Category → Healthy Lawn

An Easy Way of Seeding Your Lawn In The Spring

16 February, 18:26, by admin21 Tags: , , , , ,

One of the best ways to keep weeds out of your lawn is by having a thick and healthy turf. Seeding a lawn on a regular basis, will help keep the grass thick and more resistant to weeds.  Actually, it is the best resistance that you can have in order to have a thick, healthy lawn. This way, even if you do develop weeds in your lawn, the good grass that is there will choke them out and keep them from growing. Weeds tend to grow the best in lawns that are unhealthy. When your grass is healthy, it can be very aggressive at keeping out weeds. When you have healthy grass, there is less of the need to use weed killer for lawns.

The following are some basic instructions on how to seed a lawn:

Start out by buying the best quality grass. You can buy cheap seed, but if you do, you’re going to be struggling with it for a long time. There really isn’t that much difference in price between the nicest seed and the cheapest. I recommend that you get a moderate to high end seed that has mostly grass seeds and few fillers.

The next step is to make sure you have a strategy to get the seed to germinate. If you want them to germinate, you could aerate your lawn a few times, or you could also power rake your lawn. If your grass is sparse, then aerating your lawn twice and then seeding it is a good idea. If your grass has a lot of yellow grass or thatch in it, then you want to power rake your lawn first, and then seed it.

If you want to increase the germination rate of your seeds, it is going to be a good idea for you to also use a top dressing. The easiest top dressing to apply to your lawn is peat moss.  Usually, I have to put down grass seed first, then peat moss over the top of it by hand.  Make sure that you do not use more than 1/4 inch of top dressing on top of the seed. Then, you can water your lawn two or three times per day. When you are trying to grow seed, you want to water your lawn more often for less smaller amounts of time. Once your grass has come in, you will want to water less often and for longer amounts of time.

Some people also recommend that you roll over the top of your soil once you are done planting the grass seed. I think if you do, it will increase your germination rate by a few percentage points.  The most important thing you can do is to keep the seed from drying out. That is why you want to use the top dressing.  You can also increase the germination rate by using starter fertilizer. You don’t want to use regular fertilizer when you have just put down grass seed, since the fertilizer will probably be too strong. But you can use either starter fertilizer, which is slow-release, or you can use organic fertilizer. Either one of these will do a great job at fertilizing your lawn while your new grass seed is getting established.  Ideally, you want to wait at least two or three weeks before mowing your lawn again. If you wait too long, then the new grass will be at a disadvantage, but you want to wait long enough for it to develop some roots and get strong enough that you can walk across lawn without killing the grass.

Lawn Repair Tune Up Thatching, Aerating, Fertilizing, Overseeding

18 January, 21:17, by spencer

To tune up your lawn it is good to do the following. One or more of the following may be applicable. How the lawn should be repaired really has a lot to do with what is causing the problems.

These are some things that can help

1) Thatching- especially if you have cool weather grasses, moss instead of lawn, or a lot of dead material in your lawn. Experts recommend thatching cool weather grasses once every 3 years.  Thatching can be done one of three ways.  Either by using a power rake rental, using a dethatching rake, or else by adding a thatching blade to your lawn mower.

2) Aerating- this helps to soften hard soils. It also allows deepen penetration of air water and fertilizer into the soil. The main purpose of aeration is to allow roots to go deeper and eventually create thick, self-sustaining turf.

3) Regular mowing- never mow more than 1/3 of the blade at a time. The general rule is mow high, mow often. For more information see our article on mowing. Mow more frequently during peak growing seasons and less frequently during slow grow seasons.

4) Fertilizing often also helps maintain a thick healthy turf. With the advent of slow release fertilizers, one can usually get away with fertilizing every two months during periods of active growth. In the northwest, this would be about 4 times a year.

5) Top soil or topdressing is also a good idea, especially when the soil is lacking in organic material. It can also be very good to use when you are over seeding.

6) Over-seeding. With cool weather grasses this is best to do in the spring or in the fall. With warm weather grasses it is best to over seed in the late spring or early summer. If it never gets cold where you live, we can overseed any time the grass is actively growing. The most important thing to remember when overseeding is to water your lawn daily and keep the grass seed and seedlings wet. This will affect the germination rate of the new seed.

Benefits of a Healthy Lawn

30 May, 05:11, by spencer Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

A nice healthy lawn can be enjoyed by you, your family, and everyone else in the neighborhood. Having a well taken care of lawn can be fun to play on, good for the environment, and give your home and neighborhood increased aesthetic value. Each of the hundreds of thousands of blades of grass in your lawn contributes to a healthy lawn.

Fun Lawn Facts

625 square ft of lawn produces enough oxygen for one person. A 5000 sq ft lot produces enough oxygen for 8 people. (Scotts: Lawns: Guide to a beautiful lawn. Christians).

Lawns cut down on pollution and noise. 1 acre of grass can break down 100 of pounds of pollutants including “sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrogen fluoride, nitrates and other greenhouse gases.” (Solve global warming, cap and trade, and urban growth boundaries from your own back lawn.)

Grasses provide air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter. Even if the sidewalk gets over 100 degrees, grasses stay at regular temperature of 75 in the summer.

What are other benefits of a healthy lawn?

Healthy Lawns are beautiful. Just looking at a freshly cut and edged lawn can be as refreshing as looking at a work of art. (Make sure to get a lawn chair, a glass of lemonade, and enjoy the view.)

They are safe for kids and pets. If lawns where bad for you, they would come with a warning label. Pets and kids love the out doors. Inside things can be static and unchanging but outside the world is always changing. Plus there is a lot more to see and bark at.

They’re great for parties. Did you run out of room inside? Or, maybe you just didn’t want to keep the whole house spotless, well move the party outside and let everyone enjoy your lawn with you!

These lawns are also durable. People might complain about getting walked all over, but your lawns never do.

They are a good place for insects and microorganisms to live.

They prevent erosion. Grass roots thickly penetrate into soil and hold it together.

Lawns help to clean dust particles out of the air. (Jupiter has fierce storm because it does not have adequate amounts of lawn.)

Lawns help me get in my regular ½ hour of exercise each week!

If you have questions on where to by a rolling lawn aerator please visit our site.

Your lawn may also need to be repaired if it is damaged by lawn pests. See Pest control Virginia for more information.