If you’re looking for tips for a healthy lawn, consistent mowing and watering are at the top of the list. However, you also must test your soil, fertilize, aerate, control weeds, keep your yard clean, reseed, and maintain your lawn equipment.
How to maintain a healthy lawn
The lawn is like the window to a property’s soul. When you have a healthy lawn, it shows just how responsible and dedicated you are as a homeowner.
Of course, it also benefits the turf itself because good health equates to better resistance to diseases and pests. So, take note of the following expert tips for a healthy lawn:
1. Mow like an expert
Regular mowing can make your lawn look clean and sleek. However, you must change the mowing pattern periodically to prevent dead spots and promote healthy grass growth. Also, mowing too short can make your grass vulnerable to diseases, high heat, and pests.
The key is to mow with the right height based on the grass species. Refer to the table below for the recommended mowing height for the most common types of grass:
| Grass type | Recommended mowing height (inches) |
| Annual ryegrass | 1.5 – 2 |
| Bahiagrass | 3 – 4 |
| Bermudagrass (common) | 1 – 2 |
| Bermudagrass (hybrid) | 0.5 – 1.5 |
| Buffalograss | 1 – 2 |
| Centipedegrass | 1 – 2 |
| Colonial bentgrass | 0.5 – 1 |
| Creeping bentgrass | 0.5 or less |
| Dichondra | 0.5 – 0.75 |
| Fine fescue | 2.5 – 4 |
| Hard fescue | 1.5 – 2.5 |
| Kentucky bluegrass | 2 – 3 |
| Kikuyugrass | 1 – 1.5 |
| Perennial ryegrass | 1.5 – 2.5 |
| Red fescue | 1.5 – 2.5 |
| St. Augustinegrass | 2.5 – 3 |
| Tall fescue | 1.5 – 3 |
| Zoysiagrass | 0.5 – 1 |
If you don’t want the hassle of mowing your own lawn, you can hire a pro to do it on your behalf. Professional lawn mowing costs around $35 to $100 per session. It’s a small price to pay in exchange for having more time to do other more important things.
2. Test your soil
For your lawn to be healthy, you must keep the soil in optimal condition. However, it’s not as simple as buying just about any bag of fertilizer and applying it.
You must determine your soil’s composition via soil testing. Without the recommendations from a soil test result, you might unknowingly add nutrients your soil is already abundant with rather than what it actually needs.
Note: Regardless of the nutrients your soil needs, you must maintain your soil’s pH between 6.0 and 6.5. Anything lower can cause slower plant growth, while a high alkaline content will discolor your turf.
3. Water like a pro
Watering your lawn is not rocket science, but you still need to do it efficiently. This way, you not only conserve water but also help your grass to grow a deep and healthy root system. Here are some pointers to help you water like a pro:
- Water more deeply to encourage grassroots to grow more deeply.
- For efficiency, schedule your watering between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. to minimize evaporation due to the sun’s heat.
- While arcing sprinklers look beautiful when turned on, they actually waste more water than those with low trajectories. So, it’s best to set up your sprinkler system to water close to the ground.
- Check the weather forecast data to predict the amount of rainfall your lawn will get for the week. Using it as a guideline can help prevent overwatering your turf which could otherwise lead to lawn diseases.
The goal is to wet the soil to a depth of 4 to 6 inches every week. Larry Stein, extension horticulturist at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, shares that it could take 1/2 inch of water for soil high in sand to achieve this, while soil high in clay would usually require an inch of water.
Note: If you’re watering new grass, you should mist it every day to keep the top inch of the soil consistently moist but not drowning the lawn.
4. Apply fertilizer the right way
Apart from selecting the right fertilizer based on your soil test results, you also must use the correct application method. Remember, the goal is to ensure the soil has the nutrients your grass requires to stay healthy.
The most vital macronutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Fortunately, the fertilizers available in stores always show their N-P-K ratio, which is the amount of macronutrients in each bag. For instance, an N-P-K ratio of 30-0-4 means 30% nitrogen, 0% phosphorus, and 4% potassium.
According to lawn experts, you should apply fertilizers when your turf is actively growing. So, the exact timing will depend on the type of grass you have. You can check our complete guide on “When is the Best Time to Fertilize Your Lawn,” but here’s an overview for quick reference:
| Type of grass | Best time to fertilize |
| Cool-season grasses | 1st round: late fall 2nd round: early spring to late spring 3rd round: late summer to early fall |
| Warm-season grasses | 1st round: late spring to early summer 2nd round: late summer to early fall |
Professional lawn fertilization costs anywhere from $0.02 to $0.07 per square foot. So, if you don’t want to make a mistake when fertilizing your lawn, you can hire a lawn care pro instead.
5. Aerate to let your lawn breathe
For your lawn to stay healthy, your turf’s root system needs continuous access to water, oxygen, and nutrients. So, if the soil gets compacted, it could severely hamper the delivery of these vital elements.
To reap the benefits of applying fertilizer and help oxygen and water penetrate your soil deeply, you need to aerate your lawn at the right time. The optimal schedule will depend on the type of grass you have:
| Grass species | Best time to aerate |
| Bahiagrass | Late spring to early summer |
| Bermudagrass | Late spring to early summer |
| Carpetgrass | Late spring to early summer |
| Centipedegrass | Late spring to early summer |
| Creeping bentgrass | Early fall |
| Kentucky bluegrass | Early fall |
| Perennial ryegrass | Early fall |
| St. Augustinegrass | Late spring to early summer |
| Tall fescue | Early fall |
| Zoysiagrass | Late spring to early summer |
For best results, aerate your lawn every one to three years. You also should aerate before overseeding. Check the following guides for more details on the best time to aerate and how to perform the task:
If you decide to hire a pro, lawn aeration costs between $82 and $251 on average. The actual cost may vary depending on the size of your lawn and other factors.
6. Control weeds
Prevention is the best way to control weeds. Some of the conditions that can encourage weeds to invade and take over your lawn include:
- Soil compaction
- Low-mowed grass
- Undernourished grass
But if you maintain the health of your lawn, these conditions can be eliminated naturally. That’s because healthy grass can out-compete weeds like chamberbitter and stop their germination.
To give your lawn more aid against these trespassers, you can use weed control herbicides:
- Apply a pre-emergent herbicide if the weeds are still germinating.
- If the weeds have already grown, you can use a post-emergent herbicide instead.
If you want a non-toxic option, you can get rid of weeds with a homemade weed killer using vinegar, rock salt, or boiling water. However, this approach can negatively impact your soil’s quality.
Another option is to go the old-fashioned way — hand weeding. Identify the weeds in your turf and tug them out, but you have to make sure to pull all the roots. To avoid playing tug-of-war with the roots, hand-pull the weeds when the soil is moist.
7. Keep your yard clean
If you want a healthy lawn, it’s crucial to remove any unsightly debris and trash that may be littering your yard.
Also, you may not notice a thick layer of thatch consisting of dead grass and other organic material accumulating on the topmost part of your soil. When thatch builds up to more than half an inch, it can block nutrients, sunlight, oxygen, and water from penetrating the soil and reaching the grassroots.
Since keeping your yard clean is time-consuming and daunting, hiring a lawn care professional is the better option. You can check the following pricing guides to see how much it costs to hire a pro for the following jobs:
- Yard cleanup
- Lawn dethatching
- Shrub and bush removal
- Landscape curbing
- Hedge trimming
- Grass removal
- Bush trimming
- Weed control
- Leaf removal
8. Reseed to rejuvenate your lawn
Just like anything in nature, grasses mature over time and eventually die. Lawn diseases, pests, and heavy foot traffic also can wear out your grass. Even with utmost care, your lawn can eventually get thin and wither away.
To keep your lawn healthy and looking great year-round, your comprehensive lawn care plan must include overseeding. It involves spreading grass seeds over an existing turf. If overseeding is done right, you can have a consistently green and lush lawn without starting from scratch.
For proper timing, you must consider the type of grass:
- Cool-season grasses: You can overseed in the fall and early spring – when soil temperatures are around 50 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Warm-season grasses: Spring is the best time to overseed these grasses – when the soil temperature warms to over 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. Maintain your lawn equipment
This tip may not affect your lawn directly. But if you have dull or rusty equipment, it’ll be challenging to maintain a healthy lawn. For instance, you can’t give your lawn a clean cut using a mower with dull blades, as it can tear the grass and further result in discoloration.
Even if your mower blades are sharp, you should maintain a clean undercarriage. Typically, lawn mower service costs anywhere from $10 to $275, depending on the type of service. But if you want your mower to keep running smoothly, remember to have it tuned up regularly. The same applies to your aerator or spreader.
Let the experts help you maintain a healthy lawn
These tips can help make your lawn vibrant and lush. But if you consider all the combined tasks, you’ll need to dedicate a lot of time and resources to do them.
While the rewards are definitely worth the effort, not every homeowner has the time and patience to work on their lawn. When you hire a lawn care pro in your area, you can achieve the same, or even better, result without breaking a sweat.
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