lawn careThis is a guest post from Jason Holbrook from Georgia Lawn. Georgia Lawn provides lawn care in the metro Atlanta and surrounding areas.

For every lawn care problem that you come across it is pretty safe to say that there are great organic solutions that will help you avoid having to apply synthetic man made products that can leech and deplete your soil. Today we will go over a few great methods of taking care of your lawn to get it to its fullest potential.

It’s Worth Having Your Soil Tested

Before you go and put anything on your yard besides water you need to invest the couple of bucks and buy a soil test. Most county extension offices have them and all that you have to pay is the shipping and the simple test. It usually takes a couple of weeks or so for the test results to be mailed back to you. Be sure to get different areas of your yard in the sample and make sure to not put down any fertilizer, as it will sway the results. Having a soil test will not only tell you what kind of soil you have it will tell you what and how much you need to add to it.

Be Sure Your pH Is Balanced

Once you have your test results back be sure to check the pH section of the test. Making the necessary adjustments to this section alone can make a huge difference in how your lawn responds to you.

If you live East of the Mississippi River then more than likely soil is going to be in the acidic range. Your soil will have an acidic pH especially if you have pine trees and red clay in your yard. To remedy acidic soil add garden limestone per the pound per 1000 sq ft that is recommended on your soil test.

If you live West of the Mississippi River then more than likely your soil is of alkaline pH. In the case of an alkaline pH you will want to add sulfur in the form of rock sulfur and peat moss. There are of course exceptions to the East and West rule of the Mississippi rule such as the Pacific Northwest, which has acidic soil due to high levels of rainfall, more the reason to get the soil test.

Replenish What’s Lacking in Your Soil

The next thing that the test will tell you is if you are lacking in any of the major or minor nutrients that plants need to survive and thrive. If your test shows that you are low in nutrients such as say N- nitrogen and P- phosphorus then opt for an organic slow release fertilizer such as bone meal or Milorganite. These two organic fertilizers will do wonders for your yard without you having to worry about synthetic chemical runoff or chemical burn. The soil test will also tell you how much of a certain nutrient that you need to add to the soil.

If you have done all of the above and are still not getting the results that you are looking for then consider getting your yard core aerated. The core aeration process will pull plugs from your yard and deposit them onto your yard. This will allow for oxygen, nutrients and water to readily reach your lawn’s root layer. This process will also help your grass to decrease its thatch layer down to an acceptable amount and let the grass receive the things that it needs to grow thick and strong.

Water Your Lawn Early And Deeply

Another great thing that you can do to get your lawn looking tiptop is water it in the early morning and water it deeply. A great way to check and see if you are watering enough is to put out an empty tuna can and turn on your sprinkler system. You will want to leave the system on as long as it takes for there to be one inch of water built up. Once you have your sprinkler time only run your irrigation once or twice a week, less if it has rained recently or there is rain in the forecast.

Last but not least you should keep your lawn mower blades as sharp as possible. Doing this will make sure that you are cutting the tips of the blades of the grass not ripping them as you do with dull blades. Also make sure that you are only taking off one third of the grass blade to ensure that you dot not put your grass into shock and stunt its growth.

If you follow these easy lawn care tips you should have one of the best looking yards on the block and one of the eco-friendly at the same time.

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