What makes up 20% of the earth’s vegetation? Grass.
If you’ve ever wondered why the grass is green, it’s all thanks to chlorophyll. When your lawn has favorable growing conditions, your grass can produce as much chlorophyll as it needs to be happy and green.
However, if your turf is lacking in iron, the deficiency can cause chlorosis, a condition that makes grass turn yellow and die. Luckily, by fertilizing your front yard, you can avoid destructive conditions like chlorosis from happening in the first place.
What other things can you do to keep your grass green all year long? Read on to learn about 7 vital landscaping tips.
1. Create a Designated Area for Dogs
Are you a dog owner? You’re not alone! Research shows 54.4 million households have a dog. While dogs are great pets, they can wreak havoc on your lawn.
The first problem is that both male and female dog urine burns grass. Dogs are also notorious for digging holes, which can instantly kill the grass in that area.
Whether you have 1 dog or multiple furry family members, it’s a good idea to set up a designated doggy potty area outside. Finally, keeping your dogs out of your front yard, while giving them free rein of your backyard, is 1 of the easiest solutions.
2. Test Your Soil Often
First, when it comes to front yard landscaping you should always test your soil. Your soil is made up of both living and dead organic matter. There are also different minerals that your soil contains.
When you have good soil, your plants have a strong foundation to grow by absorbing the soil’s nutrients. However, if your soil’s lacking in 1 or more areas, your grass will never be able to live up to its full potential.
Luckily, you can buy a home test to determine the condition of your soil. The test will indicate whether or not your soil has the right nutrients while also testing how acidic or alkaline the soil is.
Grass tends to thrive in soils with neutral pH levels. If you discover your soil’s pH levels are off, ask your local garden center what the best course of action would be to remedy the problem.
3. Choose the Right Type of Grass
Next on our list of landscaping tips, let’s look at the different types of grass. Depending on where you live, certain grasses will perform better than others.
Here’s a shortlist of the different grass types you should consider using:
- Bentgrass
- Bermuda grass
- Centipede grass
If you live in the Northern U.S., bentgrass is a great choice since it can withstand the cooler seasons.
4. Keep Your Lawn Free of Debris
Next, you’ll want to avoid letting debris, like yard waste, sit on your grass.
Sometimes weekly trash collectors will have an option for yard waste disposal. Call your local services to find out what type of debris they’ll accept, as well as what rules you have to follow for them to collect it.
5. Avoid Overwatering
Knowing how to properly hydrate your grass is 1 of the most important tips for landscaping you can learn. When you overwater your front yard, the roots of the grass will drown. The soil underneath your grass has air pockets that help your lawn get the oxygen it needs to thrive.
If you soak the soil in water, your grass won’t be able to breathe! Next, overwatering also causes an increase in weed growth. The more you overwater your lawn, the easier it’ll be for unwanted weeds to sprout up.
Finally, too much water means you’re wasting your money in more ways than one. On top of drowning your grass, you’ll also be washing away any fertilizer you’ve recently applied.
6. Learn to Mow Like a Pro
When you use the best lawn mowing service, you help your yard in 2 ways. First, a properly mowed yard encourages grass to grow back. Second, mowed yards look the best, giving your home a neat, trimmed look.
Here are a few of our favorite lawn mowing tips to keep grass greener than ever before:
- Set lawnmower high
- Mow when the grass is dry
- Switchup mowing patterns
- Leave grass clippings
- Keep the mower blade sharp
Setting your mower in the high position helps your grass deepen its roots. A lot of people avoid using a high setting because they want the luxury of being able to mow their lawn less often.
However, when you scalp your lawn with a low setting, it causes your grass to focus on growing the blades instead of the roots. Learn more about professional lawn care services if you want to save time on yard maintenance. Finally, another advantage of tall grass blades is their ability to shade the soil, keeping things at optimal growing temperatures.
7. Aerate Your Yard at the Right Times
Last but not least on our list of landscaping tips, we have aerating your lawn. Since plants need air and water to grow, your soil needs to be loose enough for those essentials to reach the grass.
Aerating your lawn loosens compacted soil, making it easy for your grass to grow. It’s best to aerate grass right before your lawn reaches its peak state for natural growth. You should never aerate a dormant yard.
Enjoy Your Front Yard Year-Round
Now you know 7 of the best tips to keep your front yard looking great all year long. Which 1 of our landscaping tips are you going to use first? Will you be creating a designated area for your dogs?
Or are you going to focus on testing your soil to make sure it’s in tip-top shape? Of course, if you want to get the best results, you’ll use all 7 of the landscaping tips from this article. For more articles with great advice, check out the rest of this site!