Giving Back To Your Lawn This Summer

With Spring well and truly upon us, like most people, you’ll probably be thinking about getting your garden in shape for summer. In many ways the centerpiece of your garden, that is akin to the living room within your house is often taken for granted and it’s importance overlooked.

This is a contributed post and contains affiliate links. My website is my job, and helps to support our family. If you decide to buy something you see mentioned here, I would be so thankful if you clicked through my links so I can receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you! Please read my full disclosure.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”MCXtY” via=”yes” ]It’s time to give back to our lawns and this article provides a brief overview of two essential aspects of lawn care: watering and mowing.[/ctt]

Image Credit

What is this integral centerpiece?  It’s your garden lawn.

This is the meeting place that will host all your summer frolics from picnics to hide and seek, waterslides to barbeques.  Yet, how often do we give back to our lawn and pay it the attention and nourishment it deserves?

All too many times we’re busy with DIY projects such as building wooden gazebos for the garden and spending hours on the internet in an attempt to find feedback on the roto razer saw or similar equipment to help us tackle the job.

It’s time to give back to our lawns and this article provides a brief overview of two essential aspects; the first is watering and the second is mowing.  Now, these might seem overly simple aspects but it’s amazing how many people are getting these two common garden maintenance tasks wrong.

WATERING

You want to aim to water your lawn either after the sunsets in the evening or early in the morning before the harsh sun gains its strength; the myth that watering in the sunshine will turn your emerald green lawn into a scorched nightmare is mostly unfounded, but there is a reason people advise not to water in the midday heat.

Essentially, it’s just wasteful, as most the water will evaporate rather than soak down to where it needs to be.  Many experts recommend watering first thing in the morning as the sun has the tendency to dry the grass out within a few hours, which means there’s less chance of disease associated with the grass sitting in too much water.  That said, there’s no need to water each morning; as it’s better to water deeply and infrequently, as this approach encourages root growth and increases resistance to drought and disease.

WEED CONTROL

Weeds tend to grow along with the grass in your lawn. If your lawn only has a few weeds here and there, you can just hand-pull them. Annual weeds, like crabgrass and chickweed, tend to have shallow roots and are usually easily controlled with hand-pulling. But, perennial weeds, like thistle and dandelion, have deep, extensive roots and are harder to control by hand-pulling because if even a small piece of root is left in the ground, the weed will grow back.

Lawn weed control products will target weeds without harming the lawn when used as directed. Be sure to check the product label to ensure it can be used on your specific grass type. The weeds can be kept in check with pre-emergent weed control in the Spring, as well as targeted weed control in the Summer and Fall. You can do this on your own or hire a service like TruGreen GA to take care of this for you.

MOWING

It can be tempting to keep your grass short but tall grass makes for a much healthier lawn.  Try to avoid cutting it below two inches as the ideal length in terms of having healthy grass is around three inches.  When cutting the grass, you want to be removing no more than ⅓ of the length, as trimming any further than this can seriously damage your grass.  You’ll want to mow the lawn when it’s cool and dry; especially avoid cutting the lawn whilst it’s wet or in midday sun. The final point is to either leave the grass clippings on the lawn, as they decompose quickly and provide much needed nutrients, or use the grass as fertilizer on other plants.

So, there we have the two core aspects of keeping a healthy lawn and if you really want to give back to your lawn this summer and pick up some brownie points, you might want to consider utilizing some form of organic fertilizer, and if you are placing items such as slides or paddling pools on the grass – just be sure to rotate the areas of the grass you use to avoid the yellow or brain grass you’ll find underneath as the poor lawn is starved of sunlight.

This is a contributed post.

Subscribe so you never miss a post.

Please share this post.