7 Mistakes Homeowners Make With Their Lawn
Don’t be one of them.
For some homeowners cutting the grass once a week and never fertilizing it is just fine with them and this article may not be for you. But for those who seek a lawn with lush green grass that make you feel as though you are on the greens at the Augusta National need you need to read further.
Taking care of your lawn can be really easy if you know what your doing. I know getting your lawn to a state of perfection can be a lot of work at first but if you can push through those times where it looks like nothing is happening you will be more than satisfied with the lawn you have created. Most of the time it could be that you are over looking one key element that keeps you from having the yard of the month in your neighborhood.
Here are 7 mistakes that could be keeping you from that beautiful lush lawn.
1. Fertilizing not enough
Grass uses resources you never knew it needed. It pulls these elements year round and if you are not fertilizing like you should you might have a patchy lawn with weeds. Your lawn should be feed four times a year, the start of spring, late spring, summer and fall with a high quality fertilizer using the right amounts. If you have weeds it is a good chance you are not feeding your lawn the nutrients it needs to keep them from popping up. Remeber that weeds rob the nutrients from the ground that grass needs. Some weeds actually put off a chemical that kills any grass that is surrounding it up to 6 inches.
If you don’t know exactly when to feed your lawn then download my FREE GRASS FEEDING SCHEDULE
Just like with everything else plant zoning makes a difference. If you live in the north you will have most likely you have more success with cool season grasses such as fescue and Kentucky blue grass. These grasses really thrive in the spring and fall but take a seat during the warmer months of summer. So scheduling will be different. If you live in the northern states download my Northern Grass Feeding Schedule.
If you the southern states is were you reside then you have a host of grass that you can grow. Bermuda, cenepede and zoysia just to name a few. You will also need a schedule that will consider with the type of grass you are growing. Download the Southern Grass Feeding Schedule.
These feeding schedule will get your lawn back to greatness and not a splotchy mess.
If you have more weeds than grass you may need to super charge your lawn to get it back in shape. Take a look at SUPERCHARGING YOUR LAWN. This will help you take your lawn to the next step.
2. Watering to live not to thrive
Along with underfeeding, watering the wrong way will either drown your grass or dry your grass out. The way to get your grass grow properly is to schedule a watering a few times a week instead of a couple minutes a day to encourage growth and strong roots. To know if you are water as you should always start with the weather. A rain that lasts for about 15 minutes is not enough to really soak the ground and get deep into the root zone of your plants. So always plan to water 20 -40 minutes to allow water to reach the roots. The best way to keep up with watering is to have a water system. If you are going to invest time and money into your lawns life you need to have a watering system you can count on to hit every square inch of your lawn. Watering with a hose won’t be efficient enough to reach the entire lawn. Some areas may get to much and other areas won’t get enough. So invest in an irrigation system you can set it and forget it.
Here are a couple of home sprinkler systems you can install yourself.
– Rainbird
– Orbit
3. It’s to SHORT!
Mowing is the number one maintenance thing that can either make your lawn or break it. First of all I am going to discuss height with you. The longer your grass is the longer your roots will be. Grasses make sugars from their blades that is used to grow longer roots so if you cut your lawn to a height of scalping then you are not allowing your grass to produce the sugars that is needed to grow in turn will starve your lawn to the point of death no matter how much fertilizer you put on it. Then the weeds start to take over.
Identifying your grass is key to knowing how high to mow. Most cool season grasses like the hieght of about 3-4 inches. On the flip side of that coin your warm season grasses will be a little more forgiving at a height of 2-3 inches.
4. Don’t forget about the weeds.
It is very important that your weeds don;t get out of hand. Even letting a few live in your lawn can mean more the next year and mor the neat and before you know you are right back where you started. It is best practice to hit them early and fast before they spread their seeds. A good weed control schedule can be a life saver when summer finally rolls around. Dandelions, chick weed are just a few of the lawn terroists that come to mind but they can take over in a second. The weed and feed has not always worked in a way of killing weeds. It seems to me that it is feed right along with the grass. That is just what I have observed over the years of taking care of lawns. I always use a broad spectrum preemergent or post emergent that is specifically made for killing weeds. Below I will name a few pre-emergents and post-emergents I use that could help you in the fight against weeds.
– Preen
– Scott’s weed ex
5. Not testing your soil
Soil testing is one of the easiest and most important THING you can do before starting any type of lawn care. Many homeowners are not aware of this and spend to much time guessing ND TROUBLE SHOOTING THEIR lawn PROBLEMS. You are probably asking where do I get a soil test. Your local extention office can certainly lead you in the right direction and will most likely be a little more accurate when deciding what you need for your lawn. In my area they actually go over the results that way you can understand it when you are looking at it later. Grass needs a ph of 6 – 6.5 to thrive. To know what your lawn needs to keep it at this ph you must feed it the nutrients it requires.
6. Needs O2 to live
Just like us and most living things on this planet need oxygen to live. With out O2 most living things will die. What makes you think your grass is different. If you have weeds and especially clover I can guarantee you have a depleted amount of oxygen in your soil. Compacted soil, clay soil to be exact, does not let in a lot of oxygen. Therefore you have a soil that is acidic and grass cannot not live in that. Aerating your lawn will open up the ground so oxygen and water can move in improving the soil for your grass to grow. Once or twice is sometimes all you need to keep your lawn in an aerobic enviroment.
7. Bagging your clippings
Clippings can be your best freind in saving you money. Clipping breakdown and add nitrogen to your lawn. Now, do be confused when you see people who don’t cut their lawn for three or four weeks and they leave their clipping. No, that hurts your lawn. I’m talking about the clippings that for those of you who are religiously cutting your lawn when it needs to be cut and not waiting until you can’t see the kids anymore when they go out to play. A good schedule would be to bag every 3 or four times you cut. That should give your old blipping time to decompose and not cause a build-up of thatch.