Easy Tips for a Well Maintained Lawn

There are essentially only four things you need to do to maintain a beautiful home lawn. Thay are cutting, weeding, fertilizing and watering.

Cutting - A home lawn should be cut whenever it is long. For the average lawn that means once a week, less frequently at the beginning and end of the season, and perhaps more frequently if you excel at the other tips in this article. Cut no more than one third of the blade of grass off at one time. It really doesn't matter the type of lawn mower you use. My personal favorite is a recycling mower that chops up the cuttings into very tiny pieces so that they fall to the base of the lawn and decompose faster into fertilizer. The use of a recycling mower just saves a little time on step three ahead. If you use a gas powered mower NEVER refuel over the lawn. If you spill any on the grass you will kill the grass in that area. Never cut the grass immediatly after a rain, or very early in the morning when the grass is wet or damp. It is much more likely that you will tear the grass.

Weeding - There are several effective ways to weed, but the best way comes with time. A healthy thick lawn will choke out the weeds, and prevent them from finding space to take root in your lawn. If you do have weeds, there are several ways to eliminate them. First, you can simply dig them out one by one. While it is certainly the cheapest and most environmentally friendly, it is also the most tedious. Second, you can use an herbicide that is in powder form and broadcast with a spreader over the entire lawn. Third, you can use an oversprayer (available for modest cost at most hardware and garden centers) which is also spread over the entire lawn. If you choose either of the last two remember to keep children and dogs off the lawn for at least several days after the application. If children or dogs are a concern, and you don't want to remove each weed by hand, you might try a spot spraying herbicide which is safe for lawns. In that case you just spray each weed as you see it. Keep the bottle hooked on your lawnmower and you can spray the weeds as they are encountered when you mow.

Fertilizer - Again several choices here. You can buy a commercial dry mix and use a broadcast spreader. A liquid can also be applied with an oversprayer. If you are recycling your lawn, (see above) then you won't need to fertilize as often. The super cheap method is to buy a generic brand of unscented amonia. Amonia is essentially nitrogen, the most important ingredient in commercial fertilizers.

Water - Grass, like most plant life, is 90% water. Simply put, if nature has not provided water often, You need to give the grass a drink. Use a sprinkler, stand there with a hose, invite the neighborhood kids over for a water ballon fight, it doesn't matter just get it wet.


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