The pursuit of a lush green lawn can quickly become frustrating when the desired results are not being achieved.
Whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer or you’re using a lawn maintenance service, if you feel like there is effort going into your lawn but you’re not getting the pay off you desire, chances are you’re getting fed up.
The truth is that achieving a thick, green lawn requires a combination of basic lawn maintenance practices with some lesser-known tips and tricks. It’s a bit more complex than most people realize.
Even a lot of lawn care professionals get in the habit of doing things a certain way and never change it up.
Part of the key to a greener lawn is the ability to adapt to circumstances and change things when necessary. A skilled lawn maintenance professional is going to know when something they’re doing isn’t working and when it’s time to troubleshoot a problem.
It’s all about a customized approach—but that’s not how everyone works. A lush, green lawn is ultimately the combination of many factors all working together. If too many of these factors are ignored or overlooked, it can detract from your lawn’s overall health.
Lawn Maintenance Tips for a Greener Lawn
Besides being able to troubleshoot problems and adapt to changes in the lawn, there are definitely some lawn care tips that should be adhered to when promoting lawn health.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common and basic lawn maintenance factors that affect a thick, green lawn as well as some of the lesser-known factors that are also important.
1. Water Your Lawn Regularly
Water is the most essential factor of a lush lawn. It’s definitely a basic but that’s not to say its importance isn’t often forgotten.
When things get busy in the warmer months, or you go on vacation, regular watering of your lawn may go undone. But lawns require one to two inches of water each week and even more when it’s hot, due to increased evaporation.
If it’s a period of drought, that means physically getting out there and watering the lawn with sprinklers if you don’t have an irrigation system.
Your lawn care company should remind you of the importance of regular watering if they suspect that is why your lawn is not as green as it could be.
2. Fertilize Your Lawn
Lawns need approximately four to five fertilizer treatments each year to replace used nutrients in the soil.
Turfgrass requires a number of nutrients in order to thrive. Fertilizer provides nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, which are referred to as primary nutrients, each of which has a very different but important function in your turf’s health.
Nitrogen plays a role in making grass blades grow and spread in order to fill in very small areas or thin spots. Phosphorus increases root growth which will strengthen the overall health of your lawn.
Finally, potassium helps with disease and harsh weather tolerance.
3. Use Bio-Stimulants
Bio-stimulants work along with fertilizer to help promote lawn growth and overall health. Not all lawn care companies include bio-stimulants in their treatment program but they can be incredibly beneficial in terms of promoting the turf’s natural growth.
Bio-stimulants help to drastically improve the soil below lawns, to increase your lawn’s root mass and make a better environment for soil microorganisms to live.
This microscopic life will help your lawn to be more resilient against environmental stresses, aid in nutrient absorption, and even helps your lawn to require less water.
4. Maintain a Healthy Soil
If you don’t have great soil, your lawn simply won’t reach its full potential. Waterlogged soils won’t allow grass roots to get the oxygen they need in the small pores of the soil in order to survive.
Lawn aeration will help relieve soil compaction and let water and oxygen penetrate to the roots. It’s also a good idea to get a soil test every three years and to add limestone in areas with a low pH.
The right soil structure along with soil rich in organic matter and microorganisms will go a long way to helping your lawn sustain its good health.
5. Lawns Need Sunlight
Another basic need that is absolutely essential to a lush lawn is direct sunlight. All varieties of grass need a certain amount of direct sunlight each day to survive. Sun varieties like Kentucky Bluegrass, Perennial Ryegrass, and Turf Type Tall Fescue all need about seven to eight hours of sun to stay full.
Shade varieties (usually fine fescues) also need at least four to five hours or they will thin out and die. This may mean lawn areas in shade need other solutions like mulch or planting beds if tree pruning doesn’t thin out trees enough to provide needed sunlight.
You should also keep excessive clippings and leaves cleaned up as they will block the light from reaching grass below.
6. Apply Weed Control
Invaders like crabgrass and other weeds can take over a lawn and choke out healthy turf by using up the nutrients. Your lawn maintenance routine should include pre-emergent and post-emergent materials applied throughout the year in order to control spring, summer, and fall weeds.
It’s important to recognize that not all companies handle weeds the same. The best lawn care companies know the most effective weed control tricks to get a lawn that is free of pesky weeds.
7. Apply Insect Control
Common pests in our area include chinch bugs, sod webworms, and grubs, all of which can cause major damage.
Keeping a constant eye out for insects should be a regular part of lawn maintenance but that’s not always easy for the average homeowner to do on their own.
Having a professional on your property to keep an eye out for early signs of a problem is important. A quality lawn care company will also insist on grub control as they’ll know the rapid damage grubs can cause. It’s simply not worth the risk.
8. Mow Your Lawn Correctly
A lot of folks are surprised to learn that mowing not only makes grass look tidy and trim but it can impact how lush and green their lawn looks.
Most people don’t even realize there are proper mowing techniques that can make a big difference. For instance, it’s ideal to remove only a third of the grass blade at a time. That can mean mowing as much as three to four days a week in the spring when grass is growing rapidly.
In order to keep lawns healthy, it’s also ideal to not mow below three inches. Whenever possible, you should mulch clippings rather than bagging them in order to return nutrients and organic compost to the soil.
You should also be careful not to scalp the edges of your lawn in areas around walkways or the driveway. These areas become spots where weeds will thrive.
9. Overseed Your Lawn
Overseeding, which is a lawn maintenance service performed with aeration, is important to continually add new and improved grass varieties to your lawn for better tolerance of stressors. It also helps to fill in thinned out areas of the lawn.
By keeping your lawn thick and lush, you also help it to naturally choke out weeds. One of the best defenses against weed growth is a thick lawn.
10. Periodic Professional Inspections
It’s not uncommon for homeowners to miss the early stages of a potential lawn problem. But having a professional on the property throughout the year will help them monitor your lawn’s progress, spot problems early, and provide recommendations for treatments as they’re needed.
In terms of having the healthiest and greenest lawn possible, there’s really nothing that beats ongoing lawn maintenance from a skilled professional.
The Best Lawn Maintenance Programs
There are a lot of options when it comes to finding the best lawn care services. But there are many differences when it comes to the quality of the lawn maintenance you’ll receive.
But if you’re someone who really cares about having a thick, green lawn, then it’s important to seek out a lawn care service that is focused on quality service over the volume of customers.
A lawn maintenance company that cares about quality is going to employ all 10 of these tips for a thick, green lawn—and more. They know that a healthy lawn requires a combination of the important basics with some of the lesser-known tips.
But they also understand the value of educating their customers about better lawn maintenance. They’ll make sure you understand proper watering and making sure your trees are trimmed well enough that your lawn is getting proper sunlight.
If you’re a do-it-yourself kind of homeowner and you feel like you’ve exhausted all the possibilities, it might take a professional to help you determine why your lawn isn’t performing as well as it should be.
And if you’ve already employed a lawn care professional for your lawn maintenance and you’re still not happy, then it’s possible your service provider isn’t troubleshooting problems or trying all the tips and tricks for a healthy green lawn.
With the right care for your lawn, you’ll gain valuable peace of mind. If you’re interested in having your lawn inspected and its health assured, contact us for a free quote or give us a call at 833-JTE-TREE.
