Saturday, March 29, 2014

Maintaining A Picture-Perfect Lawn

By Emmet Gyzler


When you imagine a beautiful suburban neighborhood, you probably visualize attractive houses with large, green, well-manicured lawns. There are many things you can use to landscape a yard, but grass is by far the most popular and common element used to give life to a homeowner's outdoor space. There's nothing like the feeling of healthy grass under your bare feet. So, to have that ideal front yard, what are some of the steps you need to take?

It seems that the main way we humans use grass is to beautify the exteriors of our homes. However, grass is much more integrated into both society and the ecosystem than many people realize. There are nearly 10,000 different varieties of grass, and some of them are responsible for producing the corn, oats and rice that are the staple of many culture's diets. Additionally, even if humans don't directly eat a particular species of grass, it might still be part of the diet of an animal, perhaps livestock.

Every plant, in some way, shape or form, shares the same needs. Different types of plants are suited for different areas where the required resources have varying availability, but they all need water, sunshine, and nutrition. Grass is no different, and if you want your lawn to look like you could golf on it, these requirements have to be met.

But it's not enough to just give the lawn the good stuff that it needs. You also have to keep away the bad stuff that it does not need. This includes nasty little things in the vein of weeds, harmful bugs and diseases. If you see signs of any of these, make sure they are dealt with promptly.

The soil is the gateway through which everything physical the grass consumes will come. Therefore, to have grass in tip-top shape, you need tip-top soil. The ideal soil will have the nutrients the plant needs, the porous makeup to absorb water and air, and the proper levels of acidity. You can aerate soil that's too compacted and add sulfur or lime to increase or reduce its acidity, respectively. Without the proper conditions, grass will have a hard time reaching its potential.

To fortify the soil with needed nutrients, you can employ various types of fertilizer or compost. This is called amending the soil. Different types of grasses have different nutritional needs, so be sure to do some research and find the fertilizer best suited to the needs of the grass that makes up your lawn.

Helping the grass grow into the perfect lawn will take some effort, but it's probably much easier than you would think. All it takes is some good old hard work and a little know-how.




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