A beautiful, well-maintained lawn adds to the overall aesthetics of a house. A lush green lawn is looked upon as a source of pride and charm as it presents a picturesque landscape. That said, however, lawns are not only maintained for their aesthetics, but they also serve as functional spaces when you have to play with your children or walk your pets. Get quality instant turfs at turf suppliers Melbourne.
How to Spruce Up Your Lawn
A lush green, well-kept lawn in the front or back yard of your house is a treat for sore eyes. You may have neglected to take care of your lawn for a long time, or you might have just bought a new house with a lawn that has been unkempt for years, either way, you now have the task of sprucing it up by employing the following tips.
- Protect Your Lawn from Water Damage
Watering your lawn is essential for its healthy growth. But poor soil preparation when seeding or turfing can result in waterlogging, which is when water fails to drain properly and the lawn is submerged in water for longer periods at a time. This damages and destroys the lawn.
Before you can start working on your waterlogged lawn, maybe you should first look into renovating other damages caused by excessive water. A consultation with a Water Damage Advisor can help you gather all the information needed for house restoration after water has damaged your house.
But if you want to spruce up your lawn quickly after it has been waterlogged, then the tips below may help you get started:
- Let water puddles evaporate. But if you don’t get a lot of sun exposure, it’s best you scoop and brush the water away by yourself.
- As long as your lawn is water-logged, avoid introducing anymore water.
- Water-logged lawns cause compaction, making the soil dense. Aerating the lawn helps create spaces between soil particles causing air and water to seep through the soil more easily.
- After aeration, adding compost and sand further loosens the soil particles and improves water seepage into the ground.
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- Mow Your Lawn Regularly
Lawn mowing is a very basic yet important part of lawn care. Most people mow their lawns too short, which encourages the growth of weeds, like daisies and clover.
Key to a healthier-looking grass is to not let it grow past 3-inches and mow it once every week. Also, when mowing, make sure that the blades of your lawn mower are sharp enough to get a clean-cut grass. Freshly cut grass appears greener, absorbs water faster, and it’s easier to weed out.
- Aerate the Turf
Aeration is a very crucial step in maintaining a healthy-looking lawn. Aeration requires use of certain techniques which let the soil take up more air. Regular rainfall, mowing, and human pressure cause the soil to compact. Aerating your lawn once every year will help prevent compaction as it allows the grass to grow deeper roots. Aeration benefits the grass by enabling it to absorb nutrients and water better, which lead to better grass health and growth.
In order to aerate, first water the soil. Use a rake to loosen up the watered soil by turning it over repetitively. Use an aerator machine to further shake up the loose soil particles. Now the soil is aerated and ready for fertilization.
- Fertilize Your Lawn
Fertilizers are plant nutrition that provide the lawn with essential nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus to help restore the lawn’s lush green appearance and boost lawn health. Proper fertilization minimizes the need for lawn maintenance. Fertilizers can be either be organically or synthetically produced.
- Get Rid of the Grubs
Grubs are soft, thick white worm-like beetle larvae that feed on grass roots. If you notice patches or areas of dead grass on your lawn, it is highly likely that the grubs are busy gnawing at the roots of the grass in that area. Grubs also attract skunks into your lawn which feast on these insects.
Grub infestation can be curbed by using readily-available pesticides. When trying to get rid of grubs, make sure you clean the soil of any dead grass with a shovel or a gardening spade. For long-term protection against grubs, consider mowing your lawn regularly, maintain short grass height throughout the year, and observe proper fertilization and watering practices for your lawn.
- Water Your Lawn Heavily but Less Frequently
Most people think regularly irrigating their lawns will make their lawn grow greener and thicker. However, that is a wrong way to think about watering your lawn. Overwatering can stunt the growth of the roots, leading to patches of yellow and dead grass appearing on your lawn.
Professional gardeners and lawn experts recommend twice a week watering session for optimal lawn health. The two watering sessions, however, should be intense and you should aim to submerge the grass completely, letting water percolate deeply into the roots, which will result in a healthier turf.
- Scarify the Soil
After you’ve mowed the lawn, mulching—a practice that involves using organic material to retain soil moisture—grass clippings, evenly spread out or clumped at certain areas on the lawn, will help in better grass growth. But clumping a lot of grass clippings at once can make the soil compact and prevent the flow of essential nutrients such as oxygen, water and minerals from reaching the roots.
These clumps, known as thatch, encourage the growth of moss. The most effective way to dethatch your lawn is to scarify the soil. To scarify your lawn, you may use a powered or a handheld scarifier. The best time to scarify your lawn is during the spring season, as grass tends to grow faster during that season.
To Sum It Up
A lawn with thick and lush green grass complements and adds to the overall aesthetics of the house. The health of lawns can be easily improved and maintained by mowing, getting rid of the grubs, aerating, scarifying and fertilizing the soil, and heavy watering sessions twice a week.