With summer approaching, it’s time to update the look and feel of your yard to reflect the season. Longer and hotter days call for fun filled activities for you and the family. But it also means dry and unhealthy patches of grass to an unmaintained lawn. If you want to achieve the perfect yard this summer, no doubt you need some maintenance. Here are 4 tips to achieving a healthy lawn perfect for the coming season:
Update your lawn tools and equipment
Yard work becomes a breeze when you’re equipped with the right tools and equipment. Dust off your lawn mower and update some parts with quality products from Fortis Rubber Tracks if it’s already due for replacement. There are a lot of tools you can use in maintaining your yard. Aside from a decent lawn mower that fits for your type of yard, other must haves include gloves, shears, rakes, spade, and hoses.
Know how to cut your grass
The peak of the summer heat can cause great havoc to your grass if you don’t take care of it properly. There are recommended mowing heights for specific types of grass, and in the summer you have to be careful about mowing too frequently and too short. For instance if you have bermuda grass, wait until it reaches a height of 1.5 to 2 inches before mowing it down to the suggested height of 1 to 1.5 inches. Fine Fescue and Kentucky Blue Glass have a suggested mowing height of 2 to 2.5 inches, Perennial Ryegrass 1.5 to 2.5 inches, and so on. Do your research or consult professional gardeners in your area. Keeping the suggested mowing height promotes deeper roots. You might also want to keep the clippings on the ground as it serves as a slow-release fertilizer and helps a stressed lawn recover by putting nutrients back into the ground for absorption.
Increase water supply
During the summer, the best time to water the lawn would be early in the morning. At this time, air is cooler and the wind isn’t strong enough to blow away the droplets. An ideal time would be between 4am to 10am. Avoid watering in the middle of the day because water evaporates too quickly for the soil to absorb fully. Avoid watering during the evening as well because water that sits on the grass overnight can cause lawn diseases such as fungus and pathogen infiltration. If you can’t find the time to water your lawn early in the morning, invest in a quality sprinkler system so you can leave it to work on its own. Just remember to set it up properly and calibrate it so that it runs perfectly as scheduled.
Remove weeds and moss
Weeds and moss are telltale signs of a neglected lawn. But remember, they’re not the root cause. Weeds and moss growth are actually effects of a much deeper problem, something a lot of owners fail to investigate. Potential causes of weed growth are low soil pH, poor drainage, lack of nutrients, or too much shade. Moss is easy to pull out as you can just rake it. Weeds require more effort though, but once you’re done with the two lawn invaders, it’s time to investigate the cause. You can try applying herbicide on patches of lawn where there was moss growth. There are chemical and organic options, and you can also use baking soda solution as an alternative.
