It’s ironic that green is the color of envy because a deep green lawn of grass can cause such profound jealousy among neighbors. We all strive to have a luscious green lawn, just like you see on television, but year after year many of us struggle to achieve our dreams.
Fortunately, a lot of dull, yellow and patchy lawns are caused by things that we either aren’t doing enough or are doing too much. That’s great news because it means that it can be fixed relatively easy.
Stop Mowing So Low
Firstly, you need to stop mowing too low to the ground. Many people choose to cut their grass extremely low because they don’t want to have to cut it again within the same fortnight. Unfortunately, this causes the grass to be damaged and encourage weed growth.
The ideal height to set your mower deck for most grass types is three inches, which is likely far longer than you are accustomed to. Taller grass holds far more moisture and stays greener than short grass.
Plus, by shading the soil more, it prevents soil from drying out, ensuring that the roots of the grass are kept wet. Next time you cut your grass try it at three inches and then inspect the blades of grass to see if it has cut smoothly through or if there are jagged tears.
If there are jagged pieces of grass, then the blades on your mower are dull and need to be replaced. Tearing the grass causes it to lose more moisture, dulling and prohibiting the development of your lawn.
Fertilize Your Lawn
Fertilizer is often a critical component in achieving a lush, deep green lawn, but don’t just go ahead and throw fertilize on haphazardly. Firstly, you should test the pH of your lawn to find out how acidic or alkaline the soil is, plus; you should be checking for different levels of potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus.
This can be done using some home test kits, but often you can achieve more reliable results using a cheap lab test.
This might seem a little overkill, but these tests are relatively cheap and will prevent you wasting money on a fertilizer that is only going to make the problem worse. Once you have more information, you can treat your lawn efficiently and optimize your NPK levels.
When it comes to fertilizing you should ideally do so when it is wet and cool out, doing so in dry heat can often cause more problems than you solve.
Dig Weeds Out from the Root
Weeds can be a huge pain, not only do they look terrible and ruin the green appearance of your lawn, but they also suck up valuable water and nutrients, stealing from your grass. Although it is possible to treat weeds with solutions, sprays and other methods, rooting is the best choice.
Spraying chemicals onto your grass is best avoided, especially when pulling weeds out from the root is a more efficient approach in the long term. Rather than merely killing the plant you can pull it out from the soil entirely and remove any possibility of it returning.
The best approach to weeding is to be incredibly proactive and to stop problems as soon as they appear. Walk across your lawn once per week and keep an eye out for any small weeds and remove them straight away before they can grow and spread.
Water Deeply and Infrequently
Watering your grass is extraordinarily important, especially if you live in a climate which doesn’t get enough rain and has excessive hours of sun each day. Your grass is a living organism, and it requires water just like any other plant, without it the lawn cannot develop properly.
While seeds do best with frequent and shallow watering, developed lawns should be water incredibly deeply and infrequently. Water in the morning to optimize water penetration, for up to 30-minutes at a time and do so on a weekly basis.
This deep but infrequent watering helps the water to penetrate deep into the soil and encourages the grass to develop a thick and widespread root system.