Lawn Care: 5 Tips to Keep Your Lawn Looking Mow-Worthy.

Lawn Care 5 Steps to Keep Your Lawn Looking Mow-Worthy in Edmonton

Most homeowners are more than willing to put in the extra effort to keep their lawns looking lush and green. There are plenty of tools, products, and techniques available on the market today designed to help make your lawn more beautiful every day. But before you start shopping for products, know what kind of yard you have: wet, dry, shady, sunny, clay soil, or loam soil. Let’s discuss in detail lawn care in Edmonton, Alberta.

Complete guide about lawn care in Edmonton and surrounding areas.

It is time to mow the lawn. You are not sure what to do with your lawn, or you are looking for a guide to keep your lawn looking Mow-Worthy. Well, this article is for you! This article covers everything on how to mow the yard and care for it all year round.

What is lawn care?

There are many tasks associated with lawn care, but most homeowners focus on these five areas:

  1. Fertilizing the lawn
  2. Watering the lawn
  3. Aerating the lawn
  4. Removing weeds
  5. Removing dead grass

Fertilizing the lawn

Like we as a human can not get all the nutrients from the water then how can lawn get? When it comes to fertilizing the lawn, there are a few things to keep in mind. The type of fertilizer you will want to use depends on your soil composition and your desired outcome. For example, organic fertilizers are best for lawns with nutrient-deficient soils, while 10-20-10 or 12-12-12 provide faster results.

Lawn care Fertilizing the lawn

What is fertilizer, and what does it do for my lawn?

There are a plethora of resources available to homeowners when it comes to lawn care. One of the most overlooked parts is fertilizer. Fertilizer is typically used in the spring and fall to give your lawn a boost, so if you’ve been struggling with low-quality grass, it may be time to fertilize.

When to fertilize the lawn in Edmonton?

Spring Fertilization

The spring is the time of growth for the lawn. So, they require to absorb moisture and nutrients from the soil to facilitate new growth. We recommend fertilization during this time. Fertilization will give good growth during springtime.

Fall Fertilization

In the fall, lawn materials begin to store nutrients and harden off for the winter. A fall application of root zone injected fertilizer is the best application method as slow-release products will still be active after your lawn has hardened off for the season. We recommend fertilization in the fall.

Types of Fertilizer for lawn care: Which type should I use?

Fertilizers come in many different forms and there are so many on the market, it can be hard to know which one is right for your lawn. The two main types of fertilizer you should use are slow-release and liquid. Slow-release fertilizers will slowly release nutrients over a long period of time and while liquid fertilizers provide nutrients immediately.

Apply the fertilizer to the lawn: How to apply it properly.

  1. Water your lawn: Before planning to the fertilize lawn apply water a few days back. Watering your yard lawn helps soil to accept lawn fertilizer.
  2. Pick a good spreader for the lawn: There are two types of spreaders available in practice. The first one is broadcast and the second one is drop. Adjust the spreader setting according to the fertilizer. Each fertilizer has a unique setting for correct coverage. You can find settings details on the fertilizer packing bag.
  3. Apply grass fertilizer around the perimeter: First of all, feed the fertilizer on the edges of your landscape. It makes you tension-free during fertilizer. It gives you an assurance that all corners are well fertilized.
  4. Fill in the middle: Similar to a mowing pattern, feed your lawn by walking back and forth in straight lines while slightly overlapping with each pass.
  5. Properly handle the remaining fertilizer: Once all area is fertilized, seal the remaining fertilizer and store it in a dry and cool place.

Watering the lawn

It can be difficult to keep your lawn looking healthy and green especially during the hot summer months. One way of combating this is by watering it on a regular basis. As with most things, more care is needed in the hotter months than the cooler ones. With this article, you will learn how to properly water your lawn so that it stays green and healthy even in the heat of summertime.

Lawn care: Watering the lawn

Best time to water the lown

The time of day that you water the lawn is just as important as how often you water it. The best time to water your lawn will depend on temperature and humidity levels. Generally speaking, watering early in the morning or late evening is preferred to avoid evaporation and prevent plant diseases from unhealthy exposure to the sun’s unhealthy rays.

How Long to Water Your Lawn

Keeping your lawn healthy and green can be done with a few simple steps. One of the most important is how long to water your lawn. It is ideal to water lawns about one inch of water per week. You can identify the time of 1 inch by placing a plastic container in your yard and setting a timer for measurement. In most cases, it takes 60 minutes to 70 minutes to reach the water level to 1 inch. If the grass looks dry and brown, it may be time to mow or aerate. So, you should give water to the lawn for 20 minutes three times a week. This is ideal for healthy and well-cultivated soil.

How Often to Water Your Lawn

A variety of factors can affect how often you should water your lawn. For instance, the type of grass you have, the soil conditions in your yard, and even the number of people living in your home might affect how often you need water. Other factors that could affect the frequency with which you need to water include if you have large trees or shrubs if it has been raining more than usual lately and if there is any construction.

Most homeowners are willing to put extra effort to keep their lawns looking green. Watering the lawn daily will result in a shallow root system. The shallow root system dries out fast and weakens the lawns. So, infrequent watering deep watering encourages grass to deepen the root. A deeper root means a strong root of the lawn below the ground. And the final result of the deep and strong root is it is resilient to changing weather while becoming hardier and disease-free.

How to Tell if Your Lawn Has Been Watered Enough

There are some simple tricks that will determine if a lawn is receiving enough water. First, does it look healthy? If yes then continue what you are doing it. Another way is to submerge a screwdriver into the grass. If it sinks 6 inches, then your lawn is the ideal amount of water each week. Otherwise, you need to change the watering routine accordingly.

Aerating the lawn

What is aerating the lawn?

Lawn aeration is a process of mechanically breaking up the soil below your lawn so that air, water, and nutrients can reach the roots. It is a necessary part of any healthy lawn care regimen and is usually performed in the fall or spring to allow the soil to recover before the next growing season. Different tools are used to aerate different types of soils, but all have a hollow cylinder with large spikes that penetrate the soil and then break off into pieces under 3-4 inches.

Lawn Care Aerating the lawn

Why aerate the lawn?

The main reason for aerating is to alleviate soil compaction. Compacted soils have too many solid particles in a certain volume or space, which prevents the proper circulation of air, water, and nutrients within the soil. The excess lawn thatch or heavy organic debris buried under the grass surface can also starve the roots from these essential elements.

When to aerate your lawn?

Groundskeepers often ask the question, “When should I aerate my lawn?” There are many factors that can affect how often you should aerate your lawn including the frequency of mowing and when in the year you need to water. It is recommended that you aerate your lawn when there is a seasonal drought where it may not rain for weeks at a time. The best time to aerate the lawn is during the growing season. So, grass can heal and fill in any open areas after soil plugs are removed. The ideal time is before the fall or spring season.

How to aerate your yard?

Here is the process to aerate your yard.

  1. Before starting the aerating, make sure the solid is moist enough. Water the lawn the day before you start the aerating is advisable.
  2. Make multiple passes over compacted areas because aeration machines cover only a small percentage of the soil.
  3. The excavated soil plugs should be allowed to dry. Once it dried, broke it down to give the lawn a uniform, clean appearance. You can use a lawnmower to break them or you can also be pounding them with the back of a rack.
  4. After aerating follow the basic lawn care practice like fertilizing, watering, and mowing.

Removing weeds

Weeds are a nuisance on any lawn, so here is what you need to know before you start your next attempt at getting rid of them. They can be pesky because they take over and choke out the grass, so you will want to remove weeds when they are still young. Some people use a chemical weed killer, but if you prefer not to use chemicals and want a more natural (and less expensive) solution, try digging up the roots or covering them with straw or cardboard.

Lawn Care Removing weeds from the lawn

Weeds in your grass and what are they?

Weeds are invasive plants that compete with our grass and can take over if not treated. They usually appear as clover, dandelions, daisies, or other variations. Tell-tale signs are if the grass begins to appear uneven and patchy or flowers start to pop up throughout the lawn.

How to remove weeds from the lawn?

You can follow two ways to remove weeds. The first one manually digs and removes the weed. The second one is weed kills chemically. You can use both of them if your lawn is older than 6 months. To dig out you can use techniques such as aerating and scarifying the lawn or digging out the weeds with a spade and patching with grass seed. Contact us to know more about weed control for your landscape.

Find more about our Weed Control Service

Removing dead grass

Dead grass is a problem that plagues lawns everywhere, and with the summer heat and drought, it can be even more difficult to remove. Some people think that using a weed killer will solve the problem, but this isn’t always the case. Most weed killers kill any type of plant life, which includes clover and other desirable plants. The best time to remove dead grass is in early spring. Spring is the time when the lawn begins to turn green.

Lawn Care Removing dead grass before the season

If you find dead grass in small areas then the best tool to remove the grass is a rake tool. Raking the yard can aid in healthy grass gross for the new season. Use a rake tool to scrape the top layer of dead grass and then remove the waste with an outdoor vacuum or your lawnmower before reseeding.

If dead grass is in big areas then you should use a power rack or dethatcher. Dethatcher is a less aggressive choice. You can find some that attach to riding lawn mowers or that resemble push mowers. These tools are used more in maintenance. Some homeowners use it once to twice a year. Dethatcher helps lawns look better and absorption of fertilizers.

If you have a serious dead grass problem then you should use a power rake. Power rakes have mechanical flails and work better than dethatchers. Power rakes scour the thatch layers at high speeds, leaving the soil exposed to the air.

Once dead grass is removed, it is good to seed a new lawn in that gap. Follow the proper step to make your grass green again. Remember to walk on your lawn to inspect the grass. This habit helps you to identify the problem spot and save you from a big headache later on.

Contact My Landscape for Lawn care service in Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, Leduc, Beaumont, Fort Saskatchewan, Spruce Grove, and all areas in-between. We offer 24 hours day services to make your landscape more attractive. We offer all types of landscaping services like patio design, walkways, fencing, retaining walls, garden maintenance, lawn maintenance, lawn installation, snow removal, land grading, etc.

Contact us

Reference websites:

GIlmour.com

Scotts.com

homeguides.sfgate.com

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