Owning a home with a large front or back yard is a wonderful perk, especially if you have pets or young children. But there’s no denying that lawn care is a serious commitment even the proudest homeowners need to stay on top of.
With summer fast approaching, it’s time to get your yard and your lawn ready for the warmer months and naturally, increased time outdoors. You don’t have to spend a small fortune on lawn care either, all it takes is a few smart hacks to keep things in good shape.
But first, here are the top lawn care mistakes every smart homeowner should avoid.
1. Failing to Test Your Soil
One of the most common (and expensive) mistakes that homeowners make is not testing their soil, and consequently, choosing the wrong type of grass. You have to ensure that your soil has the right pH for the type of grass you choose — ideally, this is a pH between 6 and 6.5.
If you don’t know how to test your soil, you can gather up a small sample and send it off to your local extension service. Or a professional lawn care business, such as Heartland Turf & Landscape. They will test it for you, let you know what your soil needs, and which grass to purchase.
2. Purchasing the Wrong Type of Seed
When you buy grass seed packets many of them contain weed seeds, too. Which is hard to know if you don’t read the labels!
You want to avoid seed packets that contain ”other crop” and ”weed seed” listed on them. Opt for a premium type of seed that contains zero percent weed or crop seeds!
3. Lawn Scalping
This occurs when you mow your lawn grass way too short. This is very unhealthy for your lawn and actually sends it into a state of shock. As such, your grass blades do not have enough surface area to absorb sunlight and this stunts its growth. Overall, this also weakens the root network of your lawn.
It’s imperative that you set your lawnmower blade height to 2.5 inches and no less. Try to avoid cutting off more than a third of the blade of grass during each mow.
4. Overwatering Your Grass
Yes, there is such a thing as watering your lawn too often. When you overwater your grass it discourages the grass from developing its root system and boring deeper into the soil. The end result is that your grass fails to become dependent on supplemental watering and will start to die off.
The best way to water your grass is to do so less often, but for a longer period so that the water runs deeper into the soil. Don’t feed your yard more than one inch of water per week.
5. Choosing the Wrong Time of Day to Irrigate
While you want to avoid overwatering, you also need to ensure you choose the right time of day to water your yard. Don’t plan irrigation between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm. The best time is in the early hours of the day, between 6 and 10 am.
This is because there is far less sunshine and wind and your lawn has the time it needs to dry out during the rest of the day.
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Lawn care is a task that you have to commit to as a homeowner. While it takes time, a flourishing lawn and garden is always the most rewarding end result.
Want to learn more about lawn maintenance? Explore the rest of this site for your home and garden fix!
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