LAWN CARE TIPS
1. How Often Should I Mow My Lawn?
To keep your lawn looking its best year-round, weekly mowing is advised. Increasing the time between cuttings will result in more overgrowth and weeds, especially in the Spring and Summer months when your grass grows a lot faster.
Regular, weekly mowing will help your grass grow thicker and prevent weed growth. It will also remove any brown or damaged grass tips and stimulate new, healthy growth.
2. How Often Should I Water?
Your lawn needs about one inch of water every week. That can come from your sprinkler system or natural rainfall, but one inch per week is essential for fertile soil and strong grass roots. Of course, water is essential to all lawns, but too much or too little water can cause lawn problems. Frequent, light watering will cause shallow grass roots. Over-watering establishes a perfect environment for harmful insects and lawn diseases.
Address your lawn care questions about under-watering or over-watering to your Glass and Son lawn care professional.
3. Set a Watering Schedule.
Ideally, you should water your lawn between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. If that's not possible, try 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Irrigating your lawn during those periods reduces loss of water to daytime evaporation, and helps prevent moisture from lingering on your grass and causing lawn disease.
4. How Do I Control Weeds?
Weeds fall into two main categories – broadleaf weeds and grassy weeds. Broadleaf weeds have wider leaves and include dandelions, chickweed, purslane, and clover varieties. While some broadleaf weeds may flower and look like pretty plants, they're still weeds. Grassy weeds, like crabgrass, can quickly take over your landscape before you even realize there's a problem. One of the problems with grassy weeds is that they grow under the very same conditions as regular grass, so treating your lawn could end up growing the weeds as well.
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5. Look for Signs of Stress
One clue that your lawn needs its thirst quenched is something called "footprinting." Lawns that are dehydrated don't bounce back quickly when someone walks on them.
"If footprints remain or disappear slowly, it may be time to irrigate," the extension service says.
6. Measure When You Mow.
Depending on the type of grass, the height of your lawn should be anywhere from half an inch to 3 inches once it's been mowed, the extension service says.
Here are the recommended inch counts:
Bermudagrass ¾ to 1½
Centipede 1 to 2
Zoysia ½ to 1
Fine fescue 1½ to 2½
Kentucky Bluegrass 1½ to 2½
Perennial Ryegrass 1½ to 2½
Tall Fescue 2 to 3
St. Augustinegrass 2 to 3
7. Try a New Pattern
The extension service suggests alternating the direction of mowing to encourage grass to grow upright and distribute mowing stress felt by the grass and soil.