How do I create a healthy/green lawn?

Question

Is there anything I need to do with the dirt/soil in my yard before I deside to spread the ryegrass seeds? I'm not sure if I have to furtilize the soil or if there is ANYTHING in general that I should do so that when the grass begins to grow it's nice, green and healthy... what do I do now?!?!?!? HEEELLPPPP!!!!!!

Answer 1

Start with a soil test. You want to make sure the pH of your soil is correct. Purdue and University of Mass. have excellent labs that do professional soil tests that are realitively inexpensive. When their results come back amend the soil according to thier recommendations. Read some of the following fact sheets. They are an excellent reference.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b546/
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/landscap/h1170w.htm
http://msucares.com/lawn/lawn/establish/

Answer 2

I don't know much about fertilizers, but I've been running a lawn mowing business for four years.

1) Mulching/side discharging the grass when mowing helps shade the roots and delivers nitrogen and other nutrients when it decays.
2) Also, make sure to cut the lawn at a reasonably high length. Cut 3.5" and up for cool season grasses such as fescue or bluegrass. Shorter is okay for warm season grasses such as zoysia. Cut all grasses higher in the summer, especially if you live in a region with hot, dry summers.
3) Try to cut on schedule as often as possible, as the grass seems to adapt to the regular cutting and try to never cut more than 1/3 of the blade at any given time. When you stick to a schedule, the grass shifts its focus from upward growth to stronger root development, which is necessary for any good looking lawn. In the spring it may be necessary to cut every 5 days or more to stick to the 1/3 rule.
4) Lastly: Water, water, water. dehydration will destroy your grass faster than anything else, no matter how well you mow and fertilize it.

Answer 3

First determine the soil type. You may want to spread a little topsoil or compost on top of your yard to help get some organic matter in it. First I recommend spreading some lime and gypsum on your garden. Jerry Baker has a formula to use that says to use 50 pounds of pelletized gypsum, 50 pounds of lime, 5 pounds of bone meal, and 2 pounds of Epsom's salts. I recommend using that formula as a starter, but possibly leaving out the bone meal. The bone meal comes in a powder usually and is hard to spread. It only contains phosporus and if you put on a seed starter fertilizer it should have the phosphorous you need. The Epsom's salt adds magnesium to the ground. Lime and gypsum work wonders, it's just that most forget to put them on the ground. Then you'll want to put on a starter fertilizer for your grass. To figure out how much fertilizer you need you want to figure out the square footage you'll be covering. After you do that, take the square footage and divide that by 1,000. That will give you the number of pounds of nitrogen you need to put on your yard. The first of the three numbers on the fertilizer tells you what percentage by weight Nitrogen makes up in the fertilizer, phosporous is the 2nd number, and Potassium (K) is the third number. So say you have a yard that is 5,000 square feet, then you'll need 5 pounds of nitrogen on your yard. To figure out the pounds of fertilizer you'll need, take the percentage of nitrogen....let's say for this fertilizer it is 20% which is somewhere around the value a good starter fertilizer should be. And take 100 divided by that percentage...so 100 divided by 20 equals 5. That means for every pound of Nitrogen you need...you need to put down 5 pounds of fertilizer. So you take 5 x 5 = 25. So you need 25 pounds of fertilizer. Make sure you get the slow release fertilizer. That means it releases the nutrients over a longer period of time. That will help keep your yard fertilized most all spring and summer.

Your grass has two growing seasons: spring and fall. Your grass grows when it is cool. Not when it is hot out. So you want to do your main amount of fertilizing in the early spring and early to middle fall. Only very lightly fertilize during the summer. If you fertilize too much during the summer, you will burn your grass and you will help to dry it out.

In the spring you want a fertilizer high in nitrogen and not so high in phosphorous and potassium. In the fall you want to fertilize with something higher in potassium and phosphorous to help the roots grow better before winter and in the early spring. Nitrogen helps the grass grow up (stems). The other two help it grow down (roots). Treat for weeds mainly in the fall. The weed killer will weaken the weeds and winter kills them off.

For a good reference book, read Jerry Baker's Green Grass Magic. You can find it on www.jerrybaker.com or www.booksamillion.com has it even cheaper than his own website does I think.

I took a soil sciences class in college and what he says makes sense, even though some of his tonics seem out there, the theory behind them is valid. The guy knows what he's talking about. I've tried some of his methods and my yard is looking greener than ever this spring.

Answer 4

In general each lawn is different. You might check with your neighbors, and see what they advise. My soil is acidic, so I have to lime it, and add a fertilizer, each year. I also use a good grub killer, each year, to stop, or at least slow them down.

Answer 5

are you sure you want to use rye grass seed? it is not a good
seed . spend a Little bit more and get a better grade seed.
check with your local nursery i am sure they will recommend something . you will be glad you did

Answer 6

I use this site to help with all my lawn questions, I also spread MILORGANITE as a slow release and use SCOTT's weed/feed/ and ant killer in March.