Homeowners become discouraged with lawn maintenance, especially when their lawn doesn't look like they care at all. It's tempting to turn everything over to a professional company, but it's more satisfying to do it yourself and get pleasing results. Soil conditions dictate whether you'll have a beautiful yard or a sparse, weedy place where grass struggles for survival.
During the winter months you have time to read up on grass and what makes it thrive or decline. There's no mowing or watering to be done in many regions, and the colorful flowers and vegetables in enticing seed catalogs are months away. If you want a gorgeous yard, you need to believe that grass can be as much fun as flowers.
The first thing is to learn the causes of your problems. You can analyze soil conditions by checking which weeds grow in your yard. List the kinds of weeds, the color of the foliage of both weeds and grass, and the luxuriance or sparseness of growth of any kind of plant. It's both easy and fun to find out what the different plants in your grass are.
Once you've identified them, you can then look up what soil pH they like. Two or more well-established acid-loving weeds mean that the soil pH is too high. It's more rare to find that the pH is too low, but this also impacts grass, which likes neutral conditions.
Weeds grow better on compacted soils which smother more shallow-rooted grasses. Moss shows that an area has poor drainage and stays soaked with excess rain or irrigation that collects in puddles. Weeds also need less fertility than cultivated plants, so mineral deficiencies and lack of nitrogen or organic matter affects their growth less than it does the plants you want to keep. Soil test kits and monitors are helpful tools, also.
Choosing the right grass for your region and the kind of lawn you want is very important. Grasses, like other plants, grow only in certain zones and precipitation conditions. For example, Blue Springs, Missouri, is in zone 6. Its temperate climate and plentiful rainfall makes fescues and Kentucky Bluegrass good choices for that region.
Know the best times to fertilize, aerate, and compost your soil. However, it's never wrong to add nutrients and to loosen your soils, even if it might not be the best time. Find the right grass seed mix for optimum results in your area, and learn which mowing and watering methods foster growth in those particular grasses. Tall fescue does best when it is three and a half to four inches tall. Everything in your garden will grow better if you water in early morning, from six to nine AM. Watering in the evening encourages fungus and other disease organisms that like damp conditions.
It's easy to turn all these tasks over to lawn maintenance companies. However, if you prefer natural gardening and you like to care for your own plants, having a beautiful yard is entirely possible. Plan ahead for the next growing season and keep records of what works and what you learn as you go.
During the winter months you have time to read up on grass and what makes it thrive or decline. There's no mowing or watering to be done in many regions, and the colorful flowers and vegetables in enticing seed catalogs are months away. If you want a gorgeous yard, you need to believe that grass can be as much fun as flowers.
The first thing is to learn the causes of your problems. You can analyze soil conditions by checking which weeds grow in your yard. List the kinds of weeds, the color of the foliage of both weeds and grass, and the luxuriance or sparseness of growth of any kind of plant. It's both easy and fun to find out what the different plants in your grass are.
Once you've identified them, you can then look up what soil pH they like. Two or more well-established acid-loving weeds mean that the soil pH is too high. It's more rare to find that the pH is too low, but this also impacts grass, which likes neutral conditions.
Weeds grow better on compacted soils which smother more shallow-rooted grasses. Moss shows that an area has poor drainage and stays soaked with excess rain or irrigation that collects in puddles. Weeds also need less fertility than cultivated plants, so mineral deficiencies and lack of nitrogen or organic matter affects their growth less than it does the plants you want to keep. Soil test kits and monitors are helpful tools, also.
Choosing the right grass for your region and the kind of lawn you want is very important. Grasses, like other plants, grow only in certain zones and precipitation conditions. For example, Blue Springs, Missouri, is in zone 6. Its temperate climate and plentiful rainfall makes fescues and Kentucky Bluegrass good choices for that region.
Know the best times to fertilize, aerate, and compost your soil. However, it's never wrong to add nutrients and to loosen your soils, even if it might not be the best time. Find the right grass seed mix for optimum results in your area, and learn which mowing and watering methods foster growth in those particular grasses. Tall fescue does best when it is three and a half to four inches tall. Everything in your garden will grow better if you water in early morning, from six to nine AM. Watering in the evening encourages fungus and other disease organisms that like damp conditions.
It's easy to turn all these tasks over to lawn maintenance companies. However, if you prefer natural gardening and you like to care for your own plants, having a beautiful yard is entirely possible. Plan ahead for the next growing season and keep records of what works and what you learn as you go.
About the Author:
You can visit www.marshallslawnserviceinc.net for more helpful information about Good Soil Enables Easy Lawn Maintenance.
0 comments:
Post a Comment