Lawn Care

The quality of the lawn is largely dependent on the care of it. Care consists of frequent mowing( 10-15 times during the vegetation period), watering, fertilizing and weed control.

With frequent mowing, small grass can be left on the lawn as fertilizer.

In the early spring after snow melting and the drying of the soil, the lawn is combed by rakes to remove debris and loosening the top layer. This operation is called by the scarification of the lawn.

Scarification of lawn

In the process of growth and death of parts of plants between the roots and foliage, a layer of straw from dead grasses accumulates. While the thickness of this layer is moderate, it plays a positive role of the mulching coating. With increasing thickness of the layer of straw, air, water, and fertilizers are delayed to the roots of plants, which adversely affects their development. In this case, the layer of straw must be "combed" out of lawn grass. The operation is usually carried out in the early spring rakes with long teeth.

Then is used as a fertilizer for the lawn - mineral fertilizers are applied in a random manner, with superphosphate 20-30 and potassium chloride 10-15 g / m2.In summer, in June-July, the lawn is fed twice with urea at a rate of 10-20 g / m2 or watered with slurry, diluted in water in a ratio of 1:10. A very important stage of lawn care is the haircut or mowing. They are carried out at a grass stand height of 10-15 cm with a lawn mower or scythe always at the same height: not less than 4-5 cm from the soil surface. After that, the lawn is watered,

and the mown grass is harvested, using as mulch under the crown of fruit trees or for composting. The last time the grass is mowed at the end of September with the expectation that it grows to 7-8 cm before frost. The haircut is repeated every 7-10 days. Frequent haircut improves the bushing of herbs, contributing to the density of the turf.

A good lawn requires, besides haircuts, frequent watering. Otherwise, in dry, hot weather, grasses are burned out. Watering can be done from a hose or with a sprinkler. Water better in the evening, 1-2 times a week is plentiful, to moisturize the roots well. Weeds are allowed on the lawn, therefore it is necessary to maintain a constant control of weeds. Appearing annual weed plants are destroyed with every mowing of the grass stand, and perennial rhizome weeds are excavated and removed manually. An effective way to control weeds are selective lawn herbicides, which act only on broad-leaved weeds, without harming the grass lawns. The treatment of the lawn with herbicides is carried out by the sprayer in windless weather so that splashes do not fall on neighboring plants. To do this it is necessary a few days before mowing, then the preparation will be absorbed through leaf plates of plants, reach the root system of the weed and destroy it. To pollute weeds before mowing the lawn is useless, since the drug will not have time to act. The treatment should be carried out in dry weather, if there is no probability of rain for at least 24-48 hours, otherwise the product will wash away with rain and it will not have any effect.

Scarification of the lawn

The rake must be moved vigorously along the surface of the turf towards you. Teeth should be slightly buried in the ground, so that, simultaneously with the removal of the dried grass, the surface of the lawn loosened. After such a procedure, the growth of grasses is enhanced

Aeration of the lawn

When aeration is carried out, the forks are inserted vertically into the lawn turf every 15 cm, providing air access to the plant roots, which greatly stimulates their development.

The part of the lawn that is scraped off after weed removal is seeded or sowed. In autumn, small, sifted, well decomposed humus or compost is applied to the lawn, spreading it over the surface of the lawn( 1/2 bucket per 1 m2).This method thickens the sod, which contributes to the development of additional roots of lawn grasses, increasing the thickness of the grass stand.

An important measure for lawn care is the aeration of the turf. In the process of aeration there is a gas exchange of soil air with atmospheric, so when piercing the sod with forks, atmospheric air enters the soil freely, saturates it, and improves the conditions for the development of the root system of plants. Aeration is extremely necessary in depleted areas of the lawn, for example on trampled areas. During the aeration of the lawn in a relatively small area, the forks are stuck vertically deep into the soil with the teeth and removed, repeating this action every 15 cm. You can not trample down the areas already treated in this way. Large lawns use special mechanical devices for splitting the lawn turf. The thinned lawns are rejuvenated by a continuous sowing of grasses. In this case, the norm of seeds is reduced by half from the original one. After 10-12 years, the lawn begins to lose decorativeness, and it is updated. The site is dug and the preparatory work is carried out to lay a new lawn.