Photos By: Unsplash

Having a lawn is not something that was around since humans started to make homes. These areas of grass have started to be artificially made in the early modern era, somewhere around the 16th century. They were made around the homes of wealthy people. Their primary goal was to remove trees and other obstructions, so guards could keep better watch. When there is nothing around, no thieves or other trespassers can approach an English manor or a French Château without guards seeing them in an open field.

Lawns became associated with rich people because only their big homes had them. Not only that, back in the day there were no lawnmowers. To maintain a perfectly cut lawn, you had two options. To have some sheep or cattle around that eat grass. Or you could hire many people to manually cut the grass. Either way, it was expensive, and people wanted to have a lawn. If you want to revive your lawn, you can do this now easier than ever, and here is how.

Think Synthetic Grass

Reviving your lawn is not the hardest thing to do. A much more difficult task comes afterward. That task being maintaining the lawn to be in that shape all the time. One of the easiest ways to avoid having to do so is by installing artificial turf. This will save you a lot of time and money, to see how much money, you can click here and call for an estimate. These lawns are perfectly safe for your children and pets, as they do not contain any harmful chemicals.

People often think that artificial lawns do not look good because they are not real grass. You would be surprised at how many lawns actually are made out of synthetic grass. The difference is not that visible. Maybe it was in the past, but right now, you can hardly tell the difference between the two.

Know your Shaded Areas

One of the reasons why so many lawns fail and need to be revived is because of not paying enough attention to shade. Sun is very important for every kind of plant, including grass. If you have some trees around your house or a fence that casts a shadow on your soil, you will want to mark those areas. In those areas, you must plant a special type of grass that does not require as much sunlight as regular grass does.

This type of grass is not something super rare that is impossible to find. Most of the agriculture and gardening shops sell this type of grass for the same price as the regular. Also, they are not some type of mutant or ‘’evil GMO’’ grass that will destroy everything around it. It is pretty normal, and you will want to plant it around shaded areas.

Grass Requires a Fertile Land

If you planted everything right and your grass is still not growing, it might be because of the soil. Plants are pretty self-sustainable and do not need to be ‘’fed’’ often. Your lawn is not as big of an ecosystem to make it truly self-sustainable. Plants in the wild get their nutrients from many other processes that are enabled by other creatures that roam around. In the artificial environment that is a lawn, you will need to fertilize the soil from time to time. Fertilizers are just a few essential chemicals that help the grass get the essential elements it needs. And once again, these chemicals are nothing ‘’evil’’. You can find many mixes in your agriculture and gardening shops, and oftentimes the people working there will help you out to choose which one would be the best for your soil.

Watering the Lawn

Once you have planted the grass you need on some fertile land, you will still need to maintain the growing grass. If you live in a place where it does not rain often, you will need to water your lawn. You can do this manually with a hose, or with some sprinklers. Sprinklers are not expensive and are a huge time saver.

As you can see, maintaining and growing a lawn is not as a simple task as it may seem. It requires patience and close monitoring of the process. And even once your grass has grown, you will need to cut it. Sisyphus has to carry a boulder to the top of the mountain for it, only to stumble down again. An analogy can be made with a person who is dedicated to their lawn who needs to let the grass grow and cut it down again, for only the cycle to repeat itself.

Photos By: Freepik

As the pandemic restricted our opportunities to get out into the world and into nature, that lovely swathe of green has been so important to keeping us happy and healthy through 2020. Now that winter is drawing in, we’re going to be spending a lot less time out there and if you want to keep it looking its best, there are some important care steps that you may not have thought about. Here are a few tips to keep your yard happy until spring.

Keep An Eye On It

As a first step, this is a simple but important one: don’t neglect it. Your green space isn’t something you can just forget about until it’s warm enough to put a deckchair out there again. While it’s true that there is less active work that you need to be doing, just keep an eye out for the little things and warning signs that could mean that your turf is unhappy. Fallen leaves coating the grass isn’t just an eyesore, it’s also keeping moisture in and preventing sunlight from getting to the grass. This is why it’s also important to remove lawn furniture in the winter, and to try and keep people from walking across the grass. Damage done in the winter takes much longer to repair.

Don’t Over-Mow

Everything is moving much slower, lawn-wise, during the cold winter months so you don’t need to be out there once a week pushing the mower around. If you’re noticing some growth then a trim should be fine, but in general, just keep an eye on the weeds and treat your mower to a good clean. It’s not the most exciting gardening task, but mowers do require regular cleaning and servicing and now is the time to do it!

Think About Irrigation

Winter may not be the time when you’re thinking about how to get more water onto your property, but come spring you’re going to be out there with the hose again and thinking about how you can get better results with less effort. It’s hard to achieve consistency without a proper system in place, and a great automated irrigation system will help you provide care for your lawn whatever the weather. It’s not just for the dry summer months; an irrigation system will detect rain and moisture and react accordingly. R & L Irrigation Services offer year-round irrigation services, and their custom work means that they meet the specific seasonal needs of your area.

Don’t Over-Do It

There are treatments and fertilizers that you can put down during winter, but it’s important to remember that this is a time when the greenery is far less quick to respond, and to recover, to sudden changes and potential damage. If you do use anything, make sure that it is a gentle treatment and be sure to follow the guidelines. Also: if you’re shoveling road salted snow from the driveway, keep it off the grass. That’s going to do a lot of damage.