Posts tagged lawn care
Learning How to Maintain Your Lawn and Garden
Apr 18th
There isn’t anything quite as enjoyable as the feeling of a lush lawn on the bottom of your feet.Whether you have it for romping around dawn, strolling in, or just for the simple enjoyment of owning something really beautiful, there is nothing like having a nice lawn. But without providing the proper lawn and garden care to your grass, how is it possible for your lawn to thrive?
Great news: Even the most inexperienced wanna be gardener can perform successful lawn and garden care. Just follow the lawn and garden care steps provided below for virtually guaranteed success:
Step 1: Plan Your Lawn
The initial stage of planning for your lawn and garden care is a lot easier talk about then performed. There are many factors to consider, Not the least of which is the size that you intend to have your lawn, and what shape it will be. Knowing these two beforehand will help you determine the kind and extent of maintenance required and the watering needs of your lawn.
Size: Make sure that you get the dimensions of your lawn so you know exactly how many square feet of coverage is required.
Shape and Layout: Choose a layout for your lawn, one that will allow you to do your mowing without having to back up or stop. In addition, avoid sharp curves and corners and include borders in your layout in order to make mowing quicker.
Step 2: Pick Out the Grass
Being particular about the type of grass you choose is another important step in lawn and garden care You need to make sure that the lawn grass that you buy is compatible with the soil in the area that you live. Check your local extension branch for a guide on grass types growing in your region and choose grass that corresponds to it.
After many years of performing lawn and garden service, we have observed that some types of grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, fescue grass, and ryegrass, prefer the cooler weather of the North.. There are also those that prefer hotter southern climates, like the St. Augustine, zoysia, and Bermuda. If you’re unsure about your region, or have any doubts, but a safe bet would be to use tall fescue which is known to grow in areas where the regions merge together.
Step 3: Test the Soil
Performing a test on your soil is the next most important thing on your list of to do things for lawn and garden care. There’s a wide variety of different types of soil and each type has a high probability of containing different levels of acidity and nutrient content. In order to get the right fertilizer for your soil type, you need to get your soil tested first.
After the soil is tested, the problems with it need to be corrected accordingly. Often, organic matter is recommended to increase the nutrient levels in soil. On the other hand if you’re trying to achieving acid balance, and most lawn Gardens care specialists recommend using lime or sulfur to adjust the acidity. Just distribute a two to
3 inch or 5 to eight cm bed of organic nutrient over the expanse and merge it to 6 to nine inches or 15 to 23 centimeters into the ground.
Step 4: Install a Sprinkler System
While your grass doesn’t need water constantly, it remains to be a necessity for its life and growth.With that in mind, you can see how important to lawn and garden care a sprinkler system is. This is particularly vital if you live in an area where it is hot and dry, lacking any significant rainfall. If you get a lot of rain in the summer time, then having a sprinkler system in ground is an convenient option rather than a necessity.
Read more on gardening lawn care
How Earthworms Can Help Your Lawn
Apr 18th
Earthworms have inhabited this planet for millions of years acting as a natural control to other insects and micro-organisms. They are not only good for the soil, but their very existence indicates that the soil is healthy. If you find no earthworms in your soil, you literally may not have healthy soil.
If you’re into lawn care diy and are fed up with using artificial chemical plant foods and poisons to card for your yard and lawn, maybe you should take a look at one of nature’s oldest and most enduring soil conditioners – earthworms.
One of the most important things that earthworms do for your soil is to aerate it. Soil aeration is important for the root systems of most plants. If your soil is too compact, water and foods will have difficulty making their way to the root systems of your grass or other plants. As a consequence, the roots will either starve or travel to the surface, which is not good. Aeration has a plethora of benefits to the soil. It helps to reduce and eliminate thatching. It reduces water runoff and improves soil drainage. Aeration helps to loosen compacted soil, especially soil that has a heavy percentage of clay, allowing the soil to “breathe.”
Earthworms are nocturnal creatures and you won’t normally see them in the daylight hours. They don’t like the sunlight, probably from centuries of experience of being used as breakfast food by early morning birds. They love the dark and that is where you’ll most likely find them on the surface. They also seek the surface after long periods of rain where they may come to the surface for air.
If you want to drive all the earthworms to your neighbor’s lawn, then use a chemical fertilizer that has a high percentage of nitrogen. Large amounts of nitrogen tend to make the soil acidic which earthworms do not like. If the soil becomes too acidic, your friendly earthworms will seek greener pastures elsewhere.
On the other hand, if you desire to help your earthworm friends, leave your lawn clippings on the lawn when you cut it. The grass clippings contain natural levels of nitrogen, which is good for the soil. In addition, lawn clippings are a good source of food for earthworms.
Many chemical fertilizers have trifluralin as an active ingredient. Trifluralin is a suspected carcinogen which the EPA put under special review in the early eighties because of the presence of a contaminant that had been shown to cause tumors in animals. If you use chemical fertilizers on your soil, you are possibly putting the health of your lawn’s earthworms in danger.
Eliminating poisons has other benefits as well. Domesticated dogs and cats often chew on grass, dandelions, and other plants in the garden. If the lawn and plants have been treated with pesticides, your pets are also eating pesticides. In the best case, they will not be harmed. But depending on the levels of pesticides used, they could end up with an upset stomach or worse, they could be seriously poisoned. The same applies to your kids if they play on the lawn and put things in their mouth as young kids will often do.
With these facts in mind, even though the use of chemical fertilizers is often a much easier way of keeping your lawn looking good, you have ask yourself if it’s worth it. If, however, you are willing to try natural means of lawn care, you may find that the lowly earthworm is your lawn’s new best friend.
