Summer Lawn Care Tips
Summer is just around the corner, and your lawn could probably use a little maintenance before the summer season of backyard BBQs and swimming in the pool. So what are you doing now to get your lawn ready? Lawn care is often feared as a difficult and time intensive process, but with a few guidelines and tips, you can easily have a healthy green lawn in time for the first backyard party of the season.
First of all, if you can spare a minute of your time, don't hire a lawn care "specialist" or professional landscaper. Buying your own lawn care products is cheap and easy, with hundreds of vendors offering products online and in Do-It-Yourself stores. A wide variety of products such as weed controllers to fertilizers can be found online, and usually can be found at reasonable prices, especially when you do a little online coupon searching.
Starting off on the right foot is important to reviving your lawn after winter. Fertilizer is the key to ensuring strong healthy growth of the grass in your yard. Fertilizing the grass does more than just make it green. Of course it will make it grow too, but lot's of things happen when you fertilize. Fertilizer makes the seed germinate faster, and get started out of the ground. After the grass has a good start fertilizer will make the grass get thicker and send off beneficial chemicals like Rhizomes, Stolons, and Tillers all making the grass thicker and healthier.
What most people want to know about fertilizing is - how much and when? Typically, you want to fertilize 4 times each season, spread 60 days apart. Start in early spring approximately 30 days before the growing season begins in your area, continuing through the growing season until fall. Spring fertilizing gets the grass off to a fast start giving you that rich green color everyone wants. A word of warning though, don't use too much fertilizer, follow the listed guidelines on the bag.
Mowing is the most misunderstood part of lawn care, and the most often incorrectly performed part of lawn care. Far too many people will set their mowers too low or "scalp" the lawn. How many times have you spent time mowing your grass in hopes of a beautiful result only to end up with brown spots? Cutting too much off the top leads to thinned out grass, and shallow root systems.
Now once you have achieved the perfect lawn, you must do regular maintenance to prevent it from going back to being a pasture. Spend a little time and money and keep it watered and you will keep the lush grass you spent your hard earned money and time on. The ideal way to water your lawn is with an Automatic Underground Sprinkler System. This way the watering is done every day that it needs it, you don't have to drag hoses, you don't waste water from over watering, and you get all of the lawn watered, not just where you happen to set the sprinkler. If you implement this type of sprinkler system, make sure to water shrubbery and annuals separate from the lawn. If you applied the same amount of water on your landscape as gets put on the lawn you would surely kill some plants from over watering.
Now that you're ready to care for your lawn, you'll need to get your supplies. Lawn care products can be found at many local gardening centers, or through many online merchants. Buying gardening supplies online is growing in popularity, and made even more economical by online coupons and discounts. For coupons on everything from fertilizers to lawn tools and equipment, check out www.CouponChief.com and easily save yourself some big bucks. Spend the extra cash on your first big BBQ of the summer and invite all your neighbors over to drool over your well manicured, lush green lawn.
Josh Gray, President of UC San Diego's Gardens Club, is a consultant to CouponChief.com. This online coupon website provides free coupons and discount codes to many favorite gardening websites on their home and garden coupons page.
More Resources
Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exitingMore Landscaping & Gardening Information:
- Group 1
- Group 2
- Group 3
- Group 4
- Group 5
- Group 6
- Group 7
- Group 8
- Group 9
- Group 10
- Group 11
- Group 12
- Group 13
- Group 14
- Group 15
- Group 16
- Group 17
- Group 18
- Group 19
- Group 20
- Group 21
- Group 22
- Group 23
- Group 24
- Group 25
- Group 26
- Group 27
- Group 28
- Group 29
- Group 30
- Group 31
- Group 32
- Group 33
- Group 34
- Group 35
- Group 36
- Group 37
- Group 38
- Group 39
- Group 40
Related Articles
Gardeners Gift Ideas
Plant lovers and backyard enthusiasts are special people who will love your thoughtfulness when you chose a garden gift for them. If someone you know spends more than ninety percent of their day pruning and pairing, selecting garden gifts for their next birthday or anniversary might be the perfect token of your appreciation.
Garden for The Health of It!
Gardening is good for your health! You have heard this before but take a look at the scientific facts that are available today.
Liner Ponds versus Folding Preformed Ponds
IntroductionSo you've decided to build your very own backyard water garden. You are in the process of actively planning out your design, and you're visualizing the end-result.
Gardenscape On A Shoestring
Many of us flip through garden magazines, all the while thinking that it takes years, a professional, or tons of money to landscape the gardens featured in the glossy pictures. This isn't necessarily true.
Toxic Pollutants & Their Effect on Fish Health
Once water temperatures increase in the summer months, fishbecome more active and produce increasing amounts of waste,leading to potential water pollution. Fish produce waste in theform of ammonia, which is broken down into nitrites then nitratesby beneficial bacteria.
How To Plan A Garden Right
Gardening is a hobby that brings joy, entertainment, and a better quality of life. It is a creative activity, the result of which is a more aesthetically appealing home.
Build A Simple Planter Box
Love flowers, but don't have the space -- or the desire -- to plant a garden? You may want to try making your own flower box, which can be just about any size you wish.This planter box is built with a top and a bottom exterior frame; then you affix cedar panels to the frame and add bottom panels.
Should Gardeners Be Trying to Eliminate Every Bug in the Garden?
There are a number of insects that can injure the plants in our gardens but it is important to know which ones just cause cosmetic problems vs. those that actually destroy our flowers, shrubs and trees.
Tips for Choosing a Chiminea for Your Backyard or Patio
Imagine that you want to stay warm in your backyard on a cool, starry night. One of the ways you can do so is to invest in a clay or cast iron chiminea.
Growing Vegetables in Containers - The Compact Solution
Container vegetable gardens are a great alternative for those that don't have access to backyards. There can be a range of reasons to grow your vegetables in containers.
Why Summer Is A Good Time to Plant
Were you aware that many people think you can only plant trees and shrubs in the spring or fall? This used to be true but that has all changed due to updated and modern growing practices in nurseries.
Selling Your House? Trim Your Shrubs!
Shrubbery and other greenery that has an unkempt appearance can often be misconstrued as a sign of neglect, and gives a bad impression of your house overall. Prospective homebuyers who see shrubbery that has not been well maintained may not even be aware of their observation, but it will have an impact on the way they view your property as a whole.
Water Conservation in the Garden - Use a Rain Barrel to Harvest Rainwater
If you are a gardener you probably already do a bit composting to recycle yard and kitchen waste. This homemade "Black Gold" does wonders for your plants and soil.
Hummingbirds
Many individuals are fascinated by hummingbirds. So much so, that they will do anything in their power to attract these petite creatures to their yards.
How to Buy a Porch Swing
The Porch Swing is enjoying a surge in popularity thanks to the latest Home & Garden trend towards building "Garden Rooms". Patio Furniture Retailers have responded by flooding the market with so many options that making a choice can be a daunting task.
Developing the Perfect Landscaping Idea
Using landscaping ideas can be an effective way to attract wildlife, such as birds, to your yard and neighborhood. Thoughtfully placing bird feeders or houses around your yard can make it an inviting environment for different types of bird species.
Protecting the Pollinators and Controlling the Bugs
Now that summer is here some gardeners are finding holes appearing in the leaves of their garden plants and are concerned that this damage will end up destroying their flowers or killing their plants.
Growing a Sustainable Garden!
Do you wish you could grow a sustainable vegetable garden? Now you CAN have a sustainable garden of your own in a very small space. And it can be fun and productive!Let's think for a moment of what motivates us to grow gardens anyway?Many of us want the taste of fresh picked-when-ripe tomatoes, corn, peas and etc.
Wild Flower Garden - Yours to Design and Plan
To design a wild flower garden, you do not need to be a specialist or an artist, you just need to be observant and let your creative juices flow. Look around you, what is unique about your surroundings? Do you wish to enhance or compliment these things.
Bedding Plants and Plugs (small plants)
It is not difficult to grow bedding plants from seeds, and you may be surprised to know you do not need to have a greenhouse or some hot room to grow them in. I have managed to grow my plants by placing them in an old carton/pot covered in a polythene bag.