What is lawn care, and do you need lawn care services?
Leroy A. Brown
Consultant - Creating Wealth while having Good Physical and Mental Health | Author | Speaker
Many interchange the terms lawn care and lawn maintenance, not realizing the difference.
Not to worry, though, as I will help you understand what lawn care is.
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What is a lawn?
A lawn may be considered an area of ground covered with grass and sometimes other plants such as crop covers.
Examples of cover crops are clover, alfalfa, rye, cowpeas, and Sudan grass. The most common cover crop seen on lawns is clover.
The grass or other plants used to cover the ground are cut short, usually with a lawnmower, making it more aesthetic and scenic.
Another reason for lawns to be cut to a certain height is so they can be used easier for recreation and help keep the grass free from pests and diseases.
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What is soil?
What we usually refer to as soil is the top layer of the earth’s crust that helps to support grass and other plants to stay upright and sturdy while at the same time providing nutrients and water through the roots.
The condition of the soil directly determines the quality of your grass and plants.
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So, what is lawn care?
The overall care of your grass and soil is lawn care.
How well you take care of your soil directly determines how healthy your grass will be.
Lawn care involves ensuring the overall health of your grass throughout the year. To do this, both grass and the ground the grass is in must be taken care of.
Some may define lawn care as the attention given, and any treatment applied for your grass to do well.
Lawn maintenance keeps your property looking clean and tidy, while lawn care is what determines if your grass will be lush and green.
Lawn care is concerned with the health of your soil and grass.
Lawn care may include:
Pests are animals and insects that negatively affect your plants. They may cause damage to your plants, stress your plants, kill your plants, or are just a nuisance, such as ants.
So, pest control is keeping animals and insects away from your plants and minimizing any adverse effects.
With help from the book ‘Lawn Care and Your Health: Discover tips and tricks, solve problems, and have low maintenance lush, green, organic, and natural grass Lawn …’ by Leroy A. Brown, some common pests that may affect your lawn are:
(a)??Dogs
Yes, your dog may be considered a pest if it affects your lawn negatively, like digging it up.
One way to resolve this is to walk your dog regularly.
(b)??Voles
Voles may be another pest affecting your lawn, especially if you see holes on your lawn as if something is digging tunnels. Some may refer to voles as field mice.
You may have to use one or a few things to get rid of voles, like removing excess vegetation, using a natural repellent, or a trap.
(c)??Ants
Ants don’t necessarily affect grass directly but may annoy you and bite you and others using the lawn.
Of course, you may have different ants, such as fire ants that usually create ant hills and carpenter ants that affect wood and wooden things.
Other examples of ants are Argentine ants, crazy ants, little black ants, and pavement ants.
Some ways to get rid of ants are to stop leaving food on the lawn and sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the area you want to keep ants away from.??
(d)??Armyworms
Armyworms are tiny yellow, dark brown, green, or black insects with about 1-inch cylindrical body that feeds on grass and create brown patches.
Other pest-type worms that exist are army cutworms, armyworm moth larvae, and fall armyworms.
Dethatching your lawn and ensuring your grass area is not waterlogged are two (2) great ways to prevent armyworms from negatively affecting your lawn.
(e)??Grubs
Grubs are like billbugs but are different.
Both grubs and billbugs feed on the grass below ground, causing the grass to die, become brown, and undergo stress.
Grubs feed mainly on the root of plants like your grass, trees, and shrubs and can be found in the top inches of your soil.
Grubs are usually creamy in look with a reddish-brown head and have three (3) pairs of legs on their bodies (called thorax).
Having strong deep grass roots is the best way to help prevent grub from destroying your grass.
Of course, you may use natural insecticides and take a more biological approach, such as using Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, which is the main type of nematode used to get rid of grubs.
These nematodes, which are tiny roundworms, may also be described as insect predators or entomopathogenic (i.e., kills or disables other insects).
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Typically, your grass doesn’t experience many disease problems, which is good, but it does happen.
Most disease problems occur from what you do to your lawn, such as over-fertilizing it, especially if you use synthetic fertilizers.
Diseases may be described as conditions developed after microorganisms like bacteria and viruses have harmed a living host like plants and animals.
With help from the book ‘Lawn Care and Your Health: Discover tips and tricks, solve problems, and have low maintenance lush, green, organic, and natural grass Lawn …’ by Leroy A. Brown, some common diseases that may affect your lawn are:
(a)??Fairy ring
A fairy ring is a circle or arc that you may see on your lawn. It is usually dark green or dead grass, and you may even see mushrooms growing in the circle.
Organic matter like leaves, dead plants, etc., can create conditions suitable for fairy ring development.
Not overwatering and preventing that will help to prevent fairy rings.
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(b)??Leaf spot
Leaf spots may appear as small reddish-brown spots that may spread and eventually damage the stems and crown of the grass, making your lawn thin and starting to die.
Not overwatering and not mowing the grass too short will help to prevent leaf spots.
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(c)??Powdery mildew
Powdery mildew usually looks like grey-white powder on mainly the grass leaves and stems.
Areas with poor air circulation and constant moisture because of lack of sunlight provide an excellent environment for powdery mildew to occur on grass.
Clearly, allowing more air to circulate and more direct sunlight will help to prevent powdery mildew.
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(d)??Rust
Rusts may look yellow, reddish-brown, or reddish yellow, mainly on grass leaves.
If there is a serious infection, rust may be found on your shoes and lawnmower blades.
To help prevent rust from happening, ensure grass receives enough nutrients, and practice proper mowing.
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(e)??Snow mold
Snow molds may look like straw-colored patches developed on the lawn after snow melts.
There are two (2) types of molds – pink and grey snow molds.
Snow molds can kill your grass and are known to trigger allergies in humans.
To help prevent snow mold, you can rake the area to assist in drying it. Also, you may ensure the lawn has proper drainage and prevent thatch from building up.
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Weed is anything you don’t want where you’re growing. So, if tomatoes are growing in your grass and you don’t want tomatoes in your grass, those tomato plants are now weeds.
Another example is if you do not want crabgrass on your lawn, then crabgrass is now a weed.
The two (2) best ways of preventing weeds are:
(a)??Pull weeds out by the roots when they appear
(b)??Replace the hole or area where you pulled the weeds with grass seeds and compost.
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Remember, it is the grass that ultimately prevents weeds from growing.
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Fertilization is providing nutrients for your plants like grass, trees, and shrubs.
Proper fertilization helps your grass grow thick, have deep roots, and can better handle challenges like weeds, pests, diseases, drought, and heat.
Usually, adding compost to your lawn and leaving grass clippings on your lawn are sufficient.
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A soil test is an examination of the ground by using a soil sample to determine the amount of nutrients in the soil, specifically nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K); what is the organic matter content; what is the structure of the soil, i.e., what percentage (%) is sandy, loamy, or clay; and what is the pH level such as how acidic or alkaline is the soil.
Soil tests usually come with recommendations that you can follow.
Soil tests are good to do when moving into a new home; every couple of years, such as five (5) years, to keep up your good performance; and when you want to know what is going on in your ground if your grass is not performing well.???
Aeration is simply putting holes in your grass to allow water, air, and nutrients to flow better to the grass roots.
Aeration also helps to prevent soil compaction.
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Seeding is placing grass seeds on your ground so they may germinate and establish a lawn.
Reseeding is placing grass seeds on the lawn each year to cover any damaged or bald areas, increase coverage, and make grass thicker and greener.
Irrigation is simply supplying water to your plants like grass, trees, and shrubs.
Some may use a hose, rainwater collected in a container or setting up hoses across the area that are connected collectively to a water outlet, and then the other ends have sprinklers that turn on at a set time to water the lawn.?
The basic rule is to water deeply and infrequently when watering your lawn.
Watering deeply is ensuring the water goes down more than three (3) inches, so it helps your grass roots to grow deeper.
Watering infrequently is usually watering less than once a week.?
Of course, you don’t have to water for a while if it rains.
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Sod is a grass that was farmed and has been cut and used to start new lawns or cover bald areas.
Sod has grass at the top and earth below the grass that is held together by the grass roots.
Sod usually comes in rolls, and large quantities like 40 or more may be delivered on skids.
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Tools and equipment that may be needed are:
A lawnmower is a machine used to cut (i.e., mow) the grass to keep it from overgrowing, help the lawn look neat and aesthetically appealing, and help prevent pests and diseases.
The lawn trimmer is used to cut (i.e., trim) the edges of the grass to keep it from overgrowing, help the lawn look neat and aesthetically appealing, and help prevent pests and diseases.
A leaf rake is used for removing leaves, debris, dead grass, branches, etc., from the lawn.
The spreader is used to disperse grass seeds and fertilizers equally across the lawn.
Watering items can be a hose or a system of tubes and sprinklers set up across the lawn to spray water onto the grass.
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So, do you need lawn care services?
Yes, you need lawn care services if you want to have a lush, green, and healthy lawn.
The good thing is that you can do it yourself, hire someone that you will give tasks to be done, or hire a lawn care professional to carry out lawn care services.
If you’re going to do it yourself (DIY) lawn care, or you want to know what is to be done, then you may get help and guidance at 5 Ways To Have Lush Green Lawn with Cariporter organic at https://www.cariporterstore.biz/categories/organic-natural-lawn-care-gardening-farming/lawn-care-and-landscaping.html