An average homeowner should spend a minimum of four hours a week working on the yard and mowing the lawn to keep it green and healthy. You may not notice it but your lawn actually pays you back for all your hard work by serving as a huge air conditioning system to help cool your surroundings. It releases oxygen in the air and traps a lot of dust and dirt so that you and your home are healthy. It also gives you a nice place to enjoy playing croquet.
The best thing about this is that you don’t have to tire yourself over your lawn just to keep it nice and greet. Here are six best tips to do to enjoy a healthy lawn. These are good for grasses like fescue, bluegrass, Bermuda grass and zoysia.
1. The cutting height is very important – For those cool-weather grasses, utilize a 1 inch cutting height during the year’s first mowing. This is to help remove wilted grass and let more sunlight get in to reach those crowns of the pretty grass. Try to raise the blade during summer heat to about two inches. Then at the year’s last cutting, lower it down to 1 inch. If you have warm-weather grass, the height must rise and lower to ½ inch. Make sure that when you adjust the height of the blade you are measuring it from a hard surface and down to the mower deck’s bottom. Add ¼ inch when you are measuring it because some blades usually sit ¼ inch above the deck’s bottom. Visit VALUEQ deals, you can find great discounts on lawnmower blades and tires. For lawn mower tires, there’s a great deal for SET Of TWO 13×5.00-6 Turf Tires for Garden Tractor Lawn Mower Riding Mower on sale for $34.95 can be f
2. Make sure that your mower’s blade is sharp – A sharp mower’s blade can cut grass evenly and cleanly in just one swift, while a dull one can just tear the grass instead of just trimming it. Grass that is damaged becomes yellow in color and it will need a lot of nutrients and water to help recover. In addition, yellow grass is prone to disease. A blade that is not balanced may damage your lawn mower so it is important to balance and sharpen it three times each year. This is enough to keep the cutting edge sharp. Check out some of the VALUEQ deals wherein you can avail a huge discount for Manganese Steel Lawn Mower Blades Six-tooth Garden Grass Trimmer Brush Headed Cutter –Red. They are only for $12.99 more than 50% discount.
3. Soaks are better than sprinkles – Sprinkles only help moisten the soil’s surface and the grass. This will help motivate the roots to grow, thus it needs more watering. Lawns usually need 2 inches of water per week may it either be from you or Mother Nature. You may water it with three-day intervals but it usually depends on the soil, soil’s condition, grass type or temperature. Lawns in clay type of soil need half as much watering, while lawns in sandy soil need about twice as much water because they usually drain faster.
When the lawn dies or loses resiliency it needs water. So water it until the soil becomes moist up to five inches down. Then you may water it again when two inches of the soil dry out. To know how much water can your sprinkler release, get a cake pan, and then turn on the sprinkler, then check how long it takes for the water to reach one inch of the soil. It is always best to water grass in the morning because the pressure of water is high and only a few amounts of water are lost during evaporation. The lawn has a lot of time to dry out before the night falls. A lawn that is wet overnight is more prone to disease coming from molds and fungi. Lawns that are watered properly developed healthy and deep roots. Use impact sprinklers because they can help deliver water fast. It has less evaporation time.
Lawns that are not watered well produce grass that has shallow roots. Use oscillating sprinklers because they can help toss the water high enough so more water evaporates before they can reach the soil.
4. Only one-third of the grass blade should be mowed – The top part of the grass is the blade and it is a lot leafy and thin so they wilt faster when you cut them and they add some nitrogen in your lawn when cut. This is why it is better to leave clippings after mowing because they help a lot by slowing water during evaporation and help control weed germination.
On the other hand, the bottom part of the grass is tough and they take a long time to decompose. They just contribute to the thatch and when these are thick enough, they prevent air, water, sunlight and nutrients from getting to the soil. Cutting the top part a little will also help in stressing the grassroots and this will expose stems that burn when exposed to sunlight.
So if you want to achieve two inches of grass height, you have to cut it once it reaches three inches. They are probably all grass but they grow differently. For cool-weather grass, it is best to leave them at four inches and for warm-weather grass, it is best to maintain them at two inches tall.
5. Schedule putting weed killers and fertilizers – You need to determine the location, type of weeds, the condition of the soil and also the type of grass before putting your weed killers and fertilizers.
a) Kill weeds during summer or early spring, before they get the chance to acquire deep roots or reproduce.
b) Apply fertilizers during early spring in order to motivate root development.c) Make sure you read the package of anything you will put on your lawn. There is a chemical that is best to use only when there is moisture.
