Lawn care entails keeping your lawn nourished and properly clean and manicured all year round to maintain its inviting appearance.
Lawn care is concerned with the condition of your soil and typically includes soil testing, mowing, watering, pruning of trees and shrubs, aeration, pest control, weed removal, fertilization, and disease management.
All these practices help in improving the quality of the soil and the overall look of your lawn.
Whether you want to embrace the DIY approach or seek help from a professional lawn care service, it’s important to have a general understanding of lawn care and the best practices to maintain a lush green lawn that you and your family can enjoy after a year.
In this guide, we’ll be sharing everything you need to know about lawn care from the correct mower technique to the proper fertilization techniques and anything that comes in between to keep your lawn healthy and pretty. Let’s dive right in!
What Does Lawn Care Services Include?
Here are different types of lawn care services that you can expect from lawn care companies:
- Pest Control
- Tree and shrub pruning
- Pre-emergent weed and crabgrass control
- Post-emergent weed and crabgrass control
- Fertilizer Application
- Root stimulants & developers
- Aeration & thatch control
- Soil testing and Mulching
- Irrigation systems
- Organic lawn care
Lawn Care Tips For Beginners
A beautiful lawn is the perfect backdrop for any home and plays a major role in enhancing its beauty, usefulness, and monetary value.
A regular lawn care routine is important to preserve its beauty and keep the plants healthy.
However, if you are new to the lawn care, here are some basic steps you can follow to make your life easier.:
Also Read: How Much Is Lawn Care Per Month?
Mowing
Mowing refers to putting off the lawn grass to enhance the looks of the lawn.
The optimum grass height varies depending on the grass but typically should not be allowed to grow more than 5-6 cm as it creates a shade that starves out the weed.
Always use sharp blades while mowing to get a clean cut every time.
Watering
Keeping your lawn properly watered is another key step in lawn care.
Instead of flooding your lawn after long intervals, use frequent irrigation, once or twice a week to avoid oversaturating your lawn.
The best time to water is early in the morning as the water can easily get down to the roots before the sunlight peaks and evaporate the water.
Aeration
Aeration is one of those steps of lawn care that most people tend to overlook.
Aeration involves pulling small plugs of soil out of your lawn to allow moisture, nutrients, and oxygen to get into the roots and improve the air exchange between soil and atmosphere.
However, before attempting aeration, inspect your lawn, see if there is any hard or compact soil or too much thatch and choose the aerator accordingly. The best time to aerate is fall and Spring.
Weed Control
Weeds are nature’s healing remedy for the lawn areas that are wounded, and plant-less sites, however, they must be removed as they compete with the other plants for essential resources like space, water, nutrients, and sunlight.
The best way to pull the whole weed along with roots using a tool or hands, however, if your lawn has too many weeds, try spraying weed control herbicide
Seeding
Seeding is the most effective way to get rid of bald spots and get a lush green and healthy-looking lawn.
During aeration, dig small holes of up to 3-inch depth, loosen the soil, break any clumps and rake out into fine particles. Next, plant the seed and water the area well for speedy germination.
Fertilization
Sometimes your lawn just needs an extra boost of nutrients and this is where fertilizer comes into play.
However, it’s really important to use it properly, or it will yield zero results.
Make sure to check your soil PH, and then use either acidic or basic fertilizer based on the condition of the soil.
Only fertilize when needed, ideally, a lawn needs fertilizer only twice per year.
What Does Lawn Maintenance Include?
Here’s what included in Lawn Maintenance service:
- Weekly lawn mowing.
- Spring yard cleanup to remove dead winter growth and debris.
- Border edging for walkways, driveways, and patio areas.
- Cleaning of walkways, driveways, and patio areas.
- Summer Pruning of Trees and Shrubs.
- Watering and weeding.
- Fall yard cleanup for removing leaves and debris to prepare for winter.
Also Read: How To Price Your Lawn Care Services?
Lawn Care VS. Landscaping
Lawn care refers to maintaining the color, health, and vitality of existing laws year-round. Services such as weeding, watering, fertilization, pest control, etc., fall under this.
Landscaping, on the other hand, is much more complex and involves transforming the planting, construction, design, etc., of outdoor spaces.
After prepping a property for landscaping, other elements are included, such as walkways, stone walls, patio, lighting, etc.
Wrapping Up
Lawn care is an important thing to do if you want to maintain the health and look of your lawns.
In this guide, we broke down what lawn care is, what it involves, how it is different from lawn maintenance, etc. We hope this was useful.
FAQ
What are the advantages of lawn care?
Here are a few advantages of lawn care:
- Prevent erosion by wind and water.
- Help in the breakdown of organic chemicals.
- Reduce noise.
- Improve flood control.
- Create a cooling effect during warm weather.
- Provide wildlife habitat.
- Add visual appeal.
Is doing lawn care yourself worth it?
Lawn care involves a lot of time and energy, and that too on a continuous basis.
It is not worth it to do your own lawn care to save a few bucks. We recommend you to hire a professional rather.
Amit Gupta is the founder of National Planning Cycles, a company that helps startups, individuals, and small businesses with their financial planning. He has a vast amount of experience in the finance sector, having managed Google Play accounts for some of the world’s most successful unicorns. Amit is an expert in his field, and he uses his knowledge to help others achieve their individual goals.
ARTICLE SOURCES
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- https://royallandscapes.net/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-lawn-care-and-lawn-maintenance/#:~:text=Lawn%20care%20is%20the%20process,health%2C%20and%20turf%20disease%20management.[↩]
- https://edenapp.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-lawn-care-and-lawn-maintenance/[↩]
- http://www.greengoldlandscapinginc.com/difference-between-lawn-care-and-landscaping/[↩]