control products. The exception is if you are using a weed-control product specifically designed to be used when seeding, such as Scotts® Turf Builder® Triple Action Built for Seeding . As always, remember to read and follow the product label directions for the weed-control product you are using.
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Mow Your Lawn Regularly
Cut your lawn at least once a week in summer and once every two weeks during spring, autumn and warm winters. Regular trimming encourages the roots to spread, which will help to fill gaps and block out weeds.
In summer, raise the cutting height of your mower to leave the lawn longer around 5-10cm as this will make it less prone to going brown in dry weather. Keep your mower well maintained and the blades sharp.
Learn the benefits of a range of mowers including electric, battery and petrol powered machines, in Alan Titchmarshs No Fuss Guide to choosing a lawn mower:
For help on choosing the right lawn mower for your garden see our Buyers Guide videos and expert lawn mower reviews:
Mistakes To Avoid When Maintaining Your Lawn During The Summer
It is true that we sometimes tend to neglect our lawn in the spring and try to make up for it in the summer. However, this is not the best idea. Here are some common mistakes to avoid in summer:
Summer is a particularly tricky time for your lawn, but giving it the right care can help ensure it stays healthy and maintains its dense, vigorous appearance
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Just Apply And Sit Back
How to make lawn green and thick. If yours is looking a bit drab, green it up fast using several techniques to get your grass at the right height and fed properly. This requires no special work. A balanced fertiliser with potassium and nitrogen to help build a thick lawn.
How to make the grass in your lawn green and thick having a beautiful, attractive lawn feels so rewarding, so it can be very frustrating when it’s not in tip top shape. The other half is stabilized to limit leaching. Adding lime is advised to decrease the acidity of acidic soil.
Since starting operation in 2016, thick and green has become the area leader in simple, effective lawn treatment. Weeds, thin grass blades, and dry, brown patches can quickly make your lawn look bad. A lot of diseases and weeds like acidic soil, so if you want a safe, thick green lawn, its an important thing to recognize and correct.
Use these tips to help your lawn stay green and lush. Just follow our guide to learn how to make your grass greener, so you can finally have a lawn youre proud of. Having a lush green lawn will help your property stand out and conveys pride of ownership.
The takeaway is that making a lawn green and thick is not difficult, but it does take a bit of time and patience. If you follow these 9 tips on how to make your lawn green and thick you should have a lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood. The new organic lawn fertilizer.
Renovate Or Replenish A Lawn
Sowing can be done in the spring, from March to May. Its also an excellent time to replenish a damaged lawn. To repair areas where the lawn is damaged, we use a re-grinding turf. It allows easy and quick replacement of surfaces where the earth appears.
Renovation of the Lawn with Turf
Note: Average 65 to 100% of the water needs of a sustainable lawn are filled by natural precipitation. Lawns require only about 2.5 cm of water per week.
The turf grows very fast. In a few weeks, the bare areas start to become green. Your lawn should look better! Let pass a few more weeks before mowing.
This process can be done at any time of the season. If you think about additional watering, The ideal times is spring and autumn.
In prolonged periods of drought, grass goes dormant and turns yellow but not dead they do not need extra watering. Once the precipitation returns, it will return to regular appearance.
Resource: How To Renovating the Lawn
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How To Care For Bahia Grass
Bahia Grass is a grass that is ideally suited to the sunny conditions here in South Florida. Bahia grass loves the sun and heat, while shunning cold and shady conditions which makes it a popular choice for southern coastal regions where the winters are mild. Bahia grass grows via stolons which form thick grass coverage that can stand up to quite a bit of foot traffic. Due to its growth pattern it is less likely than other warm-weather grasses to aggressively spread into your gardens landscaping. Bahia grass is also popular due to its drought tolerance, as well as the fact that it requires little care not plagued by disease or pests and able to grow in less than optimal soil.
Fill Bare Lawn Patches
Rather than letting bare patches spoil the look of your lawn its easy to sow grass seed over the raked soil. Alternatively, make fillers from unused turf. When reshaping the lawn, collect up the strips and place them 5cm apart in a compost-filled seed tray, then grow them on outside or in a cold frame.
To replace the bare patch, cut out a square or rectangle around the area and, using a hand trowel, dig up the soil in the rectangle to whatever depth of soil your new turf strip is. Gently lay the turf, cut to fit, over the patch. Firm it down so that there are no gaps and your new turf is no higher or lower than your existing lawn.
Watch Alan Titchmarshs No Fuss Guide to repairing a lawn patch and youll have a ship-shape sward in no time:
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Lawn Care During Drought
In extreme heat conditions, with prolonged periods without precipitation, it is important to remember that your lawn is stressed. In this situation, it is best to let the grass become dormant.
Several types of grass survive in hot, dry weather, including Manila grass, Bermuda grass, St Augustine grass, Bison grass, Bahia grass, and Fescues. They become dormant in dry weather, no longer needing food or water. When the rain and cooler temperatures come back, your lawn will turn green and healthy.
Remember the following tips during a drought:
Is It Better To Seed Or Sod
Sod Simply put, sod is the most expensive option because you are essentially paying someone else for time and materials of growing the grass. Seed Financially, seeding is an appealing choice as the cost of even the best seed mix is still a lot cheaper than sod, so if budget is your driving factor, seed wins out.
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Lawn Color And Texture
Different varieties of grass offer different colors and textures. If you and your family enjoy walking barefoot in your yard or if you are looking for a dark green grass as opposed to a lighter or brighter color, it will be essential to match the grass variety to your needs.
Grasses can be soft, thick, and dense with fine or thicker blades, or they can be sturdier and have more of a close-cropped and almost horizontal growth. Softer grasses that do well in warmer climates include Bermudagrass and Bentgrass. Grasses that spread by stolon, or horizontal stems, tend to have less of a required for regular mowing, while grasses that spread by rhizomes tend to grow more rapidly and require more frequent mowing.
Colors of grass can range from light, bright, almost lime green like through to dark green like Perennial Ryegrass and Hard Fescue. Grass can also have shiny or bright blades, or it can be dull or matte in color and range from almost a forest green to a more gray-green color.
Each type of lawn has different requirements for care, but there are similarities across lawn varieties as well as across climate zones. To help understand the best lawn care practices, a closer look at what should be done to maintain and care for the lawn in spring, summer, autumn, and winter can help you to plan your annual lawn care routine.
How Can I Protect My Lawn When The Grass Turns Brown
You can take care of a brown lawn by limiting further stress on grass plants. Mow less often, or not at all, during a drought. If you do mow, set the mower height higher than normal at about 3 ½ inches. Tall blades of grass shade the soil, which reduces evaporation and retains moisture. When grass is dormant or beginning to grow again, its best not to walk on it.
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Use A Fertilizer With Time
These fertilizers are less likely to burn your lawn with excess nitrogen, and slow-release allows the roots to absorb the nutrients as needed. In most instances, choose fertilizers containing at least 35% 50% of their nitrogen supply in the slow-release form, such as sulfur-coated urea, methylene urea or various natural organic products. With fast-acting fertilizers, some nutrients are washed away with watering or rain, and the wasted fertilizer pollutes groundwater supplies.
