Simple lawn care tips for a great garden

If you are beginning a lawn from the scratch, you should carefully go through these time tested lawn care tips from experienced gardeners.

You might have a lawn already and are looking to spruce things up a bit, these tips would be helpful to do the same. You can just skip the beginning a lawn part.

Beginning with a lawn

Starting your lawn from the scratch

It is important to prepare your yard to start off a lawn. This step is quite important to prevent the growth of weeds and other soil problems later. Here's what you need to do

Clear your lawn

You need to get working to remove the following from your yard

• Weeds (use a hoe and pluck them off their roots)
• Dead grass (left over from an old lawn)
• Rocks and solid materials of any kinds including iron, plastic and cloth debris

You need the use of good gardening tools to accomplish the above. Use of the below tools is helpful.

• Hoes
• Harrows
• Spades
• Forks

Weed prevention

Read the article on this site which deals with this topic in detail: Identify the common lawn weeds

Weed care is a critical chore for lawn maintenance. Skipping this step can lead to a shabby looking lawn with a couple of seasons. Some weeds take root and propagate fast, it is important to eliminate them while they are sprouting.

Leveling your lawn for a slope

It is important to slope the lawn away from your house. When there are heavy rains the waters will not percolate towards your house and it would keep your foundations from getting moist.

You can create a slope using leveling tools like rake and a shovel. It need not be perfect, any approximation would do.

If you find this job a bit tedious you can always hire a qualified help.

Check the water retaining capacity of your soil

Good soil would soak up water quickly and leave no puddles. Clay soil is compact and hence does not soak water, in the absence of a good drainage facility there will puddles everywhere.

Grass will not grow well on puddles and it is uncomfortable later for you when you walk on the grass.

Make sure your soil has good soaking capacity, else contact a hired help to mix more organic matter and other premium soil to make it more porous.

The location of your lawn

Decide upon the location prior to planting the seeds. You would need to make a plan for the dimensions of your lawn based on the flower beds, fruit trees and vegetables you plan to grow later.

Here are few tips to keep in mind

• Allow plenty of sunshine for the lawn. Grass will not grow well in areas of shade.
• Place the lawn so that the pathway does not go through it but around it.
• It is difficult to manage very large lawn, so keep it simple. A lawn as big as your house or half your house size should be sufficient in most cases
• It is important to decide upon the shape of the lawn also. If you prefer symmetrical lawns you might go in for a rectangular shape. If you like something casual you can try out a asymmetrical shape with a few oval edges.

Lawn is usually the focal point of most gardens and maintaining it requires some effort and care. Implementing these lawn care tips would go a long way in ensuring an attractive and lush lawn you will love to show off.