Your lawn contributes to your home's value, specifically to its curb appeal. It sets the first impression for everyone who visits your house. Potential buyers look at it as a reason to quickly say no or pay more for your home. Your landscape also contributes to the entire neighborhood of Orland Park, providing part of its sense of identity. Focusing on your front yard adds value to your home both monetarily and your enjoyment of your yard.
Choose the Right Grass
You can ensure that your lawn looks luscious year round, even during hot Illinois summers, by using grass types common to the Orland Park area. Choose a grass that does well in all-weather types like Kentucky Bluegrass or Creeping Red Fescue. These grow well in Orland Park and you can easily fill in patchy growth with seeds or sod. If you prefer a different look for your yard, try one of the following:
- Bentgrass
- Blue Grama
- Buffalo grass
- Fine Fescue
- Hard Fescue
- Perennial Ryegrass
- Redtop
- Ryegrass
- Sheep Fescue
- Smooth Bromegrass
- Tall Fescue
- Wheatgrass
Use Perennial Ryegrass if you need a grass that grows quickly. It works well in permanent and temporary lawns. It will look good all year since it has a strong temperature tolerance. If you need to show your home and quickly need a nice looking lawn, you can plant this Ryegrass and have a nice lawn in a reasonable time period.
Weekly Lawn Care for Orland Park
Many articles give you a standard care guide regardless of what grass you choose, where you live, etc. Lawn care does not really work that way. Use a water rate calculator to determine how often to water. You'll enter your zip code, grass type and how green you want your lawn, the amount of water your sprinklers expel in inches per hour and the number of times per week you run the sprinklers. The calculator looks up the number of inches of rain your zip code received the prior week and calculates the length of time you need to water your lawn per irrigation to provide adequate water for growth and maintenance.
You'll also need to weed your lawn regularly. While you may have some unusual strays in your yard, in general, you'll find the same weeds as you see in your neighbor's yard. Orland Park has more than 50 common weeds that pop up in its yards. Besides the ubiquitous clover, crabgrass, and dandelions, you'll also end up pulling up quite a bit of Annual Bluegrass, Canada Thistle, ground ivy and Tall Fescue.
A plethora of other weeds regularly appear in Orland Park yards. These include: Black Henbane, Black medic, Bohemian Knotweed, Buckhorn Plantain, Buffalobur, Bull Thistle, Chickweed, Common Mallow, Common Chickweed, Common Crupina, Cow Cockle, Dyers Woad, Eurasian Watermifoil, Giant Knotweed, Goosefoot, Ground Ivy, Heal-All, Henbit, Japanese Knotweed, Johnsongrass, knotweed, Matgrass, Meadow Knapweed, Mediterranean Sage, Musk Thistle, Orange Hawkweed, Oxalis, Parrot Feather Milfoil, Perennial Sowthistle, Pigweed, Plantains, Quackgrass, Red Sorrel, Russian Knapweed, Russian Thistle, Scotch Broom, Silverleaf Nightshade, Skeletonleaf Bursage, Small Bugloss, Speedwell, Toothed Spurge, Vipers Bugloss and Yellow Hawkweed.
Choosing the Right Bushes and Shrubs
Bushes and shrubs help stave off erosion and help your lawn retain moisture. Again, your lawn will look best and grow best if you plant bushes and shrubs that grow natively in Orland Park. A wide variety of plants do well in this area. Line your picket fence with beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata). Let Walking Fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum) grow along the perimeter of your patio. Plant Short-awned Foxtail (Alopecurus aequalis) or Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis) in small, circular garden plots to add interest through height. Fill these in with your choice of native wildflowers, hybrid tea roses, and canna lilies, which grow easily in the area.
Call Lawn Love for Help
If all that sounds like a lot of work for a gorgeous lawn, call Lawn Love for help. We know the lawns and grasses of Orland Park, and we can take care of your lawn with professional skill. From lawn mowing to seeding to aeration, we do it for you, so your home has a curb that won't fail to appeal.
