Lawn Garden Sprinklers

In this next in our series of articles on lawn maintenance we’re going to continue with chores that should be done around late May or early June.

Around this time of year the weather is warming up and it’s hopefully raining regularly. Cut the lawn as needed. Try not to let the grass get higher than 3 inches. Also, do your June feeding. Remember to watch out for broad leafed weeds and apply chemicals as needed.

Around the end of June is the time to start looking for crabgrass again. Even though you have already treated for this you may still get seeds from your neighbor’s lawns or even from birds passing by. If the soil of your lawn is very sandy the chemicals will drain more quickly and a second application at this time will help prevent any problems down the road. Crabgrass has a very sneaky way of disguising itself among the regular grass. Then suddenly it rears its ugly head. So it is important to carefully inspect your grass for these pests and get rid of them while they’re young.

Keep your mower blade at the same height of around three inches. This keeps the roots shaded and helps protect against draught. This way you can reduce how often you water to about once every ten days. Of course this depends on the weather and how much shade your grass gets. By using a longer blade this allows the plant to give all its energy to the growing of the roots. If the root base is strong this will help prevent weed grasses from growing. This will also minimize the growth of Creeping Charley, Clover and Dandelion. If you’re against chemical use remember, a strong healthy lawn reduces the need to use chemicals. With only a few weeds in your lawn you can easily remove them by hand.

Once July hits you’ll need to reapply all your crabgrass and weed killers if needed. Around now you can ease up on your cutting as it will probably be very hot with little rain. This is usually the driest time of the year.

Around the end of July apply grub killer if you see any of it on your lawn. If you see any brown patches, dig around the area. Mostly likely you’ll find grub there. Dig up small patches. If you see any grub apply chemicals only to that area. Or you can apply a combination of lawn food and grub killer. Make sure you water your lawn well after doing this. This will help carry the chemicals down to where the grubs are hiding.

Also, if you find any leafed weeds apply a good quality leaf weed killer or a combination of weed killer and fertilizer. Don’t cut your lawn for about two days after treatment. This will give the weed killer and fertilizer time to work. Cutting the grass is a waste here because it will cut off the leaves to which the chemical is clinging and thus you’ll be cutting away your treatment.

In the next article in this series we’re going to continue with chores that need to be done in late July and August.

In this next in our series of articles on lawn maintenance we’re going to continue with chores that should be done around late July or early August.

If you’re planning on renovating your lawn, the end of July or beginning of August is probably your best time. By now the grass should be de-thatched and aerated. Get a de-thatching machine which you can rent for half a day. Your lawn will look like garbage after you’re done but, it will clear off old grass and will prickle the soil. After you do this you can seed, apply topsoil and peat moss, and then water your lawn, a lot. Every day for about a week should do it.

You can continue to re-seed until the third week in September but no later than that unless it is absolutely necessary. There are some lawn experts that will tell you that you can do this all the way up to just before the winter begins. Supposedly if you do this it will sit there over the entire winter and will help germinate the soil as the weather warms up.

If you are using a seed mix that has a high proportion of blue grass, seeding too late will make it so that germination may not take place until mid October, which is not beneficial to young grass as it would be an easy target for frost kill.

In September is the time to give your lawn its last feeding. If you haven’t been doing this up to now, get a slow release fertilizer for this last application. If you’re wondering why this is important, imagine what would happen if you didn’t winterize your car by getting new anti freeze. Most likely you’d end up with a cracked radiator. Grass is no different. If you give your lawn a little nutritional lift at this time it will stand a better chance of surviving the winter that’s ahead of it. So even though this last feeding may be costly it will be more than worth it in the long run.

In October, as the weather is getting cooler, you can lower your mower blades. Around October, since the grass isn’t going to be growing as much or as quickly, you can lower the blades to about an inch or inch and a half. One thing you should be aware of. If your lawn has a very bumpy surface, dropping the blades may create some bald patches. So when you set the blade height you have to take the surface of the lawn into consideration. Of course, if your lawn is very bumpy, you may want to think about adding some topsoil to it. This will help create a more even surface.

In November, after the leaves have fallen, rake the grass and clean up any debris. Do one last mowing before the first frost. This kills two birds with one stone. You get the grass ready for winter and clean up your lawn at the same time.

In this sixth article in our series on lawn gardening chores we’re going to discuss a little about maintaining your lawn using a low maintenance program.

There are several reasons that someone might choose a low maintenance program for their lawn. One reason is expense. Maintaining a lawn so that it looks like a professional job takes a lot of money. Seed is not cheap, neither is soil, fertilizer, chemicals and tools. Maintaining a lawn on high maintenance can cost you hundreds of dollars a year or more. Some people just don’t have the extra money. Another reason someone might choose a low maintenance program for their lawn is time. They may work a very demanding full time job requiring lots of overtime or may even have more than one job. Maintaining a lawn on high or even medium maintenance requires a lot of time and some people just don’t have it.

Another reason people might choose a low maintenance program is because they are physically unable to do the work required, such as the elderly, people who have allergies or people who just simply do not have a green thumb and wouldn’t have a clue where to begin. Other reasons could be that their lawn is situated so that it is difficult to care for, such as lawns that are on high hills or have trees all around. For these people low maintenance is hard enough.

Then there are those people who are just plain lazy. The last thing they want to do is spend their time on the lawn mowing, raking, seeding, fertilizing, laying down chemicals and weeding. They’d much rather be inside watching a good ball game.

So just what is involved in a low maintenance program? Actually, not very much. For starters you’ll probably only cut your lawn once every 3 or 4 weeks unless it rains so much that the grass grows to the point where the town comes and threatens to give you a summons. Some people only mow their lawn every 6 weeks, especially in the summer. And then after the grass is cut the trimmings are left on the lawn in order to regenerate nitrogen. As for fertilizing, you might do this once per each season. Some people only fertilize once a year and others not at all. These type of lawns are allowed to go dormant during the hot summer months. The leaves are allowed to turn brown and the appearance looks quite dried out. Basically, these lawns rely on natural conditions for survival. If the summer is hot and dry then most likely the grass will die as people who choose a low maintenance program never water their lawns. These lawns are usually only green during the cooler months where there is enough rain to keep them green.

Many parks adopt a low maintenance program because there just isn’t enough time and money in the town budget to care for these large areas. However, there are some residential people who for whatever reason stated above just let their lawns go the way of the weather.

<img style=”float: left; padding: 9px;” src=”http://lawngardensprinklers.com/images/lawn-nice-1.jpg” alt=”" />If you didn’t have a healthy lawn last summer, your lawn care practices might be at the root of the problem. Actually, a healthy lawn needs very little care and quite often learning what lawn care tips not to try is the best advice you can get.

Don’t over water. A healthy lawn needs about an inch of water a week and it’s best if it gets it all at once. You can check this easily by digging a plastic cup into your lawn. Watering deep allows the water to sink and gives your grass incentive to grow roots and find the water. Saturating your lawn will drown the roots and watering too shallow will keep them satisfied with their present depth. Shallow rooted grass is no competition for deep-rooted weeds.

Don’t over fertilize. In fact, if you rarely fertilize, both your turf and your topsoil would be better off. Aside from the fact that chemical fertilizers aren’t safe for your family and the critters that live in your lawn (which are mostly beneficial), chemical fertilizers aren’t safe for your soil. Although they are called “lawn food”, what they really are is “turf candy”. Grass, like any other plant gets its true nourishment from the soil. Don’t feed the plant… learn how to feed the soil through sound organic lawn care methods.

Healthy lawn care starts with healthy topsoil. Your lawn will thrive with four inches of healthy top soil, but it will be at its best with six. The problem is how do you get more top soil without ruining the turf you already have? Simply said, topsoil is the top four to ten inches of dirt under your turf except that this layer of earth should be nutrient rich and robust with organic matter and some little critters (like earthworms). If you don’t have good topsoil, you won’t be able to maintain good turf. You can start building good topsoil in the fall by mulching with good organic compost. About a third of an inch of fine compost on top of your grass will fall between the blades and soak into the earth over winter.

In the spring, aerate your lawn. This will work some of the left over compost deeper and in addition give your lawn and the critters that live in the soil a breath of fresh air. Aeration also makes new channels for water to pass through and helps break up clumps of earth that impede drainage.

When mowing, mow high. Mowing high gives your grass takes weeds out of the competition for sunlight. In addition, longer grass is more apt to propagate through rhizome growth. More grass means less weeds and less weeds mean more healthy grass! Healthy grass means less lawn care and more time to enjoy your lawn

So you have owned your property for a number of years now and just realised you have a garden out there to attend to. It is never too late to start caring for you lawn, but special attention must be given if you want to be successful.

Lawn care is not just about feeding nutrients, watering and mowing on a regular basis. Without any control on these aspects, you may begin to see negative effects.

The following are general tips you should consider when maintaining your lawn:

Mowing

To manage your mowing habits, you must consider the behavior of your lawn. This will differ according to the temperature, season and location. But points to consider are frequency of mowing, length of grass and the lawn mower itself.

Grass will grow quicker or slower at different seasons of the year, so therefore frequency of mowing is affected, which in turn affects the length of grass. Most lawns are often mowed too short or not enough. Mowing with a blunt blade is also very bad for the lawn.

Aeration

Like us humans and most other living species, grass needs air to breathe and water to absorb. This can be achieved by regularly driving a fork into the lawn, opening up the soil, thus giving the lawn more breathing space.

Thatch Control

Thatch is the layer of dead and decaying matter at the base of living roots. This problem can be alleviated by scarifying or raking the lawn.

Watering

The most obvious is sufficient watering. Watch out especially in the summer period for prolonged dry spells where growth can be affected.

I wish I had indulged my yard in a little tender-loving fall lawn care. Today I’m looking out my window at an all-too familiar Midwestern winter. Snow for Christmas and then a few days of warmth melted the insulating blanket away, leaving my lawn bare and susceptible to the terrors of an after-thaw ice storm.

It’s easy in the warm spring to roll up our sleeves and get out the rakes, aerators, spreaders and mowers. After all, we can celebrate putting away the snow shovels and snow blower! However, although spring lawn care is important, a good fall lawn care program ensures that we’ll have a lawn to tend when spring rolls around!

I could have started my fall lawn care with a final mowing. However, the grass seemed to quit growing… so I quit mowing. Silly me! A final mowing, lowering my mower blade about

Many homeowners have dogs, and one of their most common questions is how can I have a beautiful lawn as well as a dog? If your dog is using your lawn to urinate on, then the simple answer is you cannot. Dog damage to lawns creates circular spots caused by urine burns.

Generally it is the female and young males, which cause the greatest damage. This has nothing to do with the fact they are female, or young males, urine is urine. It has more to do with the way in which they urinate.

Adult male dogs will urinate on shrubs, or areas around power poles, playground equipment or fence posts. They do this to mark their territory. Females tend to squat while urinating, causing a greater concentration on one area. Because of the high concentration of salt and urea, it causes a circular dead spot. Normally a ring of healthy grass will surround the dead patch. This is caused by nitrogen in the dog’s urine, which acts as a fertilizer.

PREVENTING DOG DAMAGE:

Having one certain area such as a graveled dog run goes a long way to keeping the majority of your lawn green and healthy. If you are unable to provide such an area, watering immediately after dilutes the urine and may prevent the damage from occurring. This must be done soon after the dog urinates, or this is ineffective.

REPAIRING DOG DAMAGED LAWNS:

Areas of grass, which have been damaged by dogs, have a very high concentration of salts, nitrogen, and urea. Generally if you put down seed in these areas, it will not germinate. You must first water the damaged areas to leach out as much of the chemicals as possible. Roughly rake out the dead area, and then add appropriate seed to the damaged area. Top dress with approximately

Summer officially gives way to autumn on the 22nd of September, which is known as the autumnal equinox, but for the lawn owner autumn begins much earlier. This is because the green keeping tasks for autumn begin from the 1st day of September.

Your first task is to make changes to your mowing method, I would suggest raising the height of cut by 1cm above your summer mowing height which will give you an ultimate mowing height of 3cm (1 ¼ inches). The reason why you raise the cut to this height in autumn is to allow for the slowing of grass growth, on top of this I would usually mow just once a week once this growth begins to slow.

Should your lawns suffer from slow growth in the spring or during dry spells in the summer you may consider applying an autumn lawn feed to develop strong roots and hardiness. If you feel your lawn is not all it should be and would benefit from this autumn pampering then by all means apply the fertiliser but ensure it is specially formulated for autumn application, an autumn lawn feed such as this contains phosphates and potash whilst omitting nitrogen which would cause unwanted growth.

Many gardens may have goalmouths and beaten paths to washing lines that are tread-bare, sparsely populated by grass or compacted. Address these now to have them ship-shape for next season, start by driving the prongs of a garden fork approx 15cm (6 inches) into the compacted turf at various points throughout the affected area. This is a form of aeration, which allows more air to reach the grass plants roots on compacted soils.

To thicken up your grass sward in these high traffic areas we must introduce fresh seed, so firstly we must create a seedbed. Add a light layer of clean loamy topsoil (This is available bagged in most garden centres), rake this with a flat garden rake to the consistency of large cake crumbs and follow this by shaking on some lawn seed at a rate of 40 to 50g per square metre. Tamp down lightly with the flat of the rake to ensure firm seed-soil contact, alternatively on large areas use a light garden roller.

We think nothing of the computers in our cars. Who hasn’t at least heard of the robotic floor sweepers? Yet for some reason Americans have not yet embraced the one of the greatest home labor saving devices, the robotic lawn mower.

Robotic lawn mowers can cut a yard very efficiently. The software is designed to take into account various types of grass and growing conditions.

The Lawnbott Evolution is particularly sensitive to how fast the grass is growing. Every time it mows it will sense how much resistance is against the blade to try and determine how fast the grass is growing. When it goes back to the charger it will calculate the next time it needs to come out to keep the grass at the optimal height. In other words it will come out more in May than in October.
The new Robomower RL1000 models now match the Lawnbott robotic mowers with rain sensors. So they will not attempt to mow in the rain. The LawnBott takes it a step further with a wet grass detection system, if the grass it too wet it goes back to the charger automatically.

Robotic mowers can be programmed to mow any time day or night. They can be told what days to come out or to stay in. So they can automatically mow during the week while the kids are in school or at night when everyone is in bed, or not mow on the weekends.
They can mow in different patterns so as to cut the grass in different directions. They don’t leave the patterns in the yard like traditional mowers. The yard looks always crew-cut smooth.
Robotic mowers prefer to cut more often, they put much less stress on the grass and keep weeds from seeding. Robotic lawn mowers cut just the very tip of the grass so it falls to the ground as ready fertilizer. Virtually every lawn care website states how important that it is to reuse grass clippings.
Reducing water and fertilizer use is also is also important. Too much water and fertilizer can lead to too rapid of growth which will cause thatch.

Robotic lawn mowers use no gas or oil, they are very environmentally friendly. It is estimated that it costs only $7.00 a year to mow the average lawn with a robotic lawn mower. Mother Nature can’t help but smile at that!
The Robotic lawn mower is a proven technology, with over 5 years of in-home use world wide.