A nice lawn is probably one of the most commonly desired garden features. Unfortunately however, despite many misconceptions to the contrary, it isn’t always an easy goal to achieve. In fact, for many homeowners, a nice looking lawn is something that continues to evade them regardless of what they do.
Should you find yourself with a lawn that refuses to look its best, there are many potential causes. You might be surprised to learn that effective lawn care isn’t quite as simple as many people believe. Here are the seven most common causes of an unhealthy lawn.
You Mow Too Low
Probably the most commonly made lawn care mistake is mowing too low. As a general rule of thumb, you should never remove more than a third of your grasses length in a single day.
When you mow too low, you can easily end up scalping your lawn. Doing so hampers growth rates, increases insect numbers and generally leads to an unhealthy looking lawn.
Overuse of Sprinklers
Many people fail to realise that watering their lawn too much actually has the potential to be just as harmful as not watering it enough. The purpose of sprinklers is to provide a lawn with some much needed moisture when it hasn’t rained in a while.
When you set your sprinklers to come on regardless of the weather, you run the risk of drowning your grass. You are also needlessly wasting water.
Right Tasks, Wrong Time of Year
There are many essential tasks when it comes to maintaining a healthy lawn. Most people are aware of this but they fail to realise that most of those tasks are time sensitive i.e. they should only be performed at certain times of the year. When it comes to fertilising, weed control and aeration, timing is everything.
Too Much Fertilizer
The application of fertilizer is of course an important part of lawn care. It’s not something that should be added in a hazardous fashion however. Many types of fertilizer contain nitrogen and too much nitrogen leads to burnt grass.
Always read the label and only use the recommended amount. It’s also worth noting that if your spreader is broken or set incorrectly, you can easily end up applying more than you intended to.
Too Much Pesticide
Another gardening task that requires quite a bit of label studying is the application of pesticide. Make no mistake, pesticide, when used incorrectly, is lawn poison. It might be designed to kill weeds, but it’s perfectly capable of killing other things too when enough of it is applied.
You Planted the Wrong Seeds
If you plant the wrong the wrong grass seeds, you are never going to enjoy a healthy lawn. This is a mistake that is surprisingly common and it’s one that leads to perplexed home owners wondering why the hell their grass isn’t growing properly.
There are grass seeds available for just about every type of climate, it’s up to you to choose carefully. Choose incorrectly and there’s no amount of fertilizer that can solve the problem.
Your Soil
Finally, if you’ve read through this article and still can’t figure out why a beautiful lawn evades you, the problem could be in your soil. Don’t assume that just because your neighbours have healthy soil that you do. And don’t assume that you can solve the problem without a little bit of expert help. Get your soil tested.
The author, Blaire, is quite involved in gardening and her blog signfies that deeply. She has been recommending some guidelines on the same topic, including stump grinding in Edmonton.
