How to identify lawn problems and rectify them

Most lawn problems start with improper waters, irregular mowing and inadequate fertilizing. We address the right way to perform each of these critical activities.

Watering your lawn

The tell tale signs which point to a under water lawn are as below

Your lawn loses it green texture and turns a little gray or bluish.
Walking on the lawn leaves footmarks behind, showing that the grass is not bouncy enough
When you insert a sharp object into the soil, its goes in with difficulty and comes up dry.

Watering your lawn amply is important for healthy growth of the grass. Some grasses are drought tolerant whereas others are not.

The thumb rule to follow would be to water whenever you feel that the soil has gone dry. It's always best to keep the soil damp. This is especially during the summers.

Here are few tips you should keep in mind while watering your lawn

Plug off all the weeds around your lawn as they have the tendency to drink in water meant for the grass.
Most grasses will be shallow rooted initially and require watering once every two days.
Don't make the soil soggy with water.
Make sure the water gets soaked well
The best time to water would be in the morning or before noon. In the morning, soil is already wet from the dew and hence has the tendency to soak in water easily.
Allow the grass to stay at a 1 to 1.5 inch height at least. Shorter grass would dry off faster and require more watering.
Avoid watering during evening and night, that's a sure call for diseases and pest infection.
Let the soil dry out before you water again. If your soil is rich it would have better water retaining capacity and would require less watering.
Follow the practice of watering slowly. You can use sprinklers if you want to avoid the pain of watering with a hose.

How to fertilize your lawn

Fertilizing your lawn ensure healthy growth and protects it from infections and environment stresses.

You would need to keep a few pointers in mind while watering your lawn

Don't spread the fertilizer around without watering. You can apply the fertilizer after a session of watering or mix it with the water.
Your lawn needs nitrogen. The fertilizers most commonly employed for lawns are rich in nitrogen in the ratio of (22-3-7 of N-P-K). The reason why nitrogen is preferred is because it promotes healthy foliage.
Pure nitrogen fertilizers in the ration of (21-0-0 N-P-K) can also be employed.
Organic fertilizer works while you are preparing the lawn. Dig in a lot of compost and mix the soil well.
Once the grass takes roots however, you will need to depend on chemical fertilizers purely because you cannot dig in compost anymore.

The three varieties of fertilizers available include

Slow release fertilizers : Which release the nutrients slowly at a steady pace and require less frequent application.

Fast release fertilizers : Which release nutrients immediately, leading to an observable rapid growth.

Mixed : It is a combination of fast releasing and slow releasing fertilizers, giving you combined benefit.

Many gardeners mix manure in water and spray it across the lawn, this works as an organic fertilizer. It could get quite smelly so be careful if you are not experienced.

Never go overboard with the fertilizers. Follow the instructions provided in the label to the word.

Over fertilizing your lawn can lead to damage and you grass would start showing signs of a burn out.

How to mow your lawn?

There are several advantages to mowing your lawn regularly. A few are cited below

Mowing your lawn keeps the weeds at bay. Chopping of weed heads is the best way to prevent growth and spread of weeds.
Mowing will help make your lawn dense as the grass starts spreading more in reaction to your cutting its top off.

When should you mow your lawn?

If you are growing warm season grass it will grow more during the summer months and less during the winter and its vice versa with the cold season grass. So you would need to mow more during these months.

Water you grass a lot would lead to their quick growth, and hence more mowing. Keep watering to an adequate level.

Too much fertilizer again causes the grass to grow fast. So don't go overboard with fertilizing.

Never mow wet grass. It will result in a mess.

Wet grass is not only difficult to mow but would get unevenly cut, no matter what kind of mower you are using. The damp clipping will get deposited in clusters and when they dry off they look ugly.

If the weather is hot don't cut the grass too short. Long grass is more tolerant to heat.

So learn to adjust your mowing height as per the climate.

Keeping weeds at bay

Follow the tips mentioned below for a weed free lawn.

Mow your lawn regularly
Dont cut the grass too short as it will make it less heat resistant. It also promotes weed growth by allowing ample sun to the germinating weeds.
Keep your soil fertile, with the aid of organic and chemical fertilizers
Always pull of the weeds from their roots. Most weeds have a tendency to grow back if the roots are left in the soil.
Reduce or avoid the use of herbicides unless the weed infestation becomes uncontrolled. Regular mowing and handpulling would sufficient for any modest sized garden.

Read more about weeds in this article: Identify the common lawn weeds

Following these guidelines would keep most of the major lawn problems at bay. A well maintained lawn looks attractive and becomes the focal point of your garden.