Grass Mowing Tips for the Best Garden Lawns

Grass Mowing

Garden lawns must be mown in order to maintain their attractive appearance, but a balance between visual charm and plant health must also be maintained. In general, the grass should be kept tall enough to prevent it from being starved of energy, but short enough to look neat and tidy.
The frequency of grass mowing required, depends on the amount of growth. This can be two or three times a week in the height of the growing season — late spring and early summer — but once a week should be adequate at other times. If the lawn is mown frequently, the job is neither very strenuous nor time consuming. The mowing season is from early spring to mid autumn, but an occasional light topping may be needed during mild winters when there can be late or early growth.
Grass mowing is not advisable when the grass is very wet, since you will damage the surface both with the mower and with your feet. You will also clog the mower with mud and clippings. Wheeled mowers should be used only when the soil immediately below the surface is fairly dry, otherwise the wheels will sink in leaving irreparable tracks.
Before grass mowing, remove wormcasts and other debris with a stiff brush or besom from the lawn. If casts are not removed they will form uneven humps, rot the grass and cake the mower blades.
Cutting the grass to a height of 1.2cm (tin) gives the best results for a luxury lawn — very close mowing weakens the growth. On garden lawns for rougher use, 2-2.5cm (¾-1in) is adequate. Leave the, grass slightly longer in dry weather and in early spring and autumn when growth is slow.
Grass mowing in parallel strips gives the best appearance, but change direction at successive mowings so that the new mowing is made at right angles to the previous one. This prevents ridging. Push the mower at a constant speed in a forward direction, completing each strip in one non-stop pass — back and forth manoeuvres with a cylinder mower produce an uneven surface.

Grass Mowing – Dealing with Lawn Edges

No lawnmower can cope with the edges of a lawn — these must be treated separately, usually after the lawn has been mown. There are a number of tools available which will help you, though for the average sized lawn the expense of some of the more elaborate models may outweigh their usefulness.
A neat edge contributes as much to the overall attractiveness of a lawn as does the quality of the surface. Attend to the edges of your garden lawns after the first mowing in spring and repeat at frequent intervals throughout the growing season — preferably after each mowing.
The first edging treatment invariably involves some cutting back of the turf to get a straight or regular line. For a straight line, use a plank as a guide, or mark the edge with a taut string line. Standing on the plank, make clean cuts with a half-moon edging iron, sloping slightly away from the lawn so that the edge does not crumble away. Alternatively, use a spade, but the slightly curving blade will not produce such a straight cut and it is harder to cut to a consistent depth.
During the rest of the year use long-handled edging shears or a mechanical edger to maintain the neat edge — never use a half-moon edging iron to trim an edge which is already straight, since this tool is designed for cutting turf, not blades of grass. Long-handled edging shears, if sharpened regularly, do a very good job. They are available with handles of various lengths — buy the right size for your height.
Mechanical edgers consist of a roller with a disc of sharp-edged spikes which rotate as you push the device along the edge of the lawn, cutting the grass against a fixed blade. Though slightly less tiring to use than long-handled shears, these edgers generally do not make such a clean cut. Motor-powered edgers are also available and these the produce a good finish. They do take much of the back-ache out of edging a large expanse of lawn, but, whether battery powered or run from mains electricity, they are expensive and sometimes difficult to manoeuvre.
If your soil is crumbly or the garden lawns receive a lot of wear and tear, natural lawn edges may break away. To avoid this problem, lay an edging strip of aluminium, timber or plastic. Proprietary edging strip is available which gives a very clean finish, or you can make your own. Ensure that the edging strip lies slightly below the lawn surface so you can mow right to the edge.

Grass Mowing – Trimming Around Obstacles

Not all garden lawns are a perfect rectangle — many meander around trees, have island beds with overhanging plants or are edged with walls or steep banks, for instance. Lawnmowers can only deal with flat surfaces and cannot cut close to a vertical barrier.
Various tools are available for horizontal trimming of grass — the choice depends on how much you are prepared to spend and on whether you prefer to stand up or bend down to do the cutting. Simple garden shears do an adequate job — provided they are sharpened regularly — but are suitable only for small areas since you must crouch to use them.
Applying the same cutting action as hedge trimmers, battery-operated grass mowing trimmers provide a less energetic means of cutting grass around obstacles. With a single charge, the battery generally lasts long enough to cut up to 20 sq m/yd.
For use in a standing position, long-handled lawn shears give the neatest cut. As with ordinary shears, the blades must be sharpened regularly. Ensure that the handle length and cutting angle suits you when buying — various models are available.
The easiest of all to use, nylon cord electric or motorized trimmers have become very popular in recent years. These cut grass, weeds and even quite coarse undergrowth by the whipping action of a nylon cord which rotates at high speed within a safety shield. The cut surface is not very neat, however, and this type of machine is suitable only for informal lawns. Drawbacks include relatively high cost, a hazard from flying debris thrown up by the cord — wear goggles —and the rather piercing noise generated by the motor and cord.

Brushing and Raking

In spring, lightly brush or rake the lawn with a wire-tined lawn rake to remove winter debris, particularly before mowing for the first time. Avoid dispersing any moss.
In late spring and summer, brush the lawn occasionally with a besom before grass mowing. This helps to clear wormcasts, remove dew or rainwater from the leaves and lift flattened grass and weed stems.
In early to mid autumn, scarify, then:

• rake thoroughly and vigorously
• with the lawn rake to clear away all debris. Remove the rakings with a stiff brush or besom. Sweep all fallen leaves from the lawn once a week in autumn.    http://www.gardeninginfozone.com/grass-mowing-tips-for-the-best-garden-lawns

Making Garden Lawns

Making
For a pleasing end result, plan your garden lawn first, if only in your mind’s eye – and prepare the site thoroughly.
Prime-quality garden lawns, fine-textured, even and with a short pile, make a wonderfully cooling and refreshing visual impact. Such perfection is achieved through sowing fine-leaved grasses of compact growth, mowing frequently to prevent coarser grasses becoming dominant, constant maintenance and minimum wear. But what most people need are garden lawns that are hard wearing, long-lasting and easy to maintain.
Garden lawns that will stand up to reasonable wear and can tolerate a certain degree of neglect, contain coarser and broader-leaved grasses than prime quality garden lawns. They won’t have a luxuriant close texture — although a good cylinder mower will help to improve the finish — but will present a pleasing contrast to the colour and leaf shapes of the borders while allowing you and your family to enjoy them as a main surface outside the house.

Preparing the Site

The best time to sow grass seed is from late summer to early autumn, or else in mid spring.
Turf is best laid from mid autumn to late winter, but it can also be put down in early Spring. Whenever you plan to sow seed or lay turf, you must start preparing the ground at least three to four months in advance.

Levelling

Begin by clearing the site of all rubbish, then you can set about adjusting levels and dealing with any drainage problems. A gentle slope can be an advantage and, on a large area, slight undulations are not a problem. But no lawn should have abrupt bumps and hollows.
Small-scale irregularities can easily be adjusted if you first establish a level by pegging out the area. You may need to bring in some topsoil to fill hollows, since even when you take soil from bumps you should leave an absolute minimum of 15cm (6in) of topsoil.
If a major levelling job is required, first take off the topsoil and store it on a piece of tarpaulin at one side, to be redistributed over the surface later.

Drainage

On most sites, improving the soil texture by adding bulky organic matter or inorganic matter such as gritty sand will give the free drainage that a lawn needs. On heavy clay soils you may have to construct soakaways at the lower end of sloping sites. These are pits about lm (3ft) deep, filled with rubble and a layer of small stones below the topsoil. Laying drainpipes bedded in gravel in the subsoil is an effective but costly solution that should only be considered if all other measures fail.

Weeding

Dig the area or work over it with a mechanical cultivator about three months before sowing or turfing to allow weed seeds to germinate and the soil to be broken down by weathering. Avoid bringing subsoil to the surface, and remove stones and the roots of perennial weeds as you go along.
Hoe out weeds that grow during the weathering process or treat with a chemical weedkiller. A final treatment is useful just before preparation of the surface.

Preparing the Bed

Success in establishing a lawn depends on having a well-levelled, firm bed. The worked surface or tilth should be finer for sowing seed than for turfing.
Break down clods using a roller if you have one, or trample over the surface. Choose a day when the soil is reasonably dry to do this. Next, rake across the bed, removing any stones or debris.
About a week later, firm the ground by working your way across it, treading very closely and putting your weight on your heels (work systematically). Rake, and then repeat both procedures, this time moving at right angles to the direction you first took.
Repeat until there are no soft patches and no bumps and depressions. The top layer of soil should have a crumbly texture. At this stage rake in a small handful of general fertilizer per sq m (sq yd) and leave the soil to settle for about a week before sowing seed or laying turf.
Click here to learn about buying turf and then how you should be laying turf.  http://www.gardeninginfozone.com/making-garden-lawns

Lawns and Lawn Maintenance

Lawns

Lawns are often overlooked, but the correct growing conditions, a balanced environment and nutrients supplied by recycled organic matter are as important to an organic lawn as to the rest of the garden.
The ideal site for a lawn is one that is sunny, level and well drained. Improve the drainage of wet areas and choose suitable grass mixtures for partially shaded sites if necessary. However, do not even attempt to grow a lawn in deep shade, on a waterlogged soil or on steep banks. As an alternative in such situations, think about using ornamental mulches, ground cover plants or perhaps a planting of wild flowers.
If you are sowing a new lawn, choose a suitable grass mixture: a lawn used as a play area, for example, needs more of a hard-wearing mixture than a lawn which is primarily decorative. Whatever type of lawn you have, however, the following general principles apply to maintaining it.

pH

Check the pH regularly with a testing kit. On a soil that is too acid, grass debris will not decompose and a layer of dead material (known as the “thatch”) will build up on the surface. Nutrients are not recycled and moisture may not be able to penetrate. If necessary add ground limestone’to bring the pH above the level of 5.5.

Mowing

The key to a successful lawn is not to mow too closely or too often.
A minimum cutting height of approximately 3cm (1-1/4in) is adequate for most lawns. This will encourage a thick sward which is more resistant to wear and swamps weeds. Mow when necessary — frequently when the grass is growing quickly, but less often at other times. As a rough guide, mow the grass as soon as it is approximately 1.2cm (1/2in) taller than the cutting height. Do not allow the grass to get long and then cut it severely because this will weaken it.
Leave the mowings on the lawn whenever possible because if you always remove them you will be taking away fertility which has to be put back in some other way. However, it is not advisable to collect the mowings when the weather is cold and wet, otherwise they will sit in clumps on the surface and this starts killing the grass beneath the clumps. The mowings should also be removed if the grass has been left to grow too long before it is cut, or if weeds that you are trying to eliminate are in the process of seeding.
It does no harm to take away mowings every few cuts if you want to use them on the compost heap or in the garden.

Feeding

Make sure the lawn is well fed. For an initial treatment of a lawn in poor condition, a dressing of blood, fish and bone at approximately 70g/sq m (2oz/sq yd) applied in mid-spring is a good tonic. Otherwise, most of the nutrients a lawn required are supplied by returning the mowings.
An adequate supply of nitrogen is essential, and this is usually available if clover is present.
If clover does not occur naturally as a “weed” in your lawn, scatter seed into the grass in spring just after you have mown. Use wild white clover from a supplier of wildflower seeds or a dwarf pasture white cultivar from an agricultural seed merchant at a rate of 5g/sq m (1/5oz/sq yd).
The only additional nutrient that may then be required on some soils is phosphorus, which can be supplied to phosphorus-deficient lawns with a dressing of bonemeal at approximately 70g/sq m (2oz/sq yd) applied in spring. Never apply a fertilizer or other nitrogen-rich materials to the lawn during the autumn months.

Weeding

As long as the grass is growing strongly, most weeds will be kept under control. A few weeds are not only tolerable but desirable; remove problem weeds such as dandelions and plantain by hand.

General lawn maintenance

Little other maintenance is required on a healthy lawn because the earthworms will do most of the work for you. They draw almost all the debris down into the soil so thatch should not build up and therefore routine scarifying of the lawn to remove it should not be necessary. The earthworm burrows will also aerate the lawn, so no regular spiking needs to be done either. At the same time, the casts which the worms deposit on the surface act as a top-dressing into which new grass shoots can root. Spread the casts with a brush if necessary.
Encourage earthworms by making sure the pH level is over 5.5 because they dislike very acid soil conditions. Leaving some mowings on the lawn also helps by supplying the worms with a constant supply of succulent food and so increases their activity.
Renovating a neglected lawn If a thick layer of thatch has built up on a neglected lawn, this can be removed by vigorous raking or scarifying in autumn. Press the rake down on the surface of the lawn and pull it vigorously along to bring out as much dead material as possible. Once the pH has been corrected and the lawn is being regularly fed by returning the mowings, routine scarifying should not be necessary.
If small areas of a lawn have been particularly compacted through overuse, spike them with a garden fork. Drive the fork in vertically to a depth of about 10cm (4in), rock it gently back and forth and then remove it.
Top-dressing in autumn can even out bumps and hollows in a lawn. It can also improve the surface structure of a lawn on poor or heavy soils. Make up a mixture of approximately 4 parts loam, 2 parts sand and 1 part leafmould. You can modify the mixture to suit your soil by, for example, using more leafmould and less sand on a sandy sod. The loam should ideally come from a turf stack, but good garden soil and used potting compost are suitable alternatives. Spread the mixture over the surface with a shovel at a rate of about 1.6kg/sq m (31b/sq yd). Spread it as evenly as possible, using the back of a rake.
If bare patches appear after top dressing because large hollows have been filled in, sow these with grass seed before weeds establish themselves.  http://www.gardeninginfozone.com/lawns-and-lawn-maintenance

Lawn Care tips

A beautiful lawn does not come without some effort. Depending upon what type of soil you have, the amount of effort will vary. For instance when raising trees and shrubs, sandy or a gravel base soil is great. Landscape plants like well drained soiled. A lawn on the other hand is different. Lawn grasses grow constantly throughout the growing season, and need an ample supply of both nutrients and water.


The most basic of lawn care tips includes regular watering and fertilization is required to keep a lawn beautiful. If you’re lucky enough to have a lawn that was originally planted in good rich topsoil, you won’t have to work near as hard as somebody like me, who has a lawn that is planted in sandy gravel. The soil at our house has little nutritional value, nor does it have the ability to retain any amount of moisture. By mid May my lawn starts drying out. It is very difficult for us to keep our lawn looking nice.


Lawns are one area where a little clay in the soil is a good thing. Of course standing water is not good, but having soil that has the ability to retain some moisture is helpful. If you happen to be installing a new lawn, here's a news flash from my lawn care tips that will make all the difference in the world: Add lots of organic matter before you install your new lawn if you have sand or gravel type soil. The easiest way to do this is to find some good rich topsoil and spread that over your existing soil.


Because most lawn grasses grow so vigorously, they need additional amounts of nutrients added in order to stay looking nice. Just use one of the four step programs offered by the fertilizer companies. Most of these programs also include weed control along with the fertilizer. Here in the north we basically have two concerns with weeds in our lawns.


Crabgrass can be a problem, and I do consider it a weed. In order to control crabgrass you must use a pre-emergent herbicide that will prevent the crabgrass seeds from germinating. In order for this herbicide to be effective you must apply it early in the spring while the soil temperature is still below 45° F.


Broadleaf weeds such as Dandelions are another problem, although fairly easy to control with a broadleaf weed control. Most broadleaf herbicides are mixed in with the fertilizers, and must be applied when the grass and weeds are damp. The wet foliage will cause the herbicide to stick to the weed, giving the herbicide time to be absorbed by the weed. Once absorbed the herbicide translocates through the weed plant and kills it completely.


These types of herbicides are considered “selective” since they seem to know the difference between a grass plant and a weed. That’s why they only kill the broadleaf weeds and not the grass itself. However, many people have different kinds of thick bladed grass in their lawn such as quack grass. Quack grass is on the ugly side, and can really detract from a lawn. The problem is, it is still in the grass family, and “selective” herbicides leave it alone because it is a card carrying member of the grass family.


So what’s a person to do?


In order to get rid of these thick bladed grasses you must use a “non-selective” herbicide, and “non-selective” herbicides don’t care who they kill. Well, at least that’s true in the plant kingdom. When you use a “non-selective” herbicide you must understand that everything that you spray is going to die, but it really is the only effective way to rid your lawn of undesirable thick bladed grasses. This type of treatment is effective if you have isolated areas that contain wide bladed grasses. You’ll have to spray all the grass in the area, then reseed with good quality grass seed.


My herbicide of choice for this type of spraying is RoundUp®. It is believed that RoundUp® does not have any residual effect, which means that it does not linger in the soil. That means that the new grass seed or the young grass plants will not be affected by the herbicide. Being a non-selective herbicide you must be careful when spraying, making sure that the spray does not drift onto other plants or lawn areas that you do not want to kill.


To keep the spray from drifting, adjust the nozzle so that the spray pattern is narrow with larger spray droplets. You do not want a fine atomized spray if there is danger of spray drift. It also helps to keep the pressure in the sprayer as low as possible. Pump the sprayer a minimum number of times, to keep the pressure low. You just want enough pressure to deliver the spray, but not atomize it to the point that it can be easily carried by the wind. Buy a sprayer just for herbicides and mark it as such. You never want to spray plants with a sprayer that has been used for herbicides.


Once you have sprayed the area you want to kill, wait three days before doing anything else. After a period of three days the grasses that you sprayed may not look any different, but if they have been properly sprayed, they will die. It takes three days for the herbicide to translocate throughout the entire plant, then the plants will die. So even though the weeds and grass plants look fine, you can start digging and chopping and not worry about them growing back. If you start digging and chopping before the three day period you will interrupt the herbicide, and the weeds and grass you were trying to kill may come back.


If you happen to be installing a new lawn, make sure you spray all the weeds and thick bladed grasses before you start. Once you have the lawn installed, you sure don’t want to go through all the trouble of killing areas of your lawn and reseeding. If you make sure that all of these undesirables have been killed before you start, you’ll be way ahead of the game.


When selecting grass seed, you should always use a blend that is recommended for your area. Here in the north a popular blend contains fine bladed perennial rye grass, fescue, and blue grass. Keep in mind that it takes blue grass seeds 28 days to germinate, while most perennial rye grasses germinate in 5 or 6 days, so you never want to plant a lawn that is 100% Kentucky blue grass. Before the blue grass seeds have a chance to germinate, every kind of weed imaginable will already be actively growing in your lawn.


With a blend, the faster germinating grasses come up quickly, and act as a nurse crop for the slower germinating seeds. Having a blend also gives you some protection in case some new pest comes along that attacks certain types of grasses.


People often ask if they have to have their lawn hydro-seeded in order for it to be nice. The answer is no. Hydro-seed is not some kind of magic formula. It is nothing more than a fancy way to apply grass seed. A hydro-seeder is just a machine that mixes water, grass seed, fertilizer and mulch into a slurry that is sprayed onto your lawn. The ingredients are exactly the same that you would use if you seed by hand, with the exception of the mulch.


And contrary to popular belief, hydro-mulch is no better than good old fashioned straw. In my opinion straw is a much, much better mulch. The primary advantage to hydro-seed is that the grass seed is thoroughly soaked before it is applied, which assures germination. That’s a huge advantage if you’re seeding along a freeway where it is not practical to wet the seed after it has been applied. At your house, it really doesn’t mean much. Hand seeding works just fine.


With either method, you still have to water just as much once the seeding is done. Many people are led to believe that hydro-seed doesn’t have to be watered as much as hand seed. This is a huge misconception. If you fail to water hydro-seed once it is applied, it will still germinate and little tiny grass plants will appear. But just a few hours without water on a hot day, and those little tiny grass plants will wither and die. This is a big problem because once the seed has germinated, it is spent. All the water in the world will not make that spent seed produce another grass plant.


Hydro-seed has its benefits, but for the residential lawn it’s not all that important. Why do I claim that straw is a better mulch than hydro-mulch? Think about how the hydro-mulch is applied. It is mixed with the seed, fertilizer and water as a slurry, and sprayed on the lawn. The mulch has not been applied over top of the seed which is how mulch is supposed to be applied, it is all mixed together. Some of the seeds are under the mulch, and some of the seeds are on top of the mulch. Mulch can’t do much good when the seeds are resting up on top of it. They might as well be sun bathing!


Now think about the process of hand seeding. The seed is spread on the soil, then you should take a push broom and drag it backwards over top of the seeded area. This applies a very thin layer of soil over most of the seeds. Then you spread the straw over top of the soil. The pieces of straw are scattered in all directions, with many of them criss-crossing each other.


Remember the movie, “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”? The part where they are walking through the lawn and the blades of grass are huge compared to them? This is what it’s like to be a grass seed under a mulch of straw. Those little tiny grass seeds are lost under the straw, and that's exactly what you want to protect them from the intense rays of the sun.


As the sun works its way across the sky the grass seeds actually receive filtered sunlight. Enough sun to warm the seeds so they grow, but also enough shade to protect the tender young grass plants. As the grass plants grow, they also raise the mulch with them to a degree, providing additional shade for the seeds that haven’t germinated yet. The shade that straw mulch provides also helps to retain the moisture around the seeds. Grass seeds will never get this kind of protection from hydro-mulch.


Another trait of hydro-seed is that as the slurry dries, it becomes a blanket over the lawn. In the event of a heavy rainfall, running water tends to get under this blanket and carry it away, leaving big areas with no seed at all. They make a glue that you can actually add to the hydro-seed mix, but my experience has shown that the glue will hold the hydro-seed in place a little longer, but when it does wash out much larger areas wash because they are glued together.


With hand seeding, each seed is independent, and they fall between the nooks and crannies of the soil. In the event of heavy rain, the running water must be severe enough to wash the soil away before the seeds can be moved. I’ve installed hundreds of lawns using both techniques, for the difference in cost I’ll take the hand seeded lawn any day.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com/   http://lawnmowerranch.ipcoweb.com/Lawn_care

Enhanced Service, Enhanced Care,

 We have been creating and maintaining beautiful lawns and landscapes in the Hampton roads area for over 20 years. Our programs are custom tailored to meet your lawns needs and Hampton Road's harsh climate. Timely applications of blended fertilizers weed controls, and other beneficial materials ensure your lawn's health and vigor.

Tree and shrub care is paramount to a healthy landscape. Our landscape treatments will allow your valuable plants to live to their full potential.    http://www.enhancedlawnandtree.com/

Eco-Friendly Lawn Care Tips

Green lawns beautiful but the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides is not good for the environment. Fortunately you don’t need these things in order to have a nice looking lawn. These eco-friendly lawn care tips do not include the use of weed or pest controls and will have your lawn looking amazing.
Rake your lawn early with a fan rake. The result should be that the grass blades are standing uprightand any debris has been removed.
Use a good quality fertilizer that is high in nitrogen (20-28%). Try to look for a fertilizer with a time-release nitrogen ingredient that will keep working long after being spread.
When cutting the lawn keep in mind that the blades should be kept at 2 1/2 – 3 inches high. Cutting the lawn too short is probably the most common mistake made by home owners. By keeping grass longer it becomes more resistant to burning, drought, insects and disease.
Instead of bagging those grass clippings, have the mulching mower return those clippings back to the roots of the lawn. You don’t want the abundance of nitrogen in those grass clippings to go to waste.  http://www.furniturehomedesign.com/home-and-garden/eco-friendly-lawn-care-tips/

Beautiful Lawn

In my former home, I had 3/4 of an acre of lawn. It took me three hours to cut the lawn using a walk behind, large format lawn mower. I preferred not to use a riding mower because it enabled me to get close the lawn to see if problems were developing. In addition, I didn’t have all of that extra weight traveling over my manicured lawn. I just included this as part of my exercise.

One secret I learned that proved very helpful was to keep the grass long (3.25 inches) to help shade the ground to keep it cool and moist. There are several other interesting tips included in the post at the link below. I think you will find these worth considering.

Five shortcuts to a Perfect Lawn – http://www.diylife.com/2010/05/25/5-shortcuts-to-a-perfect-lawn/

     http://www.gardeningonthemoon.com/category/desertgardening/page/7/