A lawn can take up a lot of your time–especially if you want to keep your grass green and healthy. So if you are care about your lawn and want to keep your lawn in tip-top shape, here are five tips for you.
1) Fertilize Often
If you want your lawn always looking its best, it is best to fertilize your lawn about four times a year. But even if you not a lawn connoisseur, it is still important to fertilize semi-annually and slice seed when needed (see: https://www.gardenersguide.net/will-slice-seeding-help-my-lawn/) to prevent a host of lawn problems such as weed growth. If you are fertilizing semi-annually, start fertilizing in the beginning of Spring and once more right before the fall comes. As a general rule, it is best to fertilize when your grass is in the process of growing. If you fertilize while your grass is dormant, you promote the growth of weed—which essentially makes the fertilizer useless.
2) Change Your Irrigation Rate
As a general rule, July is the driest month so it will need the most water. So base your irrigation rate based on the amount of irrigation needed in July. For instance, October will only need 1/10 of the irrigation of July as it rains often. June is also a dry month so you should irrigate with with 3/4 of the water you would use for July. The beginning of August is pretty dry but rain starts to pour towards the end of the month. Taking that into account, you should use slightly less water than you would in June. This is of course all an approximation so the point is to base your irrigation schedule based on how much rain occurs during the month.
3) Mow Carefully
Mowing is an extremely important component of lawn care and lawn health. However, mowing the wrong way can be detrimental to your lawn. Mowing too short can cause weed to grow. A mowing height of 2-3 inches is the preferred height as it looks much better, has less weed problems, and will have deeper roots. For your lawn to look its best, you should aim to mow once a week. If your grass grows much faster than average, you should aim for twice a week.
4) Prevent Scalping
Scalping is when more than 1/3 of the turf is removed in one mowing. This aggressive type of mowing exposes the stem tissue of the blades of glass. In turn, the grass becomes structurally weak, leaving it more susceptible to weed invasion. Furthermore, scalping turns the the color of the grass brown or yellow. The best way to prevent scalping is to mow your lawn often, as suggested above.
5) Reduce Your Chance of Patch Diseases
Patch diseases are when patches of turf die around the same area. This can be expensive and time consuming as it can lead to you having to replace a large area of your turf. Although controlling patch diseases is difficult, there are steps you can take to reduce your chances of your turf getting patch diseases. For one you can prepare your soil correctly as well as selecting high quality seed and sod prior to putting in your turf. Additionally, remember to mow your lawn often and make sure it is watered properly.
