Lawn Care Advice From a Landscape Professional of 30 Years
Are you stressing out your grass? Or maybe your grass is stressing you out? Learning to care for and maintain your lawn year round can be confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming. If you think all that your lawn requires of you is to cut it, think again friend!
We’ll let you in on a secret… your lawn is needy. But just like with any good relationship, you have to understand it in order to take care of it.
Here’s 3 quick tips for year-round landscape maintenance that’ll change the way your lawn looks:
Click HERE to download this FREE PDF with Lawn Care Tips
Learn you Lawn
Step number one in caring for your lawn is to know your lawn! Getting a soil sample is really the best way to do this. You can grab soil sample testing kit from Lowes, or you can find your local cooperative extension office and have them sample it for you.
(Lexington County SC Coop Office: 605 W Main Street #100 Lexington, SC 29072)
(Richland County SC Coop Office: 900 Clemson Road Columbia, SC 29229)
It‘s also important to know what kind of grass you have. For the most part, in our area of South Carolina, we have warm season turf grasses, meaning that they are green and growing when it’s warm and they go dormant and turn brown in the Fall and Winter.
No matter how much you want to, it’s important not to interrupt the cycle by trying to keep your lawn lush and growing while it’s trying to go dormant.
Mowing Patterns Matter
We’re creatures of habit so it’s no surprise that we usually revert to cutting our lawn in the same pattern every time. This is a major no-no when it comes to lawn mowing.
When you start to cut your grass in the same pattern every time, it can lead to rutting and unevenness. You also want to avoid mowing when your lawn is wet.
You also will want to watch how low you cut your lawn, especially in the hotter months. When it’s hot and you cut your grass too low, it can cause stress on your grass, preventing growth.
Proper Timing of your fertilizing and weed prevention is a must
You’ll want to pre-emerge your lawns in September or March, which will prevent most seasonal weeds. (Pre-emerging is a chemical that prevents undesired weeds in your lawn by preventing them from sprouting.)
If your soil sample recommends applying lime to your lawn, Fall or Winter is the time to do it.
When March comes around, you’ll want to make sure that you dethatch your lawn. This is basically just a fancy word for making sure that you remove the dead grass blades and debris from your lawn. This allows for proper airflow and improves root growth.
