Joe Rebout's Complete Lawn Care and Snow Removal LLC

Unfortunately for lawn care there is no such thing as a magic wand to create a better lawn. But there are some basic lawn care tips that may help you as you go the long way to building a lush, healthy lawn you’ll be proud to walk over. Below are three of these lawn care tips to an almost perfect lawn:

Lawn Care Tip No. 1: Make sure you mow the lawn the correct height.

It’s hard to believe, I know, but there is actually more to mowing than just cutting the grass every Saturday. Height is important and you need it right according to the season. There are numerous reasons for this. Grass is ½ root and ½ blade. If you cut your grass short, you shorten the root of the plant and cause it to become weak. The extra length in the blade is also needed to collect the sunlight to help the grass grow.

The lower you cut, the more time it would take for them to grow back, which for you means no mowing for a longer period. If this is your mindset, you need to change it. Because if you cut too low, chances are the grass will die because it’s blades won’t have enough surface to absorb the sunlight and perform photosynthesis, a process essential to its growth and survival.

Getting the mowing height right for your type of lawn and for the season therefore is one of the most fundamental steps to a beautiful lawn. A lawn care tip for early fall or spring would be to cut the grass to a height of 2 – 3 inches. Most grasses during this particular season do well at that height. If, however, you are cutting in the summer, a lawn care tip would be to set it even higher.

The minimum recommended height for most turf grasses is around 1.5 inches. If you want a healthy lawn, make sure that you never go below that for the last mowing of the season. Also, one excellent lawn care tip is to leave the clippings on the lawn after you mow. This not only saves time and energy, but the clippings decompose and add vital nutrients back into the soil.

Lawn Care Tip No. 2: Use a sharp blade.

It does not matter what type of mower you use. What is important is the condition of the blade. Dull blades end up tearing the grass, instead of cutting them cleanly. This causes unnecessary destruction of your turf grass, which can be detrimental to your lawn’s health.

A good lawn care tip would be to take a close look at a grass blade a few days after mowing. You will notice if the blade is dull because a jagged brown line is usually present across the tip of the cut grass. If you see this, then your blade needs sharpening.

Lawn Care Tip No. 3: Regulate the water intake.

While it is true that your grass needs water to grow, understand that grass has shallow roots that do not grow in too deep into the soil. In fact, most grasses only require 1 – 1.5 inches of water per week, which is enough to moisten the soil to 4 – 6 inches below the surface for clay soils and 8 – 10 inches for sandy soils. For this reason, over watering your lawn may cause more damage than a lack of water.

A valuable lawn care tip is to invest in a rain gauge. Do not guess at how much water your lawn is getting.

Our first glimpse of warm weather after months of nothing but frost usually starts early in March, and with that, many homeowners are tempted to fertilize and seed lawns during that brief period of warmth.However, it should be noted that March is much too early for Spring lawn care or to either fertilize or control weeds in the lawn. That’s because cold weather often returns some time after and spring lawn care practices would have to be put on hold until the first “real” warm weather shows itself.

Fertilizing

For best results in spring lawn care, do it after April 1. Fertilizing lawns while the season has yet to change from late winter to early spring is not normally beneficial to the turf grass plants. They will remain oblivious to any spring lawn care treatment you apply as the ground is much too cold for any real growth to occur.

On the other hand, early fertilization can encourage lush growth during periods when cold temperature stress can still occur. The key, therefore, is to achieve a balance between these two periods so that your spring lawn care practices will not be for naught.

For spring lawn care, select fertilizers that contain slow release nitrogen sources. These will be listed on the fertilizer bag as IBDU, sulfur coated urea, triazone, methylene urea, or as a natural organic fertilizer.

Your fertilizer applications should not exceed more than 1 pound of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. For instance, if you want to apply 1 pound of actual nitrogen, then add 5 pounds of a 20-5-10 fertilizer.

When fertilizing, don’t forget to scrape off any fertilizer that was applied to sidewalks or driveways. Fertilizers have a tendency to run very rapidly on smooth surfaces, as opposed to turf grass areas where the runoff is only minimal. When fertilizers run, there is only one place they end up in – ground water. So avoid this malady by removing any fertilizer spillage on driveways. This is an important spring lawn care practice that can help protect our water resources.

Seeding

Spring lawn care in the form of seeding is also possible if done properly. There are a few things you need to consider, first of which is to make sure that the site is evaluated to determine the need for soil amendments. As part of your spring lawn care practice, conduct a soil test and incorporate the needed soil amendments according to the test result.

Next, grade the site. What’s more, it should be graded in such a way as to allow it to slope away from buildings. Leaving depressions in the lawn will only create future problems. It is best if you take care of this problem now with this helpful spring lawn care hint.

After grading the site, it is now time for you to select the right seed. The extent of your spring lawn care practice here depends on what you plan to do with your lawn. Did you mean to have it put up for show? If yes, then select a seed mix containing improved varieties of Kentucky bluegrass.