Beautiful, well-groomed lawn grass can become a real decoration of your site. To grow it, you can use special mixtures sold in the gardening store. And you can buy ready-made grass in rolls, grown by specialists. To make the right choice, you need to know the features of each option.
What determines the service life of the lawn
The quality of the lawn, and accordingly its service life, primarily depends on the seeds that are included in the lawn mixture. But there are other factors that can affect it.
To make it look great and serve you for a long time, you need to follow these rules for its operation:
- Properly caring, following all the recommendations.
- Prepare the soil with all the requirements.
- Mow regularly so that seeds do not have time to form.
- Do not damage with sharp tools.
- Move on it only with the help of special equipment.
- Replace damaged areas in time.
- Feed to provide plants with all the necessary substances.
- Buy seed mixes or rolls at verified locations.
The choice of seeds or finished lawn
If you have a choice, to create a lawn yourself or buy a ready-made one, it will be safer to choose the second option.
- There are several reasons why coiled is better than self-grown:
- grass in rolls is usually sold at the age of 2-3 years, and if you sow yourself, you have to wait at least two years;
- the rolled lawn looks beautiful and neat, which is not always possible to achieve with only a mixture of seeds;
- with independent cultivation, we have to fight weeds, sometimes even to no avail;
- rain roll, hail and drought are not afraid of a rolled lawn, and it also has a very powerful turf that prevents weed seeds from germinating;
- buying a mixture, you can not be sure that this is really what you need, because the alleged undersized grass may turn out to be a high cereal crop or even a weed.
If you still decide to do the sowing yourself, you must pay attention to the name of the mixtures, because each of them has a different purpose.
Important! In wet periods, lawn grass needs to be mowed more often than during a drought.
There are such types of lawn:
- Sports - sown in places with increased physical exertion. It can be playgrounds, football stadiums, places for walking dogs. Such grass is resistant to trampling, but grows very quickly, so it needs frequent mowing.
- Ground floor - used to decorate the landscape. It serves as a beautiful background for flower beds, very smooth, shiny. It needs to be watered frequently and access to sunlight is required.
- Dwarf - requiring a minimum of care, because it consists of only undersized herbs that grow very slowly.
- Lawn for slopes - performs the function of soil retention and prevents erosion in mountainous conditions. And all thanks to the fact that the herbs that make up its composition are able to create a very powerful turf.
Landing rules
First you need to prepare the soil, the layer of which should be at least 20 cm when sowing, and about 10 cm when laying the rolls. After this, you need to wait two weeks, and then do the bulk of the work.
Did you know? Grassy grass helps fight allergies, because it holds dust and cleans the air.
Once you have chosen the right mixture, you can start sowing in the following sequence:
- Level the soil with a fan rake, eliminating lumps and bumps.
- Mix the seeds with sand so that they do not stick together and are better distributed.
- Sow them from left to right, then from right to left, and then diagonally to ensure good grass density.
- Seal the seeds with a rake or a special roller.
- Water the lawn using a nozzle spraying a stream of water.
The rolled lawn is laid in stripes in a checkerboard pattern, and then rammed with a roller or manually. Separate pieces should lie tight enough, but not overlap each other. After laying on the grass, you can only walk on boards that are placed on top. In the first week you need to water the grass every day.
Care
Sowing a lawn requires careful treatment. After you have sown the seeds, you can’t walk around the site so that they can germinate normally. All this time, it is recommended to water the grass, fertilize it, protect it from excessive heat and rainfall, and weed it. It will take about a month before germination, and it takes at least two years for the grass to become thick and beautiful. But the lawn in rolls is suitable for use after a couple of weeks.
Important! Fertilizing for good lawn growth is not permitted during and after rain. It is best to do this before the rain.
The basic rules for caring for it are as follows:
- Timely haircut. Mowing the lawn should begin when it grows to 10 cm using a lawn mower, and in inaccessible places - an electric trimmer. It is necessary to leave about 4-5 cm, no more. The first haircut should be done in May, and the last - in the fall, before the onset of frost.
- Watering. It is necessary to water the grass at the moment when it begins to lose elasticity, but no later than to prevent drying. Also, be sure to consider the type of soil.
- Weed removal, which is more important for a sowing lawn than for a rolled lawn.
- Top dressing. In the spring, nitrogen fertilizers must be applied, in the summer - a complex that includes nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus compounds, and in the autumn - the same thing, only without nitrogen. The amount of fertilizer needed for top dressing is usually indicated on the packaging.
- Mulching, combing and piercing.
If bald spots arise in which, for whatever reason, the grass has dried or decayed, it is necessary to sow the seeds, sprinkle them with compost and water them.
How much grass lawn lives
The lawn, both rolled and sowing, lives 10-15 years. But this is only subject to very good care. More often, his life span lasts up to 8 years, no more. With an inattentive attitude, the grass can deteriorate already in the second year, so be sure to follow all the recommendations when growing it. If you want your site to be green and neat for as long as possible, you need to provide the lawn with good lighting, watering, fertilizer and do not forget to cut the time in time. And sometimes you have to sow the seeds or completely change the grass.
Lawn grass can decorate any landscape, add sophistication and accuracy to it. But in order for her to look beautiful and well-groomed, she will have to work hard. Only following all the rules for lawn care will ensure its attractive and healthy appearance.