Lawn envy: lawn care tips to make sure that's your neighbor's problem, not yours.

Let’s say you are starting with bare soil.
You don’t want to pay to have it sodded so you decide to start from seed.

This can be done and you can do it cheaply and have a beautiful lawn in one season!
Don’t let the landscapers tell you otherwise.

What part of the country you live in; the climate you live in determines which of the many types of grass you should grow.
Do you live in the southern or western states and have mild winters and hot summers?
You should have warm season grasses.

If you live in the Midwest, northern or eastern U.S, you guessed it..cool season grasses.
These are suited for hot summers and cold winters.

Follow the directions on the bag and make sure you water, water, water.
I don’t mean put the sprinkler out in the dirt and let it run for an hour, that will just wash the seed away.
Just go out with a handheld wand or sprayer and get the soil and the seed moist.
Once in the morning and again in the evening should be enough.

Most towns put watering bans in place but most will allow you to use a handheld sprayer.
Be sure to check with your municipality first though.

It will take up to two weeks for the grass to sprout and once that happens, you don’t have to water as much.

Remember that grass is one of the best groundcovers in terms of impact resistance and it has a root system enables it to spread quickly.

In drought conditions or when the soil is deficient in nutrients, some opportunistic lawn weeds can quickly take over. Learn about

how to identify and control common weeds.

If the drainage is poor or fertilizer is applied heavy handed, fungal diseases can move in and with it can come lawn grubs. If you have a 7 year old at home who likes to dig up these so dubbed "yucky bugs" and toss them into the street (as I did)you need do nothing else. If not, take a look at our grub control page.

Another issue is thatch that can build up and begin to smother your lawn.

Once your lawn is established, i.e. you have mowed it 2 or 3 times; water it only to give it 1 to 1-1/2 inches of water per week.
This includes rainfall.

Don’t get into the habit of turning on your sprinkler on a hot Saturday if 2 days ago produced 2 inches of rain.
The grass does not need it.

A weekly watering will train the roots of the grass to go deeper and require LESS water.

In most areas, there will be at least one or two hot, dry spells that will leave your lawn looking on the brown side.
This is not damaging to the lawn, rather it is going into dormancy.
This is normal and is the plant’s way of coping with the change in precipitation.

If you don’t like the way this looks, then go ahead and water.
You still only need 1-1/2 inches per week.

If this doesn’t bother you, let nature take care of it.
As I said, grass is a wonderful groundcover and can survive most things nature throws at it.

Once you walk on the dormant grass and can see the footprints, it’s time to give it a watering but still not more than is necessary.

In the early fall when the rains came back, our lawn did not.

The next spring when the rains came, our lawn was as brown as tree bark.

Ever the “do-it-yourselfers” that we are..we literally pulled up all the very dead grass, bagged it in yard waste bags and had to pay the garbage company quite a bit to haul away those 50 bags of dead sod!
We seeded and fertilized and 3 years later, our lawn is beautiful again with hardly any traces of that drought.

Lawn care tip to self: If there is ever a drought like that again WATER the grass!

Read a few suggestions about

mowing your lawn.
Most grasses need a good soil, meaning one that is rich in nutrients.
They need nitrogen firstly but also phosphorous and potassium.
The balance of these essential nutrients is listed in that order on all chemical lawn fertilizers.

Excessively high nitrogen levels will green up the lawn quickly but this often makes the leaf grow faster than the root system can support. The phosphorous gets those roots growing and the potassium helps the grass resist disease and drought.

The ratios of those nutrients vary depending on the season or stage of life for the lawn.
There should be very little nitrogen for instance, in fall or late season fertilizers and a higher phosphorous number in new lawns.

Organic fertilizers are slower to release the nutrients.

This is more of a natural process and releases the nutrients as the fertilizer naturally decomposes.
Organic fertilizers also improve the soil, something chemical fertilizers cannot do

It is a good practice to sharpen the blades of your lawn mower at the beginning of mowing season.
This will cut the blades of grass cleaner, making the overall appearance lusher. (like a good haircut)

A mulching mower will chop the cut blades into small enough pieces that they can be left on the lawn and fall in between the blades and decompose, adding back some nitrogen.
Take care not to cut the grass too short.

Watch for more lawn care tips as the seasons change. Sign up for our free monthly ezine so we can send you more ways to fix up your place for the season.