Keep Your Lawn Healthy Year Round
Do you have a new lawn? If so, then you should know what the keys to maintaining the health of your grass.
New lawn care involves three main components: water, mowing and traffic.
Water
New lawns should be watered daily during their first few weeks. This is crucial in new lawn care. Daily watering will help the roots to get established. Keep the turf very moist. If you are experiencing a drought in your area, or if you live in a very hot climate, you may need to water your new lawn twice a day.
While the key to new lawn care requires keeping the turf moist, you should not over water your new lawn to the point where it is a wet, muddy mess. Try to not saturate the soil. If puddles are forming in your lawn, you are watering too much. Too much water in the soil can keep the roots of your new grass from achieving deep roots.
If your grass starts to take on a gray color, it is telling you that it is not getting the water it needs. A quick way to see if your lawn is getting enough water is to use a knife or screwdriver to dig into the soil. The dirt should be damp to a depth of six inches.
Once your new lawn has passed the two week time period, you can reduce watering to two or three times per week. How often you water your new lawn at this stage will depend upon your environment. A new lawn in a dry climate or in an area that is experiencing significant drought may need to be watered four or five times per week.
Mowing
New lawn care guidelines for sod state that a first mowing can occur within three weeks of planting.
New lawn care guidelines for seeded lawns state that it may be eight weeks before a mowing is needed.
Another key component to maintaining the health of your new lawn is to never mow your grass unless it is dry. Mowing on new, wet grass can pull the newly rooted grass out of the soil.
Never scalp your new lawn grass. It is better for your new lawn grass to be a little high than to be too short. By allowing your new lawn grass to grow a little high before cutting it will ensure that the grass is well rooted and established before it undergoes the trauma of a lawn mower blade.
Traffic
You should try to limit the amount of traffic on your new lawn during the first few weeks after planting. While it is unnecessary to keep all traffic off of your new lawn, traffic should be kept to a minimum. You will not want your children riding bikes or playing ball on your new lawn grass.
A lawn that is not protected from high traffic can be damaged and die. Friction on the new grass can pull up newly established roots that are still weak. Reducing friction is important in new lawn care.