A lawn, no matter how small, is an important part of any garden. It’s a great place to relax, rest and play, but it also provides a beautiful setting for ornamental plants. However, for it to fulfill its function, it must be well maintained, because a neglected lawn will certainly not be an ornament for a garden.
What conditions does a lawn like?
Lawns perform different functions in the garden, so they cannot be the same. Another lawn will be suitable for lovers of ball games (sports lawns), another will be well suited as a place to relax in the afternoon (multipurpose or recreational lawns), and another will provide a magnificent setting for neat flower beds (turf ). There are also lawns for special tasks, which will cope with dry areas (grass mix for dry areas) or thorny (grass mix for shade). So for a lawn to live up to our expectations, it must be adapted to the conditions and the use.
Location
For most lawns, the best place is a sunny position, but if you have a problem with the soil drying out, it is better to establish a lawn in open partial shade or choose grass for dry areas. Soil moisture will also last longer in a shady location, but these conditions are not pleasing to grasses, except for a few species and varieties which are included in grass mixes for shady positions.
Floor
Lawns perform different functions in the garden, so they cannot be the same. Another lawn will be suitable for lovers of ball games (sports lawns), another will be well suited as a place to relax in the afternoon (multipurpose or recreational lawns), and another will provide a magnificent setting for neat flower beds (turf ). There are also lawns for special tasks, which will cope with dry areas (grass mix for dry areas) or thorny (grass mix for shade). In some cases, the lawn is the entrance to the garage and is often subjected to various tests. Sometimes a car will pass, and sometimes a bicycle, various boats or storage kayaks will move on the grass. So for a lawn to live up to our expectations, it must be adapted to the conditions and the use.
How to take care of the lawn?
A beautiful green lawn is an excellent decoration of the garden, but it is wrongly claimed that the lawn is maintenance-free, because if it is to be really impressive, its maintenance requires a lot of work. Among the range of lawn care expected by the lawn are mowing (even once a week), watering (once a week during the growing season, or even daily in hot weather), weeding (by hand and using herbicides to destroy broadleaf weeds) and fertilizing, as well as spring scarification (cutting the lawn with rakes or special scarifiers to a depth of about 5-12 mm., in order to get rid of the thatch deposited in the grass and to better stimulate the grass for shrubs) and aeration (deep pricking of the lawn with spiked shoes or minimum aerators to aerate the soil) and sanding (filling the holes created after aeration with sand, which loosens and aerates the soil and improves its water management). After winter, it may also be necessary to replenish the turf with new grass and eliminate the effects of snow mold that has formed over the winter.
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Planting
Lawns can be established by seed or from a roller. The first solution is cheaper but very laborious, and you have to wait at least a few weeks for the results, while the second is expensive, but allows you to enjoy a beautiful lawn almost overnight.
Fertilization
The lawn is usually fertilized 3 times per season: at the beginning of spring, just after the first mowing (III/IV), at the end of spring (V/VI), and in summer (around k. VII at the latest). At this time, multi-nutrient lawn fertilizers are used, rich in nitrogen promoting the development of green parts. Instead of them, you can apply a long-acting fertilizer once, which lasts up to 3 months, or look for organic lawn fertilizers, which will be more beneficial to the environment.
Late in the season (k. VIII-IX), fall fertilizers should also be used which contain little or no nitrogen but are rich in other elements that strengthen the grass and help it survive the rain. ‘winter.
Accompaniement
The lawn requires frequent and systematic mowing, during which the grass is cut about 1/3 of its height (the lawn should be mowed even once a week, since the grass grows quickly and its optimum height is about 4-5 cm). The procedure should be performed with a mower with efficient and well-sharpened blades because the dull and chipped blades, instead of cutting the grass, pull and fray the blades, which not only look unsightly after the procedure, but are also more vulnerable to the entry of pathogens.
Protection against diseases and pests
Lawn grasses are plants sensitive to disease attacks (e.g. rust, snow mold, grass yellow spot, powdery mildew) and pests (min. shoots, blisters, turmeric). Preventing them is difficult, but prevention can help to some extent (mowing regularly, removing thatch from the grass, avoiding over-fertilization, avoiding trampling on a snow-covered lawn). However, if this is not enough, you will have to turn to one of the currently recommended pesticides, starting with biological preparations (like Polyversum WP).