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3 Common Lawn Maintenance Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Lawn maintenance is a lot like taking care of your pets. They need food, water, and proper grooming, just like your grass. In many ways, taking care of your pets is actually easier than taking care of a lawn–at least your pets can alert you when something is wrong. Though sometimes it’s hard, if you can avoid these three common lawn maintenance mistakes, your grass will flourish. After all, your dogs need something to play on.
Improper Mowing During Lawn Maintenance
We mow the lawn for many reasons, chief among them improving its appearance, reducing weeds, and promoting healthy growth. It also keeps pests, debris, and other grass health issues at bay. You want to ensure your mowing patterns are right for your grass, though, because over- or under-mowing has its own slew of consequences. When you overmow, cutting the grass too short causes it to dry out faster, leading to patchiness and brown or yellow spots. It also weakens grass, making it more susceptible to disease, weeds, and insects. This is because when the grass is cut too short, it’s forced to use its reserve energy stores, which stunts its growth. Stunted growth leads to a weak root system. Conversely, if you don't mow enough, the soil can become compacted and unhealthy. Grass left to grow too long can also go to seed, create excess shade, and lead to poor grass health overall. Additionally, mowing too fast or making jagged cuts could rip the grass and make it susceptible to disease, insects, and other stressors.Improper Watering During Lawn Maintenance
Watering grass provides more to your grass than just moisture. It also helps it learn to withstand drought, and it prevents mold and fungus from growing on the leaves. Grass develops deep root systems to find moisture in the soil, so getting water to the roots is important. Overwatering grass can lead to many issues, including fungus growth, thatch buildup, water runoff, soil compaction, weed growth, thinning grass, insect damage, and disease. When you water your grass, you want to do it infrequently but deeply so that the roots get their necessary moisture, but you’re not drawing anything on the surface. Underwatering grass can lead to brown, gray, blue, or yellow spots, slowed growth, a loss of shape after being stepped on, curly blades, or dryness. Ultimately, underwatering your grass is better than overwatering it because it causes less damage. Still, depending on the seasonal, soil, and climate conditions, you should water it once weekly.Neglecting Soil Health During Lawn Maintenance
When it comes to lawn maintenance, soil health is the most important factor, though it’s typically known the least about. Because grass has such deep root systems, soil health is crucial for a thriving yard. Healthy soil promotes growth and development and helps grass resist pests, drought, and weeds. Poor soil conditions can prevent water, nutrients, and air from reaching the grassroots, stunting growth. Some ways to improve soil health are proper watering, maintaining a soil pH between 6.2 and 7.0, reducing soil compaction, fertilizing, and increasing biodiversity in your yard.
One way to determine the health of your soil is through soil testing. It can be difficult to determine whether your soil is healthy just by looking at it. There are laboratories where you can send soil samples for analysis. They test for soil pH, nutrient levels, cation exchange capacity, and organic matter.
FACT: Soil test results will help you plan your landscaping and lawn maintenance strategies according to your grass’ needs.