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There's nothing better looking than a well-manicured lawn.
Large green blades of grass, clipped to the proper height is the dream of many homeowners.
With just a little care and these tips and techniques for lawn maintenance, you can be sure to get a lawn you'll be proud of and the neighbors will envy.
Grow it Thick
The thicker you let your grass grow, the better off it will be. Remove any weeds immediately with a weed puller and use an herbicide when necessary. By letting small isolated lawn problems run their course naturally, you can prevent many of the common disease treating mistakes too many chemical additives are used to fix the problem. Only use chemical herbicides and disease treatments when they are absolutely necessary.
Choose the Right Herbicide
Controlling weeds can be easy with the right herbicides. There are two basic types of herbicide treatments you can use on the lawn:
Post-Emergent: Use this herbicide treatment after weeds have shown up in your lawn.
Pre-Emergent: Use this herbicide to pretreat and prevent weeds from growing.
Mowing
Believe it or not, mowing your lawn can actually harm it. When you mow with a dull blade, the grass blades tend to rip instead of being neatly sheared, allowing disease to easier creep into the grass roots. Also when mowing your grass, ensure you keep the blade deck high enough to prevent burning the roots. Cut grass the right height by using the one third rule. Never cut more than one third of the grasses height. Also mowing a lawn when it's wet can compress soil, chocking out roots competing for oxygen. Always let your clippings fall back onto the lawn. This can help to keep soils fertile for years to come.
We have 2 awesome lawn mower buying guide for you to check out:
1. Best Self-propelled Lawn Mower Buying Guide
2. Total Lawn Mowers Buying Guide
Water Deep
More often than not, overwatering occurs easily with lawns. Overwatering promotes thatch, the thick root build up in the grass that snuffs out oxygen in the soil and prevents new grass shoots from taking hold. To get a good idea of how much is enough, one inch of water should be delivered to the area. You can tell you've got one inch of water by using a rain gauge or an old cat food can. When one inch of water fills up the gauge, it's time to turn off the water. Avoid watering at nighttime as this can cause grass to retain moisture for long periods of time, a prime cause for grass disease.
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Feeding, mowing, weeding and watering your grass in the proper amounts is the best way to get a perfect lawn. Over-fertilizing is often done by many homeowners as they assume their soil needs amendments. The best way to know exactly how much fertilizer you need is to take an annual soil test. This will tell you exactly what type of nutrients your soil lacks and which ones it doesn't need, allowing you to get a good idea of exactly what fertilizer is best for you. Don't fertilize before or after a big rain and use time release fertilizer. Time release activated fertilizer will slowly release fertilizer onto your lawn instead of it washing away into water supplies. .
