The Latest

Summer is right around the corner and the last thing you want is a dull brown, dead lawn surrounding your home. Americans spend nearly $9 billion each year on lawn care products, equipment, and services to maintain a well-manicured yard. Even if your lawn is just a stretch of green without any additional hedges and perennials or annuals, it is still a major gardening project. Summer lawn care should not have to cost a small fortune. There are things you can do to keep your yard green through summer temperatures while your neighbors’ yards dry up and turn to dust. Here are some popular tips that you can use without depleting a lot of natural resources.

1. Fertilize sparingly – If you use a high quality fertilizer that has special ingredients for lawns, then you can get by with fertilizing just a couple of times each year – once in the springtime, and then once in the middle of the summer. These blends have a higher content of nitrogen, which promotes a deeper shade of green. Too much nitrogen, however can burn the grass.
2. Use a spreader – A spreader will evenly distribute fertilizer over your yard. This lowers the risk of results that better resemble a patchwork quilt and increases the chances of getting something that looks like lush, green carpeting.
3. Service your mower – If you are not sure how, then have it looked at by a professional. At the end of every season, use a turkey baster to drain the gas from the tank so it will not clog the carburetor. If your mower refuses to start at the beginning of lawn season, then you might need something as simple as a spark plug replacement.
4. Water in the morning – Go out just before sunup, before the peak activity begins for daily water activity in your community, and soak your lawn. Do this three times per week to encourage growth roots to grow deeper. Light watering keeps roots up near the surface, which increases the risk that it will burn out and turn brown in the case of natural events like excessive heat or drought.
5. Fix the brown spots – Pet urine can over-saturate your lawn with nitrogen. Avoid this by limiting your pet’s bathroom activity to one area of the yard. Then give that spot a deep drink of water sometime within the next eight or so hours to dilute the nitrogen content and avoid brown spots. If all else fails, resort to a brown spot patch kit from the garden section of your DIY store.

When summer arrives, you should be able to enjoy spending time outside your home without fretting over the state of your lawn. These tips can help you achieve that goal. With just a little extra effort, you can reap a wide range of benefits when it comes to lawn care.