Today is Earth Day and I figure that the very best way to help the environment and strengthen the Earth is to have a green, healthy lawn. Now, I know I am biased, but if you think about it, pretty much everyone in the modern world has a lawn, and if we all made them green, weed free, and healthy, how much better would the world be?
Here are some pretty basic tips on keeping your lawn care “green.”
Recycle Lawn Clippings
This is also called “mulching” the clippings, and it really is the best thing for your lawn. If you have a proper mulching mower and you let the lawn clippings fall back into the turf, you are doing the right thing. Mulching returns moisture and nutrients back into the lawn, meaning you need to use less fertilizer to keep the grass growing healthy.
Sharpen Mower Blades
You probably didn’t think about this as being a green lawn tip, but it is. You see, a dull mower blade rips, shreds, and tears the turf tips when you mow. These ripped and shredded areas allow moisture to more quickly escape the grass plants, and leads to the need for more water to keep the lawn green! I call that “waster water.”
Water Right
The right way to water your lawn is once or twice a week, at most. When you do water, water deeply. One or two deep waterings (about 1 inch throughout) a week can keep the lawn healthy. If you water daily but for only 15 or so minutes, you are just contributing to evaporation and not using resources wisely.
There you go guys: Simple green lawn tips in honor of Earth Day. Simple!
Now that September is fast leaving us (can you believe that?) and October is about to blow in, it’s time to consider our fall lawn care strategy. Now it does not matter if you have been reading this lawn care blog for a long time, or if you just started, this advice will apply to you. It also applies to those of you who have already forked over the $7 to buy my lawn care book that gives you step by step instructions of what to put down on your grass and when to put it down.
The reason this all applies to all of you is that I know for a fact that the majority of you have NOT been caring for your lawns like you should; and that’s ok. I understand that summer gets hectic and your lawn care maintenance practices can take a back seat. But now that fall time is almost here, you can make up time and catch up to where you need to be fairly easily. With that in mind, here are some very basic tips on turning your lawn around this fall.
1) First off, your mindset needs to change, and what I mean by that is you cannot think about “starting next spring.” No Way! In fact, starting a lawn care program in the early Fall will yield much faster and long-lasting results than the alternative of waiting until next year. This is because lawns spread out and thicken their root systems in fall and we can take advantage of that by feeding the turf properly at the right time. In addition, there is less weed pressure in the fall, making our efforts that much more effective.
2) Next, you need to get my book. Seriously, it has changed the way a lot of people think about lawn care. You see, the products you put on your lawn (fertilizers, weed controls, etc) are what make the difference, but many of you think that you either need some industrial strength witches brew, or you think that some basic 4-step generic plan at the local hardware store will work. The truth is that neither of those extremes will help your lawn. My plan, which provides a balanced approach, shows you the products to use and where to get them. Of course, most if not all of my recommendations can be found at the local Home Depot, Lowe’s or Menards, but you just don’t know what to look for. In addition to that, I tell you exactly what time of year to use each particular product, and that makes a huge difference as well. Get the book ok?
3) This is in the book too, but it bares mentioning here: YOU MUST AERATE YOUR LAWN THIS FALL! This is not a choice but rather a necessity. My lawn here is as thick as Buckwheat’s Afro but you can dang skippy expect that I will be aerating my lawn this fall and every fall to come. Aeration is just one of those things you need to do at least once a year, like visiting your dentist for a tooth scraping!
When you aerate your lawn you loosen soil and allow those expanding grass roots to get in deeper and wider. You also allow the nutrients you put down in the form of fertilizer to penetrate into the zone faster, thus maximizing your results. Finally, and most importantly, you help release soil microbes that will be spread around to different areas of the lawn, making the soil healthier, Healthy soil is really the foundation for everything else ya know?
So here’s what I want you to do guys: Resolve in your mind that you are going to get out starting this weekend and begin a program to revamp and rejuvenate your lawn this fall. You’ll find that a little work now will really help you have to do less work next spring, no kidding! just get out and do it guys… you will love the results… I promise!!!!
