5 Tips to Maintain a Healthy Lawn in Bloomington Indiana
Thank you for visiting our blog post! We at Wells Lawn Care are excited to share with you 5 Tips to Maintain a Healthy Lawn in Bloomington Indiana. Every lawn is different, and we are always available to discuss how these tips can be applied to your individual lawn. After reading these steps, tell us what you think!
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Regular Mowing
Never cut more than 1/3 of the plant length. Maintaining a regular mowing schedule will actually help the overall health of your lawn! If you cut more than 1/3 of the grass length off at any time, the lawn may become stressed and will focus on repair and healing rather than future growth. Ideally you’ll want to keep grass heights between 4-6”. Keeping the lawn a little bit higher will also help choke weeds and allow the lawn to develop a deeper root system. Deeper root system will help out during times of high heat and stress that occur annually in the summer months.
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Annual or Biannual Aeration
Aeration is the process of removing plugs of soil to allow for oxygen and water into the soil to increase lawn growth and maintain the health of your already established lawn. Punching holes in the ground yearly, or twice a year, will improve drainage, increase oxygen levels, and allow for better water and nutrient penetration to improve overall turf growth. Additionally, following aeration is a perfect time to apply additional grass seed. This will take advantage of the soil cores already removed and allow for much better seed to soil contact over just spreading grass seed on the surface.
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Type of Grass Seed
When selecting the type of grass for your yard, consider the climate you live in and the amount of direct sun vs shade the areas receive. In Bloomington Indiana, we recommend using a tall turf type fescue (TTTF) variety of seed. Depending on the amount of shade vs sun will also determine the mixture and type of seed used. You also might be desiring to go with a Kentucky bluegrass (KBG) lawn. While this type of turf is known for its great color and appearance, it’s important to be aware of the additional maintenance Bluegrass requires. Bluegrass performs better in slightly cooler environments than what we have in south central Indiana and also requires much more irrigation during the dry season. If you have a lawn already set up with an irrigation system you might be ready to go for Bluegrass. Blended grass seed mixtures can help overcome some of the issues you might see with one strain of grass seed. Even with planting only TTTF grass it’ll be helpful to find a variety that contains at least 4-5 different cultivars. And as mentioned before any time you are putting seed down in a lawn, we always recommend to first aerate the soil to allow for a better seed to soil contact. If you have an extremely thin or patchy lawn it may also be beneficial to install the seed with a slit seed machine to help plant the grass seed in the soil, rather than solely using a broadcast spreader to sow the grass seed.
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Keep Nutrients in Soil
Lawns need nutrients to thrive. A complete fertilizer includes the right amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to maintain good color, root strength, and durability. A light application to a lawn can be helpful after the first mow. Some quality fertilization programs usually offer up to 6 applications spaced throughout the season. These are usually spaced out 4-6 weeks to allow maximum impact of each application. Timing of season is also important when considering what type of fertilizer to put down. For example, going into the heat of the summer you would want to avoid any quick release fertilizer as this can encourage too much top end growth potentially opening up the plant to issues down the road. A slow release fertilizer would be recommended in the middle of the summer whereas a quick release fertilizer would perform well in late fall as the grass prepares for the dormant winter season ahead.
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Mulching leaves
Mulching your leaves with a mower is another great way to keep nutrients in your soil. Removing fallen leaves in the fall will actually put your grass and soil at a disadvantage in the coming years. So, keep the leaves down and mulch them up for a great, natural boost of nutrients. That being said, if you have a heavy leaf drop it may be beneficial to remove some of those leaves to help keep the lawn clean of excess debris that may choke out the turf.
Let us know what you think!
We’re so glad we were able to share our tips to help maintain your healthy lawn for many years to come. We love to discuss options with our clients on how we can help them make this possible! We want to get your lawn on the right track and keep it that way. Here at Wells Lawn Care, our goal is simple: Lawn Care Made Easy.
Reach out if you are interested in discussing a regular mowing schedule, a fertilization plan or how to apply these 5 tips to your lawn.
Written by the team at Wells Lawn Care