Lawn mowing is probably one of the first chores you were entrusted to complete as a young person. And for many people, that’s where it ended—the complexities of lawncare start and end at mowing.
But taking good care of your grass means more than just cutting it. Lawn maintenance is much more than a mow. So how do you take good care of your lawn beyond trimming?
Today, Custom Acres will tell you everything you need for a beautiful, healthy lawn.
Mow: Mo’ or Less?
Your lawn needs more than mowing, but it still needs mowing. That said, not every grass species has the same optimal height, and the optimal height changes depending on the weather and time of year.
During warmer weather, grass should be left a little longer because it’s easier to burn the grass in the summer. In addition, cooler season grasses have different needs than warm season grasses.
How to do it right? Either learn what species of grass your lawn consists of and study up or hire a pro.
Fall Fertilizer: Food for Your Lawn
Once a year or so, most grass needs to be fertilized. Generally speaking, the best time to fertilize is during cooler weather. Why is that?
Number one, the fertilizer can burn the grass if the grass is fertilized when the sun is too hot. Secondly, when you fertilize in the fall, the grass has an additional season to soak in the nutrients before it needs to go through its primary growing season.
Water You Doing to Keep Your Lawn from Drying?
Lawns need water. This will come as no surprise since everything needs water. So how do you keep your property from drying out?
You can either learn about your lawn’s watering needs by talking to a pro, then make sure you stick to the proper watering schedule while factoring in local precipitation, or you can irrigate your lawn.
Preventing Under or Overwatering
Custom Acres recommends irrigation solutions because you can use them to sense correct moisture levels, get the water where your grass can best use it, and water on an automatic schedule.
Irrigation systems ensure your lawn is mowed on time and prevent overwatering, which is easy to do if you’re trying to water by eye.
Drainage Can Drain Your Lawn Maintenance Work
Speaking of overwatering, another critical area of lawn maintenance is drainage. When your lawn doesn’t drain properly, water can accumulate, creating a soggy mess, dead grass, erosion, and in the worst case, flooding your home’s structures.
The best place to start is appropriately graded property. Then, we can use drains to balance out your moisture situation when that isn’t possible.
Sod Save the Lawn: Laying It Down Thick
Sometimes we’re too late. A lawn can occasionally be beyond saving. Likewise, sometimes there never was a lawn.
In either case, the solution is sod.
Laying down sod takes preparation and patience. We begin by preparing the lawn ground for sod installation. Prepping the ground means checking to ensure the soil has the proper nutritional composition to support new grass, adding any necessary fertilizer, and leveling the ground. Then we thoroughly soak the earth, so the new and delicate sod root systems can get water immediately.
After the sod is carefully laid down in a pattern that prevents seams from being obvious, do not walk on the new sod! We’ll let you know how long to abstain from walking or laying anything heavy upon the grass.
Likewise, you should wait a couple of weeks before mowing the new sod and only use a push mower for the first mow.
To The Edge and Back
You love your lawn and your gardens. But you don’t want the two to mingle. That’s why edging is so essential to your lawn maintenance routine.
Creating a crisp edge is vital to lawn maintenance because it keeps your lawn and garden from spilling into one another. Edging can be as basic as a line in the ground or as elaborate as a concrete curb.
Edging makes your lawn look better and keeps it healthy by reducing competition.
What About Weeds?
Weeding is another crucial factor in a healthy lawn. But you’re unlikely to get weeds when your grass is healthy enough.
The reason is simple. Thick lawns leave little room for weeds to grow. So the best way to prevent weeds is to ensure the environment isn’t conducive to their growth.
So, want some help with keeping your lawn healthy? Give Custom Acres a call!