Do you own a home? If so, how often do you step outside to get the morning paper and look left, then right, then left again, then right again. You realized something while your head did the tango. Your yard looks like crap compared to your neighbors. There lawns are plush, green, and very fine, whereas that single dandelion is peeking its head out among all the dead grass and brown spots in your yard. Its embarrassing, isn’t it.

Part of the problem is time management. There are plenty of people who don’t take the time to manage their yards. Sometimes you really don’t have the time, some people want to save on water bills, and some people don’t care.

This article is for those who DO care, and if you can spare the time, you might actually get a nice looking lawn, and maybe have your neighbors doing the tango with their head.

Answer:

Here is the problem with me. I used to mow lawns when I was younger, but I was far from being an expert. I would mow my family’s yard, and sometimes I would take pride in the job I did, but I never ‘managed’ the yard.

Now, I have a house being built, so I will have a yard of my own (a first) to manage. I know it’s going to take work, patience, and dedication, but I recently came across a pretty good and detailed article about How to Mow your lawn. It’s actually from Dummies.com, famous for the “Blah Blah For Dummies Books”.

It doesn’t offer mowing patterns or anything of that nature, but it does highlight the proper mowing heights for different breeds of grass, how to protect yourself, how to protect other areas of your lawn, and more.

Source: Mowing Your Lawn the Right Way

“Proper mowing is one of the most important practices in keeping your lawn healthy. Grasses are like most plants — if you clip off the growing points (the tips of the stems where the new leaves develop), the plants branch out and become denser, which in this case, turns thousands of individual grass plants into a tightly woven turf or a lawn. If you didn’t mow at all, your yard would look more like a prairie than a lawn. But the mere act of mowing isn’t what makes a lawn look good. Mowing height and mowing frequency determine how healthy and attractive your lawn looks. After all, cutting a lawn is stressful for the grass. The leaves make the food for the roots — and how would you like it if someone kept cutting off your food?
Height does count

Most grasses have a range of recommended mowing heights. Stay at the upper end of that range when the lawn is under stressful conditions, such as hot weather or drought, or if you have a shady lawn. In cooler weather, you can cut the grass a little lower. ”

I recommend reading the rest of the article.

If you are interested, you can always buy the book “Gardening All-in-One for Dummies”.

My new home will have sod in the front yard, and the backyard will be hydro seeded, which could take several weeks to begin noticing any solid grass growth.

Being a golfer, I highly appreciate a well manicured lawn. If you have ever played a prestigious golf course versus your local municipal golf course, you will understand the difference.

I plan on following some of the tips in Mowing your lawn the right way.

Watering your lawn

Obviously the biggest key to getting your grass green is water. The good old H20.

The DIY Network brings us: The Right Way to Water your Lawn.

Below is a snippet of their advice:

The Right Way to Water your Lawn

“Think about your lawn for a moment,” he advises. “There are probably areas that are sloped and areas that are flat. Each of these areas needs a different type of watering practice for the lawn to do its best.” Water runs downhill, and where the lawn slopes, water doesn’t have time to soak in and reach the roots before it begins to run off. The solution is to irrigate lightly, then irrigate another area of the lawn, then return to the sloped area and apply more water. This gives water time to soak in.

I have always been told to water your lawn after 5pm, but that may be in regards to ‘preserving water’ for the city versus getting a quality ’soaking’. The article states that 5am to 10am is the ideal watering time.

If you have any additional tips to maintaining a good lawn, please provide your advice