Your lawn needs some love throughout the year.
While some of the care your lawn needs may seem straightforward, other maintenance can be confusing.
One such service that may make you scratch your head at times is lime applications. Bottom line: Central and Southern Maryland soil conditions can require lime at times to ensure it provides what your lawn needs to grow.
Let’s look at how lime can help your lawn soil and when to apply lime in Maryland to give you more insight into this necessary service.
What Is a Lime Lawn Treatment?
Lime lawn treatments are considered soil amendments. These are treatments that improve the condition of your soil so that what’s planted in it can grow better.
Lime is technically ground limestone. When you add it to the soil, it can increase your soil pH. Your soil pH is important because it can impact your lawn’s color and vigor.
How Can a Lime Application Help My Lawn?
The first, and most important step, in a lime application is a soil test. You have to know where your soil pH is at before you can amend it.
This is important because if you don’t test your soil first, you could be making your soil condition worse instead of better with a lime application.
In Maryland, the optimum pH is between 6.4 to 6.8. This proper pH enables your lawn to uptake nutrients. If your pH is out of this range, your lawn can’t effectively get those nutrients from the soil.
If your pH is low, which is many times the case in Maryland, lime will raise it, bringing it into that optimum range. Some soils will respond better to lime than others, but typically when the soil test says you need a certain amount of lime per 1,000 square feet, that’s exactly what ends up bringing your soil to the right levels when you test it again to see the improvement.
Proper Lime Application Techniques
A lime application is typically done using a lawn spreader, similar to how you apply granular fertilizer. You need to calibrate that lawn spreader properly to ensure accurate lime application.
When you send in your soil test, the results will come back recommending a number of pounds of lime per square feet. Usually, university extension professionals will recommend no more than 50 pounds of lime per 1,000 square feet in a single application. This is as much as your soil can absorb at one time. So if your soil test comes back requiring a higher number, you’ll need multiple lime applications over a period of time to ensure your soil gets the lime it needs to adjust its pH.
This is certainly a lot to remember. That’s why it’s beneficial to hire a professional to conduct soil tests and apply lime to your lawn. Not only do they have the necessary experience and equipment to do the job right, they are familiar with the region’s lawn care rules and application best practices and can ensure the right amount of lime is used.
When to Apply Lime in Maryland
When you start to consider when to apply lime in Maryland, we have some good news for you.
As long as the ground is not frozen, you can apply lime at any time of year. But remember to get a soil test first to ensure you actually need lime. Some lawn care companies will provide soil tests as part of their services.
Is My Lawn Getting What it Needs?
You want to know that your lawn is getting what it needs at the right times, including lime lawn treatments.
But it can certainly seem frustrating not knowing if your soil is sufficient to grow a thick, green lawn or if your efforts are being wasted because it needs a pH adjustment.
This is why it’s important to choose a lawn care company in Central and Southern Maryland that knows our soils and can understand everything your lawn needs to thrive. You certainly have better things to do than worry about whether your lawn is getting all it needs at the right times. You just want to trust that it’s in the right professional hands.
That’s where Natural Green Systems comes in. We have decades of experience in Maryland lawn care, and we’ve seen more than our fair share of Maryland soil. We’re happy to take this worry off of your mind and improve your soil pH with lime applications.
Give Natural Green a call today for a free quote and we’ll bring our proven lawn care experience and create a custom plan for your Central and Southern Maryland lawn.
