Lawn care doesn’t have to be stressful! In fact, after reading these lawn care facts, you will find properly caring for your lawn can be meditative and fulfilling.
But lawn care isn’t just about mowing. There’s so much more to lawn care. Here are some facts about lawns I bet you didn’t know.
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Lawn Care is Growing
Lawns cover about 40 million acres in the United States, making it the largest irrigated (watered) crop in the United States.
That’s enough lawn to cover the entire state of Wisconsin.
And the amount of water to keep that grass green? It could fill the Chesapeake Bay.
That’s a lot of water!
Lawns keep expanding in the United States as development and suburban neighborhoods continue to grow. This also means the industry around lawn care has grown too.
Americans spend almost $400 dollars a year just in lawn care according to the National Gardening Survey linked below.
George Washington
Lawns, and lawn care, date back to the colonial days. Lawns were popular among the aristocrats in Europe, and famous Americans like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson wanted to model their homes off of the European homes here in the American colonies.
As more landowners wanted to model their homes like those of famous Americans, lawns gained in popularity.
Popular Pandemic Hobby
According to the National Gardening Survey, after seeing a drop in interest in gardening and lawncare from 2016-2019, there was a resurgence of interest in lawn care and gardening thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic drove us outside—but we couldn’t go anywhere, so we began to look around our homes and yards.
And the industry expects this trend to continue, even after the pandemic ends.
Millennials buying homes, moving to the suburbs, and beginning families are also driving the trend as a big consumer group.
Mowing Grows Roots
Regular mowing is vital to a great lawn, and it’s about more than the aesthetics.
By keeping all the grass blades at the same length, you’re ensuring that their growth is also even, and that the grass has adequate access to nutrients and sunlight for photosynthesis.
Regular mowing, but not cutting too short, also encourages the grass to make deep roots, lowering the likelihood of bare patches and damage, and increasing the grass’s resistance to drought and pests.
Who knew that cutting the grass made it grow deeper underground?
The Perfect Height
It turns out size does matter when it comes to grass.
Did you know that your grass length should vary throughout the year?
Now you do.
In the summer, leaving the grass a little longer will help protect it from drying out and browning in sections.
Experts suggest keeping your summer grass length between 3 ½ to 4 ½ inches, while you can bring it back down to 2 ½ for spring and fall.
This will help maintain that deep and healthy root base, protect against drying and browning, and keeps the soil from drying out too fast.
So make sure you’re adjusting your lawn mower as the days get longer and hotter.
Remember: long days, long blades!
Not All Weeds Are Bad!
No one likes a weedy lawn. It’s unattractive and it can make it difficult to mow or maintain. But not all weeds are bad.
Some weeds, like clover, can add nitrogen—a vital nutrient—back to the soil.
Clover is also resistant to drought, and it stays green even in the dead of summer.
Additionally, adding clover to your grass seed, or buying a grass seed with clover mixed in, can be a great environmentally friendly way of having a pollinator yard: a yard that is friendly to bees.
Holy Soil is Healthy Soil
It’s more like holey soil is healthy soil. Aeration, or the act of putting holes in your yard, sounds counterproductive—but it’s actually helpful!
Aerating your lawn improves soil drainage, which helps grow healthier roots and prevents dead spots.
Additionally, aerating your lawn can allow nutrients to reach the root systems better, so your lawn grows thicker.
It’s important to aerate at the right time, which means choosing the middle of the growing season.
Aeration can be done with a lawn aeration tool.
Fertilizer is Food
The best time to fertilize your lawn? According to the University of Maryland, it’s the fall!
You might not have guessed that, but that’s the best time for soil to absorb nutrients and for the grass to grow strong over winter before spring growth.
As grass uses nutrients, it depletes the soil and those nutrients need to be replaced. You can use chemical or organic fertilizers. Some people test their soil to know exactly what they need to add, but there are a wide variety of generic options that can help your lawn.
The most beautiful lawns you see have the healthiest soil, and healthy soil includes proper nutrition.
The Right Grass Matters
Did you know there are many different varieties of grass for lawns? Not all grasses grow well in all climates.
Use this handy chart from GardenPro Answer Book to find the right grass for your climate. Every area has different growing seasons, different types of soils, and different profiles, which means some grasses will thrive and some will fail.
Different grass varieties thrive in different climates.
- For areas that are prone to drought, there are drought resistant grasses with deep root systems.
- For humid areas, there are grasses resistant to funguses.
- For cold areas, there are grasses that can survive cold winters.
And there are new grass varieties every year!
Grass Clippings Aren’t Bad
Grass clippings aren’t always bad for the lawn! People used to think that they needed to get rid of all the grass clippings, but if you’re properly maintaining your lawn, the grass clippings can actually be helpful.
Grass clippings are chockful of good nutrients that break down and return to the soil.
Leaving them can help replenish the nutrients in your yard.
But if your grass was very long when you cut it, or the grass clippings are very thick and clumpy, they can harden against the ground and prevent proper water absorption.
That’s good motivation to cut your grass regularly!
Bare Patches Are Fixable
Whether you have a new lawn or an established lawn, you will eventually come face to face with a bare patch in your yard. It might be brown, or somewhere a kid’s sandbox sat for a long time, or where a tree used to be.
Either way, the grass is dead, or doesn’t exist, and you need to fix it.
There are a couple of options here. You can sow in new grass seed, or you can cut out the dead patch and lay in new turf.
Either way, you’ll want to make sure you water it regularly and fertilize it.
While it may stand out at first, after mowing and fertilizing, it will soon blend back into the rest of your lawn.
Photo credits: Mateus.
