What are the Biggest Mistakes to Not Make When It Comes to Lawn Care?
Want to have a lawn that will make your neighbors green with envy? Continue reading to find out what not to do when it comes to lawn care.
A small patch of green grass is a point of pride for many homeowners — but a perfect carpet of lush green grass can be harder to achieve.
There are typical lawn care mistakes that can sabotage your best efforts and give you patchy, unhealthy turf. The more you know about these pitfalls, the easier it is to grow a lush, healthy lawn that adds to your home’s curb appeal and offers a beautiful outdoor living space.
In this post, we’ll show you six routine lawn care mistakes and offer some professional advice on how not to make them.
Avoid These Lawn Care Missteps
It’s not enough to just mow and water your lawn regularly. There are plenty of things homeowners do by mistake that can destroy your grass and hurt its chances of healthy growth.
Today we pinpoint the biggest lawn care mistakes and how to steer clear of them: With the help of these professional hacks, you can maintain a magnificent-looking lawn that all your neighbors will envy.
Trimming Turf Too Short
Among the most common errors made by homeowners? Trimming the grass down to the nub. Although it might seem like it saves time to mow your lawn as low as possible, however it damages your lawn.
As tempting as it is to lop off as much as you can, cutting no more than a third of the blades of grass at a time is a good rule of thumb to follow. By allowing grass to grow longer, it can better capture light and water, developing a strong root system and, in the process, filling in to create a fuller, more attractive lawn.
The ideal mowing height differs based on the type of grass in your lawn. For cool-season grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass and fescue, keep the grass 2.5–3.5 inches tall.
Warm season varieties like Bermuda and zoysia can be cut a little shorter (1 to 2 inches). Be sure to adjust your mower height for every season. During a drought or extremely hot weather, allow the grass to grow a little higher in order to shade and protect the roots and the soil.
Forgetting to Test the Soil
Soil testing is something many homeowners overlook as they think grass will grow in anything with dirt.
But the life and vitality of your lawn are dependent upon the quality of your soil. Most grass species are quite hardy, but that doesn’t mean they can thrive just about anywhere.
If the soil you have to work with is truly a mystery and a gardener’s fairy tale of loam wasn’t a figment of your imagination, consider sending a soil sample to an extension service for testing. Turf thrives in 6.0 to 6.5 pH.
A soil test is a worthwhile invest to know what is actually occurring underneath your lawn in terms of nutrient levels, pH, and organic matter.
Knowing its pH will guide you in fertilizing and amending soil. You can raise/lower your soil’s pH if it’s too high or too low with sulfur or lime treatments.
Furthermore, soil testing can detect deficiencies and deficiencies of essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. If your lawn is lacking in the nutrients department, a test can help you determine the right fertilizer for what your lawn is lacking.
Planting One Type of Seed
By seeding your lawn with a mix of grasses.
One type of grass seed As easy as planting a single type of grass seed might seem, a single type of grass seed — no matter what type it is — will leave your lawn open to all manner of issues.
Picking the right kind of turf grass is critical, and planting a mix of species and cultivars is how your lawn gets established and balanced out by its strengths and weaknesses as the seeds’ stakes ebb and flow.
A varied lawn is more resistant to environmental challenge, pests, and diseases. You can also make your own combination of grass seeds that will also fit your climate and lawn conditions.
For instance, you could blend shade-tolerant species with drought-resistant ones and have a lawn that thrived in different microclimates in your yard. If one type of grass struggles, the others can come in to fill out gaps and ensure that the lawn stays a healthy green all growing season long.
Cutting With a Dull Blade
A blunt mower blade is an all-too-simple error that can affect the health and appearance of your lawn.
If your mower blade is not sharp, it will rip and bruise the grass blades rather than cutting them cleanly. This damage will mangle your lawn and make it prone to disease and insect infestations.
To keep your lawn looking its best, have your mower blade sharpened at least twice a season, or more often if you have a very large lawn or mow more than once a week.
Things to look for that indicate it’s time to sharpen your blade include an uneven cut, grass with frayed tips, and a lawn that looks gray or brown shortly after it’s been mowed.
A small investment in a blade sharpening tool or professional sharpening of the blade can make a big difference in the overall health and look of your lawn.
Bagging Lawn Clippings
There’s a misconception among homeowners that they should take grass clippings out to maintain a neat appearance for their lawn, but doing so robs your turf of precious nutrients.
Don’t bag leaves, but walk over them with a mower — ideally a mulching mower — with the bag removed to bring them back down to earth. “I have anecdotal evidence that returning clippings to your lawn may contribute up to two pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet,” Henry says.
Grass clippings are high in nitrogen and other nutrients that might be good for your lawn while they decompose. They also help lock in moisture and conserve water, meaning you water less often.
Nevertheless, if the grass has been allowed to grow much longer than usual between mowings then the clippings might need to be raked or bagged in order to avoid choking the grass. As a rule, mow often enough that your clippings are short and can simply fall through to the soil surface.
Watering Daily
Although it may seem like a good idea to water your lawn daily, particularly in hot, dry periods, doing so can actually damage your grass.
Watering shallowly and frequently promotes shallow root growth, which makes your lawn more prone to drought stress and other issues. Instead, direct your attention to deep watering once in a while, as this encourages the roots to grow deep and gives you a more vibrant lawn overall.
The best watering schedule for the average lawn is to give about 1 inch of water a week, distributed in two or three deep watering sessions. Water in the morning or late at night to limit evaporation and help prevent fungal diseases.
To find out how much water your lawn is getting, set an empty tuna can, rain gauge or other container on the lawn while watering. When it’s full of an inch or so of water, you’ve delivered enough moisture for that session.
Knowing What Your Lawn Needs
All lawns are not created equal, and an appreciation of your unique grass variety, soil content and the local climate is key to successful lawn care.
There are several factors that contribute to the overall health of your lawn: shade patterns, drainage, high-traffic areas, etc.
By continually monitoring your lawn and fine-tuning your care program, you can identify potential issues before they become real problems.
The Solution
To keep your lawn looking healthy and beautiful, we recommend creating a lawn care plan that provides the right kind of care your grass needs from the beginning to the end of every season. These tasks involve the following seasonal routines:
- Spring Clean: Dethatch/Aerate/Overseed as necessary
- Summer: Cutting properly, watering properly, controlling pests
- Fall: Fertilization, weed Management, leaf removal
- Winter (Least with foot traffic and planning the new growing season)
Final Thoughts
We all want a lush, beautiful lawn, and keeping it that way takes effort and know-how.
Steer clear of these lawn care mistakes and keep your lawn looking lush and green all year long.
Keep in mind, lawns are different around the country, so ask your local extension services or experts for advice based on your need of lawn care vary.
