Iowa City Real Estate Blog

The Secret to a Better Lawn...And how to achieve it with minimum time and effort!

Many of us are not crazy about yard work, but love a nice yard. My pet project for this year has been to see how I can go about getting to the nice yard without putting any particular effort into it...And the good news is that it's turning out to be a lot easier than thought!

A nice lawn of course is the center piece of any yard and usually the biggest headache for most home owners.

So what's the secret to a better lawn? As usual for these kinds of secrets it's not really a secret at all. All you need to do is make sure your grass has good strong roots. If there's a secret, then it's to work on it NOW and not in the spring. If you feed the roots so they become strong over the winter months the grass will be able to take care of itself when the spring rolls around and those pesky weeds start trying to run the show.

Fact is, particularly when it comes to lawn care anything you do now will benefit your yard much more than all the work you do catching up with yourself in the springtime.

I moved into my new home in the summer and have my work cut out for me with bringing my lawn up to par with the neighbors! I did some serious research online and it seems the best lawns can be had with minimum effort. An older post from Paul Wheaton, Organic Lawn Care for the Cheap and Lazy is hugely entertaining, while being extremely helpful. The link to Cornell University Gardening Resources is equally helpful with step by step guides on common lawn and yard care issues. 

I started by mowing high all summer with my new electric mulching mower. (Mowing high meant I only needed to mow every 2 - 3 weeks). Mulching works great and leaving the clippings on the lawn works better than I expected. According to the experts earthworms work the clippings back into the ground providing nutrition for the lawn.  It's worked out pretty well, although my neighbor's not exactly getting nervous about the competition yet!

I didn't fertilize in the summer, because I'm really not that keen on mowing, (who is?) Apparently what happens when you fertilize in the warmer months is that it promotes top growth, but does nothing for the roots. (Hence the more mowing comment). Looking at it that way I'm sure you'll agree that fertilizing in the summer doesn't make sense. We all know that a house is only as good as it's foundation - The same goes for a lawn. What we want is strong roots and the best way to get them is to fertilize in the fall, (or autumn if you come from my part of the world).

All sounds too easy right? That's what I thought too, but when you think about it, it all makes perfect sense. Stronger roots are bound to prevail over the competition. Mowing high also has a side benefit besides the less mowing aspect. Accepting that the sun is food, the longer grass will shade any weed seedlings that may try to make headway on your lawn. Without the sun they won't live long!

This is a work in progress for me. I will keep you posted on my results and any issues I encounter on the way to the lawn that I'm expecting to be the envy of the neighborhood next year...(Aah, wouldn't that be nice?)

Photo courtesy of USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service