A beautiful and well-maintained lawn makes a home more appealing. It also increases the curb appeal. However, it cannot be all grooming if you do not have the tips and tricks for maintaining a beautiful lawn for homeowners.
Without a doubt, you must have invested a lot into your home. With the compound especially being the one that every guest sees first, you should invest more on how to make it more beautiful. Even if you do not have an idea on the best ways to do it, here are top tips and tricks for you to give your ugly lawn a facelift.
Prune at the Right Time
The best times for pruning old and disfigured branches are in late winter and spring. The branches are mostly disfigured by snow and ice during the two seasons, respectively, and may give your lawn an ugly appearance.
Ensure you’ve removed all unwanted lower branches on evergreen trees and shrubs. Also, prune spring-flowering shrubs after the spring flowers fad0,e and prune the summer-flowering shrubs at the end of winter.
Water the Lawn Occasionally and Deeply
Lawns need watering to maintain the vegetation’s beautiful splendor. If you keep the lawn irrigated and do it regularly and deeply, you will help the deep roots to maintain the moisture and the plants to stay healthy and lush.
It is recommended to water the lawn in early morning and late evening. This helps avoid water loss due to evaporation when the sun is too hot.
Mow at the Highest Setting on the Mower
It is important to cut grass with a lawn mower to a tall height of about 3-1/2 to 4 inches. This is because taller grass shades the ground, blocks weed sprouts, and helps to promote beneficial microbes.
When you leave the grass tall, you allow the lawn to focus on root growth. This adds to disease resistance, too. Also, ensure to leave some of the grass clippings on the lawn after you mow it as it helps to return beneficial nutrients to the lawn.
Choose the Fertilizer Well
For each fertilizer package or bag, there are three numbers that indicate the fertilizer’s contents. They indicate the concentration of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium in percentages and in that order and will help you with the selection.
Also, making the right mixture of slow-release and fast-release fertilizers helps to control and maintain healthy lawn growth. It also ensures vegetation gets an instant boost while also adding more nutrients.
When it comes to fertilizer types, the synthetic options are preferable as they improve soil health, too.
Aerate the Lawn During Spring or Fall
Annually de-thatching and aeration helps with the health of the lawn. Once a year, you can aerate the lawn by removing plugs of soil with a lawn aerator at specified diameter tines and remove them to a depth of about 3 inches.
Make sure to aerate the soil on the dry side. However, it can be just wet enough to allow for the tines to penetrate. Aeration helps the soil against compaction, thatch build-up, and diseases.
Take Care of Water Runoff
When water runs off, and over the lawn, it might leave deposits of clay soil. It might also create a steep slope and uproot some of the vegetation.
To take care of runoff water, ensure that the yard has a proper drainage system for when the rains come. You can also have caged ripraps if the lawn is too steep and channel the flooding water to the lower levels of your land.
If it’s the irrigation water giving you a headache, make sure to use half of what you normally use to irrigate the lawn with. Give the water at least one hour to drain and then irrigate with the other half. Where runoff is an issue, you apply this system all the time.
Keep on Cleaning Up Leaves
You might have cleaned up the falling leaves during fall, but you should keep on looking out for more. Trees, such as oaks, shed their leaves or broken branches during winter and spring as well. As such, you can be sure you will have some maintenance and cleaning to do all through.
Also, ensure to remove all debris and heavy piles of leaves around the compound. This helps avoid the formation of molds and decaying matter. However, you should avoid raking the ground, especially if it is wet.
Maintaining a Beautiful Lawn for Homeowners
Following the above tips and tricks, and others like fighting weed and pests, can help you maintain a beautiful lawn. You may also save yourself time and money that may be spent establishing a new lawn. These benefits will be in addition to adding a curb appeal to your yard and making the lawn more presentable.
