Waking up in the morning and looking out of your bedroom window to see your luscious green perfectly manicured lawn is a great feeling. Although this is not something that is easy to achieve or maintain. Regular lawn care and maintenance will help your garden to look as beautiful as possible. There is a lot of miss-information out there and too much care can also lead to disaster for your lawn.
There are some guidelines that will help you on how to take care of your lawn. With a little effort, you can make the lawn almost as green as your neighbours are when they look over the fence with envy.
1. Watering the lawn
Watering the lawn is the most important step of how to take care of your lawn. The time of day that you water your lawn matters a great deal. If you water your plants in the middle of the day then you may not achieve the best results as water can evaporate unevenly. The best time to water your lawn is in the morning or evening. This allows water to distribute itself evenly throughout your lawn.
2. Mowing your lawn
Mowing the lawn is another important task in taking care of your lawn. One of the most common mistakes that many homeowners make is that they will cut their grass too low. It might look a lot neater and mean that you don’t need to mow the lawn as often, but it is not healthy for the lawn. Ideally you want to keep the grass taller than 5cm.
3. Hire a professional lawn service
Nothing beats having a professional lawn care service offer their expertise. They will have the experience and the knowledge to quickly identify any problems and provide solutions. A professional landscaper will notice things that you will not be able to see and give you the peace of mind to know that under their care, your lawn will continue to grow and look its best.
4. Examine any lawn problems
If you notice that there are some problem areas where you either have too much growth or dry patches of dirt you may want to see if you can get to the bottom of what is happening. Some areas of your lawn might need some extra special attention. You should conduct this type of inspection on a regular basis as you don’t want to leave it until a patch of your lawn has turned brown before you act.
If you want to as well, you can take pictures of your lawn so that you can monitor its progress throughout the year. This can be very helpful should you ever consider installing a sprinkler system as you can refer to these images to plan the location of each sprinkler head.
5. Understand your local climate
When you take care of your lawn, you must keep the weather in mind. Not all lawns are created equal. Depending on where you are in the world and what the local drainage is like you may find that you need to make some adjustments to how much you water your lawn. To get the answers you need it is a good idea that you do your research into what your neighbours that have particularly nice lawns are doing.
Not only will this give you valuable local knowledge, it can also be a great way to meet your neighbours. Starting a conversation with even the shyest of people with “Your lawn looks perfect…” is guaranteed to get them talking about their lawn care routine. If they use a local landscaping company to manage it, then you know where you need to direct your follow up questions.
6. Be prepared for winter
When it comes to the inevitable colder months your grass may become dormant. There is little that you can do during this time until the ground unfreezes and the grass revives itself. After a few years, you will have gotten used to your lawns quirks and patterns and be able to respond accordingly. Timing is everything so being able to respond to the needs of your lawn will keep it looking green and healthy.
7. Leave grass clippings where they fall
This might shock some people but grass clippings will not hang around for very long as they decompose very quickly. They provide essential nutrients for the grass to keep growing healthy and strong. Grass clippings may be a great natural way to take care of your lawn.
This is only advised if you cut your grass regularly and the clippings are not excessive. You can even scoop some of the clippings up and use it as a fertilizer in your flower beds too.
8. Keep the blades of your mower sharp
This will make sure that when they cut the grass it is a clean cut. Blunt blades shred the grass and cause long term damage. Having your blades sharpened once a year will do the trick. You might want to do this more often if you notice that your grass is not being cut cleanly after you finish mowing.