Lawn Maintenance Tips Part 1

Lawn maintenance is made up of three procedures that interconnect:  seeding, fertilizing, and watering.  In this three part article series, we will explore seeding.

According to this article from Wikipedia:

Early autumn, spring, and early summer are the primary seasons to seed, lay sod, plant ‘liners’, or ‘sprig’ new lawns, when the soil is warmer and air cooler. Seeding is the least expensive, but takes longer for the lawn to establish; deeper rooting, though, can make for a more durable lawn. Aerating just before planting/seeding will promote deeper root growth and will help thicken turf. To read more of this article, please visit the source article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawn.  Seeding is just the first step of lawn maintenance.

The first thing to do when selecting  grass seed for lawn maintenance is to pick the seed that works well in Arizona.  Grass is broken down into two main categories:  warm season and cool season. Cool season grasses do better in cooler climates, but they need a lot of water, or they’ll brown over in the summer.    Warm season grasses are  heat tolerant, however they brown over and go dormant in cooler temperatures.  There are six types of grass seed used for lawns:  Kentucky bluegrass, fescue, buffalo grass, perennial rye, Bermuda, and Zoysia.

Kentucky bluegrass does well in cooler seasons like Autumn and early spring, and is widely used in North America.  It’s used for homes as well as parks and playing fields.  Fescue is a category of grass seed, and there are usually three types: fine, tall, and turf type.  Native to North America, buffalo grass matures well and makes a lawn that is both uniform and has very impressive tolerances for heat, drought, and cold. Used in the Southwestern United States for overseeding during cooler winter months, perennial rye grass makes a durable lawn that lasts well. Bermuda grass requires low water and is an excellent choice for Southern US states because they it hasa high tolerance for traffic. Zoysia grass is fine textured and forms a thick mat after it establishes itself, however, because of its slow growth rates,  it can take up to three years for a zoysia lawn to be fully established.  A lawn maintenance company would be able to determine which type of grass seed to plant.

Read Part 1 of this series
Read Part 2 of this series
Read Part 3 of this series

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