Take a walk around your neighborhood in order perform a quick inspection of the lawns and you will surely notice that while some homes have an incredibly eye-catching front yard, others simply look dull and unkempt.
While they don’t really have weeds and the grass is neatly trimmed, some lawns simply don’t have any particular qualities to boast. On the other hand, certain yards appear incredibly vivid, thanks to their amazing array of color combinations and varied plants. How is it that certain homeowners manage to create such an impressive landscape while some of us – try as we might – can’t hold a candle to them? Let’s find out!
Following a carefully laid plan for the yard design
Planning should always, and I mean ALWAYS, be the first step of your landscaping project. You can just go down to the home and garden retailer without knowing what you want. It doesn’t help to tell the shopkeeper that you want a certain amount of the finest grass they have. Yes, they will probably be able to offer certain suggestions if you tell them a bit about the positioning of your home, the size of your yard, etc.
But keep in mind that they can only supply basic guidelines rather than actually specific details. Now, I want you to know that planning the entire thing does not necessarily have to wait until you have enough money for the whole project. You can have a general idea of what the result will look like and start constructing it gradually, piece by piece.
Know the optimal grass type for your home and region
With more than 50 varieties of grass utilized around the globe nowadays, your selection process could get tricky. However, each grass type has certain advantages and setbacks, which should constitute the primary factors in your purchase decision. Let’s take a look of the most common alternatives:
- Kentucky Bluegrass, resistant to highly seasonal temperature variations, but the downside is that it takes to the ground at a snail’s pace as well as the fact that it requires frequent and consistent watering
- Red Fescue, requires very little water and sunlight in order thrive, one of the toughest varieties of grass that can tolerate very low temperatures
- Rough Bluegrass, a very thick variety, has no problem in regions with prolonged shade, but you will have to water it almost as much as the Kentucky one
- Perennial Ryegrass, a specimen that will be prosper in hot climate and that has high resilience to traffic, not to mention versatility to the type of soil
These are just a few of the examples, but you can also try other varieties such as the Bent Grass, Wheatgrass, Bermuda Grass or Canadian Bluegrass. I’m not saying that you should not plant a certain assortment if you think that you can give it proper conditions, but opting for a grass that prefers a different climate from yours will definitely entail a great deal of hassle with lawn maintenance.
Make sure that the irrigation is consistent and uniform
If you combine several types of plants in your yard, don’t forget to learn about their particular watering needs because otherwise you risk drowning or withering them. This is a good reason to select grass and plants with similar watering necessities. However, just placing your sprinkler in a random location of your yard won’t do the trick. The simplest way to determine whether or not all sections of your lawn are getting the same amount of water is to place paper cups in strategic points and turn on the sprinklers. After approximately half an hour, you need to measure just how much water is in every cup and reposition the sprinkler system accordingly if they are not even.
Another trick to watering the plants is to only soak the yard once, maybe twice every week rather than perform the watering frequently and superficially on a daily basis. The explanation for this is that it’s much easier for the ground to absorb water in this manner.
Fertilizers and pest controls
Without fertilization, you will notice that the grass does not take to the ground that well, but that does not mean you should apply any type of fertilizer or that you should do it too often. Specialists recommend utilizing substances that are releasing nitrogen at a slow rate and no more than 3-4 times per year.
My name is Chad, an NJ resident and I believe that the two most important home improvement projects for our state should be about the New Jersey roofing and lawn maintenance. If you have kept your lawn in a tip top condition, make sure you do the same for your roof!
