Your lawn is an important part of your home landscape. A thick, green lawn adds value to your property and shows off all of its best attributes. It provides a place to play and relax and enjoy playing fetch with your dog or catch with your children.
A dusty, bare, spotty lawn certainty won’t do the trick when you’re planning these activities. You don’t want little Johnny tripping on tufts of weeds or Fido covered in mud or dirt just from running around the yard. You want a thick, green expanse of grass that provides a great cushion for running and jumping and an amazing backdrop for all of your favorite outdoor activities.
Is that too much to ask? Absolutely not.
As you explore ways to improve your lawn’s appearance, you might be wondering what steps you can take. Your local home improvement store will have quite a few DIY options to choose from, and the employees there will offer various opinions on the topic.
But before you take every word they say as gospel, buying up their fertilizers and weed spray and other additives, you might want to stop for a second and consider the source. Just because an employee works in the outdoors section of the store doesn’t mean they are an instant expert in lawn care. In fact, they could just be recommending products they want to move off the shelves or something they saw the last guy buy.
While you’re doing your research to understand what your lawn needs, let’s go over some of the biggest lawn care mistakes people make in Maryland so you can target your efforts and avoid costly errors and time-wasters.
Top 5 DIY Lawn Care Mistakes To Avoid
You might see your brown or discolored lawn and think you can just buy a bag of fertilizer, apply it, and this will magically fix your lawn care problems.
Not so fast. Lawn care is a science. And there are some things that are simple to do on your own but other things that could be improved upon with better education or professional tips.
That’s why we’re here. These are lawn care mistakes to avoid that can help keep you on the right track.
1. Not Getting a Soil Test
One of the very first things we do when we are on a customer’s lawn is conduct a soil test.
A soil test tells you some important things about your soil conditions that can positively or negatively impact your lawn.
One thing a soil test tells you is your pH. In Maryland, we have an optimal pH that is ideal for growing lawns – between 6.4 to 6.8. Soil in the right pH range will help your lawn more effectively absorb nutrition. You can’t know this without a sol test, which is why neglecting to do one is a major DIY lawn care mistake.
2. Overapplication of Lime or Fertilizer
If your lawn is lacking green color, you might think you should pile on the fertilizer. If a little works, why not try doubling your efforts?
This “more is better “idea is actually quite terrible when it comes to lawn care.
Why? Because just because you think a small amount of product works never means a lot more of it will work better. In fact, it could actually reverse your efforts, making it one of the biggest lawn care mistakes.
For instance, if you haven’t done a soil test and you don’t know that your pH is low, applying all the fertilizer in the world will never help you lawn because the soil it’s at the right pH to absorb it. First, you’d have to apply just the right amount of lime to improve your pH. And, again, too much lime could take your pH in the other direction, so you need to stop at a certain amount.
Lawn care is a precise science, so sprinkling a bit more product without knowing what’s needed is never a great idea.
3. Improper Application Timing
Lawn care also requires pretty precise timing when it comes to many applications.
For instance, if you’re trying to get rid of crabgrass, your pre-emergent herbicide must be applied early in spring before those weeds emerge for best control. If you miss this window, you’ll have more weeds.
Also, you might get off track when it comes to regular intervals of fertilizers applications, for instance. Maybe you forgot you had some important work meetings or travel coming up and it delayed you for weeks when it came to your next application. Now your lawn is lacking nutrients at proper intervals.
That’s why timing applications incorrectly could be a major DIY lawn care error, wasting your time and money.
4. Incorrect Mowing Height
Proper mowing is an important part of lawn care.
One of the biggest lawn care mistakes is mowing your lawn too short. This results in a stressed out lawn, leading to underperformance, discoloration, and allows weeds in.
The best height for lawns in Maryland is 3 to 4 inches. And when you mow, you never want to remove more than one-third of your grass blades at any one time, which equates to roughly weekly during the growing season. Also, don’t forget to sharpen your mower blades.
This height keeps your lawn thick and green.
5. Wasting Money on Incorrect or Unnecessary Products and Improper Product Usage
Another big DIY lawn care mistake is wasting money on excessive or ineffective products and then using them incorrectly.
If you look back at the previous four mistakes, you’ll see that some simple tasks like a soil test, proper mowing, and targeted and focused applications can do wonders for your lawn. So wasting time and money on random products that don’t make sense or drain you of time and energy and don’t even deliver the results you’re after can be troublesome.
The goal of lawn care is to know your soil, know what your lawn needs, and don’t mess with the basics or proper timing.
Don’t Let Lawn Care Tasks Get Your Down
You know the benefits of lawn care, and you know the results of properly taking care of your grass.
As you seek out ways to fertilize – from buying the right products and equipment to apply them – and then look up advice on timing and strategy, you might find your mind is spinning.
We get it. It’s a lot to take in.
The best way you can avoid making any DIY lawn care mistakes is by hiring a professional like Natural Green Systems in Central and Southern Maryland.
Signing up for a lawn care program means you’ve embraced a proactive approach to protecting your green investment. You don’t have to worry about products or timing or even your soil pH because we’ve got it covered. And you get the lawn you want in the end … which is the best part.
Want to learn more about what professional lawn care services in Central and Southern Maryland include? Get started today with a free quote. We’ll review your options together so you can make a great choice. Then you can just sit back and enjoy your lawn.
Image Source: lawn mower
