Lawn Care
Lawn Care is practised to varying degrees by nearly all lawn owners.
The key to maintaining a high quality lawn is to routinely carry
out the essential lawn care tasks BEFORE the lawn suffers. Don't leave it until the
bare patches appear, weeds and moss invade or the grass is yellowed
and parched or else it could be too late and will mean you have to put a lot more work
into the lawn to get it back to a respectable state. It is far to frequent an occurrence
that people only think about treating a problem when it has become an eyesore or
it is clear that ‘it isn’t going to get better by itself’.
Lawn care should be looked at as many people look at their health
in that prevention is better than the cure. If a human does little
exercise, smokes and drinks heavily then they will be more likely
to suffer from a disease due to tissue degeneration. Their immune
system will be weakened and they will become less resistant to any
disease and colds, bugs, viruses etc that they are exposed to. The
same principles are true for grass. If we routinely carry out the
essential lawn care tasks then the grass will be healthy, thick,
vigorous and strong. These factors mean that the lawn will be far
less susceptible to disease, drought and pests.
There are various lawn care jobs with the most obvious being mowing
the lawn. This is about as far as a large number of lawn owners
go when it comes to maintaining their lawn. Mowing is essential
(and the most frequent of lawn care tasks) but is only one of a
number of jobs that should be routinely carried out.
If you want a lawn that looks beautiful then you will need to carry
out the following essential tasks.
Mowing the lawn
Different types of grass have different optimum lengths and mowing
the lawn will help keep the grass vigorous and maintain a neat appearance.
Ensure your blades are set to the right height and are sharp to
achieve a clean cut.
Feeding the lawn
Feeding the lawn with either organic lawn feed or non-organic chemical
lawn feeds is essential to carry out each spring to help promote
thick grass with strong growth that will make it harder for moss
and weeds to establish themselves on your lawn.
Watering the lawn
Ensuring that your lawn does not suffer the effects of drought by
watering well in advance of the grass weakening and dying. Use an
appropriate lawn sprinkler to ensure that the lawn is evenly and
thoroughly watered. Water thoroughly when necessary, not a small
amount each day as this can do more harm than good.
Rake the lawn to prevent thatch build up
Raking the lawn can collect the build up of dead grass, grass clippings,
moss and weeds from above the soil and thus enable better soil aeration
and entry of water into the soil so that it can reach the grass
roots. Removal of thatch also prevents water
Trimming edges
The appearance of your exquisite lawn can be highly tainted by poor
edging. Stray clumps of untrimmed grass and poorly kept edges can
make a lawn look messy. Choose a suitable lawn trimmer to trim the
lawn edges. This job should be done immediately after mowing.
Prompt removal of worm casts
Worms might be a gardener’s friend when it comes to helping
maintain the condition of the soil but they can be a thorn in the
side of the lawn keeper. Worm casts are small mounds of soil deposited
by worms on the lawn surface and when trodden on or compressed they
can cause unwanted lumps and bumps on the lawn surface. Worm casts
should be dispersed with a besom.
Aerating the lawn
This is an essential job on lawns that have compacted soil that
may have resulted from children playing, vehicle and walking on
the grass. Aerating the lawn has the benefits of allowing water
and oxygen into the soil, letting carbon dioxide out of the soil
and improving soil drainage.
Kill weeds and moss
Weeds and moss are the bane of many aspiring lawn keepers but by
routinely carrying out the other lawn care jobs listed on this page
you can greatly reduce the ability of weeds and moss to colonise
and ‘overtake’ the lawn. There will however be times
when you will need to take the necessary action to either remove
or kill off weeds and moss. This may mean using a weed killer. Again
early treatment is far better then letting a small invasion get
out of control.