How to Maintain a Good-Looking Lawn

A well-aerated lawn offers an area for grassroots to expand, duplicate and absorb extra oxygen, wetness, and also nutrients. The plugs, composed of thatch and also dirt, quickly break apart and also decompose. If you’re an average homeowner, you spend 3.8 hours a week on yard work and mow your lawn 30 times a year. And while you may not realize it, your lawn pays you back for all this hard work. It functions like a giant air conditioner to aid cool your home. Right here are some ideas on maintaining lawn:

Tip 1:

For cool-climate grasses, make use of a 1-1/2 in. reducing height for the initial mowing of the year to eliminate dead grass and also enable even more sunlight to get to the crowns of the grass plants. Raise the blade throughout the warmth of the summer season to 2 or even more inches. A poorly maintained blade shreds grass, leaving it more susceptible to disease and in need of more nutrients to repair the damage. An unbalanced blade compounds the problem.

Tip 2: 

Deep watering helps establish deep roots that use subsurface water products. Light sprinklings wet only the grass and surface of the soil; this encourages shallow root growth and increases the need for more frequent watering. As a general rule, lawns require 1 to 2 in. of water per week, applied at three- or four-day intervals. Grass in sandy soils might require two times as much water because they drain pipes quickly. Grass in slow-draining clay dirt may require only half as much.

Tip 3:

The leading one-third of a blade of grass is thin and “leafy,” disintegrates promptly when reduced as well as can contribute up to one-third of the nitrogen your lawn needs. While it’s disintegrating, this light layer of trimmings also helps slow-moving water dissipation as well as maintains weeds from germinating. But the bottom two-thirds of a blade of grass is tough, “stemmy” and also slow down to decompose. It contributes to thatch, which when thick sufficient protects against sunlight, air, water and nutrients from reaching the soil. Cutting more than the top third also shocks grassroots and exposes stems, which tend to burn in direct sunlight.

Tip 4: 

Grass origins need oxygen along with water and nutrients. Aerating—the process of removing small plugs of soil produces multiple benefits. It improves air-to-soil interaction. It allows water and fertilizer to penetrate the soil deeper and easier. It decreases soil compaction as well as open space for roots to expand. It removes some thatch and stimulates the breakdown of the remaining thatch. The best tool for this task is a gas-powered aerator, available at most rental centers.