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Proper Care for Your Lawn
How to make the grass green on your side of the fence

Level of difficulty: Beginner

A good lawn is a practical and beautiful part of a home landscape, and an investment worth maintaining. Before you go to work on it, however, it's important to know what kind of grass you have. To find out, take some samples to a local nursery to identify; then ask them for recommendations of minimum cutting length and preferred feeding season. (For example, some grasses should be maintained at no shorter than 2-3 inches, while others can be cut as short as 1 inch; cool-season grasses are best fed in the spring and late fall, while warm-season grasses are best fed in summer.)

The single most important thing you can do to maintain a healthy, disease-free lawn is to feed it well, paying particular attention to nitrogen. Heavy feeding promotes a dense turf, which is universally recognized as the best way to fight weeds. You should also maintain the proper pH levels (most grasses grow well in neutral (7.0) to slightly acid (6.2) pH conditions.

Tools and Materials:

Garden spade and fork Leaf and iron garden rakes Soil pH test kit or litmus paper Fertilizers Pelletized limestone (if needed) Spreader (drop, broadcast, or hand-held broadcast type) Garden hose Mower with sharpened blades (mulching-style preferred) Watering timer (opt.) Weed- and insect-control chemicals Hose-end sprayer

1. Test Your Soil

		Don't guess about your soil's needs for nutrients and particularly not its pH level. Test the soil. Test pH with an inexpensive soil testing kit available at True Vale stores. Have the fertility (and pH) tested by your state's cooperative extension service or a commercial soil-testing lab (look under "Soil Testing" in the Yellow Pages). Dig 6-inch-deep shovelsful from about four different locations on the lawn, mix well, and bag the required pint or so for a sample.

2. Measure Your Grass Area

Soil testing services will make fertilizing recommendations, organic or chemical, based on so many pounds of a particular grade per 1,000 square feet of area. Divide your lawn into rectangular sections, multiply the length by the width of each section, and add the results. 3. Aerate Your Soil Grass needs light and air to grow and stay healthy. At minimum, clean the lawn well at the end of the fall season and give it a good raking every spring. The goal is to remove any matted material (a process called dethatching). To further aerate the soil and root system, systematically poke holes in the ground with a garden fork using vigorous strokes.


	Tip:

		Thatch the Fact: If your lawn's soil is compacted and if thatch is particularly heavy, you may want to invest some time and money once every few years to rent walk-behind power equipment to do the aerating and dethatching work. A Mulch Better Idea: If it is fall and you have a mulching mower, you can mulch some of the fallen leaves and return this rich organic matter to the soil, rather than doing all that raking and hauling! Dethatching first with hard raking will help integrate the mulch and prevent matting.

4. Feed Your Lawn

		Buy fertilizers, preferably slow-release organic ones (and limestone pellets if needed), based on your soil's needs and total area. Your soil's test results will indicate a need for a specific ratio of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), expressed as an N-P-K formula such as 5-10-5. The results will indicate specific organic fertilizer recommendations if you requested them, such as so many pounds of cottonseed, bone meal, etc. You can buy a single fertilizer that has the desired ratio or make up your own formula. To do that, you must know the percentage of nutrients in the particular sources (stated on the packages of commercial organic fertilizers), and use them in a ratio that yields the desired N-P-K formula. Photo courtesy of The Scotts Company.


	Tip:

		Although you can spread fertilizers by hand, you'll get more uniform coverage with a spreader (drop or broadcast type). Make two passes at opposite angles. Water thoroughly after applying fertilizer or apply it before an expected rain, unless the directions state otherwise. If you are adding lime, don't apply it when the grass is wet, and water it well immediately after application.

5. Patch Bare Spots

		Rake the surface enough to make sure the seed will have direct contact with the soil. Sprinkle a light, even layer of seed and tamp it lightly to ensure good contact. Water the patched areas often until the sprouts emerge. Cover with a sprinkling of hay to help hold the moisture and to make the repaired area more noticeable so people will stay off it.


	Tip:

		Generally it's best to plant cool-season grasses in the early fall and warm-season grasses in the spring - but don't leave bare spots just because you forgot to seed in the fall. Weeds don't follow such rules, and will take over spots left bare.

6. Cut Grass Properly*

		To get a good, clean cut make sure your mower blade is sharp, and don't cut a lawn when the grass is wet. Cut no more than 1/3 of a grass's length at a time and don't cut it shorter than recommended for the particular grass you are growing. If you cut often, you can leave the clippings - a free, high-nutrient mulch.


	Tip:

		If the lawn is overgrown, mow it in two or more cuttings. Don't leave heavy layers of grass clippings on the lawn. Instead use them as mulch for a vegetable garden or add them to your compost pile. A mulching-style mower, while not required if you cut often, will chop clippings much finer so they get down to the soil level and decompose rather than matting on the surface.

7. Water Thoroughly Only When Needed

		Excessive watering increases the number of weeds, and frequent light watering brings roots to the surface and makes the lawn less drought-resistant. Water your lawn only when necessary; and when you do water, soak the soil to a depth of at least 2 inches and preferably 4 inches. Light, sandy soils will need less water than heavy soils. Incidentally, soil rich in organic humus will hold more water longer and be more drought-resistant.


	Tip:

		Just-Right Watering: Run this simple test to know how long to leave the water on: Note the time and start watering. Periodically open a wedge in the ground with a spade to check penetration. When it reaches 4 inches, note how long it took. To deliver enough water without waste, purchase a watering timer and install it at the hose bib. To slow evaporation water in the early morning or late afternoon rather than midday; avoid watering in the evening because grass that remains wet overnight is at higher risk for attack by disease. In-ground watering systems with timers make this task even easier because you don't need to keep moving the sprinkler.

8. Use Weed- and Insect-Control Chemicals Responsibly

Follow the good lawn-care practices described above and you can usually avoid using these chemicals. If you do have an insect or weed problem, read and heed the manufacturer's instructions for proper timing and application. The best time to apply chemicals is usually when the weeds are beginning to grow (and before they begin to seed!) or when insects are active. Depending on the product you buy, apply it with a hose-end sprayer, which mixes liquid chemicals with water from your garden hose, or with a garden spreader.


	Caution:

		Pay special attention to recommended follow-up watering instructions and recommended safety precautions, such as keeping pets and people off the lawn for a period of time following the application.