Tips to Keep Your Lawn Healthy

June 10, 2011

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Do you have a new lawn? If so, then you should know what the keys to maintaining the health of your grass.

New lawn care involves three main components: water, mowing and traffic.

Water

New lawns should be watered daily during their first few weeks. This is crucial in new lawn care. Daily watering will help the roots to get established. Keep the turf very moist. If you are experiencing a drought in your area, or if you live in a very hot climate, you may need to water your new lawn twice a day.

While the key to new lawn care requires keeping the turf moist, you should not over water your new lawn to the point where it is a wet, muddy mess. Try to not saturate the soil. If puddles are forming in your lawn, you are watering too much. Too much water in the soil can keep the roots of your new grass from achieving deep roots.

If your grass starts to take on a gray color, it is telling you that it is not getting the water it needs. A quick way to see if your lawn is getting enough water is to use a knife or screwdriver to dig into the soil. The dirt should be damp to a depth of six inches.

Once your new lawn has passed the two week time period, you can reduce watering to two or three times per week. How often you water your new lawn at this stage will depend upon your environment. A new lawn in a dry climate or in an area that is experiencing significant drought may need to be watered four or five times per week.

Mowing

New lawn care guidelines for sod state that a first mowing can occur within three weeks of planting.

New lawn care guidelines for seeded lawns state that it may be eight weeks before a mowing is needed.

Another key component to maintaining the health of your new lawn is to never mow your grass unless it is dry. Mowing on new, wet grass can pull the newly rooted grass out of the soil.

Never scalp your new lawn grass. It is better for your new lawn grass to be a little high than to be too short. By allowing your new lawn grass to grow a little high before cutting it will ensure that the grass is well rooted and established before it undergoes the trauma of a lawn mower blade.

Traffic

You should try to limit the amount of traffic on your new lawn during the first few weeks after planting. While it is unnecessary to keep all traffic off of your new lawn, traffic should be kept to a minimum. You will not want your children riding bikes or playing ball on your new lawn grass.

A lawn that is not protected from high traffic can be damaged and die. Friction on the new grass can pull up newly established roots that are still weak. Reducing friction is important in new lawn care.

Managing Organic Lawns?

June 9, 2011

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Organic lawns basically refer to a garden and its management without using any chemical and artificial fertilizers. Fertilizers do enrich the soil with essential nutrients for once but after some time of its use, the soil becomes barren and loses its fertility. Various other alternatives that are used in order to enhance the yield and production in organic lawns is through the use of natural predators like nematodes that helps in preventing infestation in the lawn with ants and crane fly larvae.

Such pests also assist in avoiding fungal infection and help in physical maintenance like raking and effective mowing.  It is very helpful that your plants are protected against any kind of infection or damage arising from unwanted pests and bacteria.  Most of the time such pests and bacteria are responsible for decreasing the quality of the yield produced in your garden. Some other natural tillers that are present to help us mix seeds into the soil are earthworms. They enhance the yield and also help in tilling the soil of your garden.  These natural tillers are easy to get in the market and are very helpful in maintaining your garden and you don’t have to pay them.

Organic lawns are preferred more because of their capacity to add to the biodiversity. It is very easy to apply compost to your lawn using the wheelbarrow. You can also use a push broom to spread it across your lawn. Compositing is very helpful for your lawn as the soil is provided with essential nutrients and minerals that help in the increasing the yield and production of various flowers and plants.

Preparing turf is also very easy. It is very helpful and healthy for the soil of your lawn. The turf must contain various bugs and beneficial microorganism that will not just enhance the quality but will protect various crops and plants from other microbes that cause disease into them.

The fungi and bacteria are the beneficial microorganisms that are found in good quantities in finished compost.  There are two different ways in which you can get benefit from compost. It is full of beneficial bacteria, which makes soil mineral rich. In order to settle the compost you will have to prepare the ground of the garden one-day before and must apply it after the grass is established on it.  And you must plan for a new lawn and must see that the topsoil is covered with at least 4 inches of compost in order to provide your garden with all the necessary vitamins, nutrients and minerals.

Organic lawns our preferred to those using fertilizers and pesticides because they are natural and you do not have to worry about handling chemicals and the damage that they cause to the health of the people around.