Almost everybody is familiar with the idea of what "curb appeal" is in reference to how someone makes a snap judgment about your home by how it appears. It takes only a moment for someone to decide if your home meets their standards based only on what they see from the outside. Making sure that the lawn is well-maintained is one of the simplest ways to make sure the curb appeal of your home makes people feel welcomed.
While that can sound easy enough, sometimes getting the back and front lawn to look beautiful, immaculate and attractive can be a daunting task, especially if there have been some problems with the health of your lawn recently. Below is a collection of lawn care tips and suggestions that can help you cultivate a lawn that draws people to your home, welcomes them, and gives your curb appeal a real boost.
Tip One: Learn about the condition of the lawn soil. It is easy to get the soil tested. Just contact the agriculture extension agency in your town. This simple test will be able to quickly identify the components of your soil and will report anything that is lacking so you can remedy the problem.
Tip Two: Have a regular lawn maintenance routine that includes fertilizing three to five times every year. Make sure this is done on a regular schedule and is the right kind of food for the grass in your garden lawn. The extension agency can also help you with information in this regard as it relates to your local area.
Tip Three: When undertaking lawn mowing during the heat of the summer, cut it at the maximum height your lawn mower allows. This helps keep the grass from drying out as fast and even provides shade to the ground which helps prevent the loss of moisture. This will help conserve water and it will also help the lawns to crowd the weeds out. During the cooler and wetter times of the year you can set the lawn mower to cut lower according to your preferences.
Tip Four: Water about one to one-and-a-half inches once a week. When you water briefly every day, you are encouraging your lawn to develop a shallow root system. Watering only once a week helps develop nice deep roots which can better withstand hot, dry summer weather.
Tip Five: Aerate at least once or twice every year. This also helps promote lawns with deep root systems and helps the water and lawn food to get past the surface and down to the roots where it does the most good. Aerating also helps undo the effects of soil compacting, which is a particular problem if you use a riding lawn mower to help with your lawn maintenance.
Tip Six: Keep the blades of the mower good and sharp. Dull blades actually rip the ends of the grass blades and cause a ragged look and contribute to browning at the ends. Also, you should do your lawn mowing in different directions each time you mow. This helps avoid ruts and soil compaction problems.
Tip Seven: Watch for signs of dead areas. Such dead patches can be an indication of an insect problem or disease that is attacking your home and garden lawns. When you see this, you should not treat the problem until you know the cause. Your local extension agency will be a great help in this case also.
Tip Eight: Control weeds with the use of quality herbicides. You can do this separately or look for a fertilizer that also contains weed control components.
These tips should provide you with enough information to be able to improve the look of the lawn that graces your home and garden. Keeping your lawn in good shape will most definitely help the curb appeal of your home and will help you get more use and enjoyment from it as well.
No building is complete without some grass, a few plants and some shrubbery to help enhance the quality of the building. The added value of curb appeal can make the difference when selling a house or increasing the value of a home. Any small amounts help and you don't have to always use a professional to complete the landscaping for you. It never hurts to have some professional advice or a little bit of knowledge before you start ripping up your front yard, though. A few trees, some nice green grass and you will have it down pat before you know it. Who knows? Possibly you will decide it as a career that you may be interested in pursuing. Below there are some basic frequently asked questions of landscaping so that you can get some idea of how landscaping is completed and how it might be simpler than you may think.
At what point should I hire a landscaper?
You should employ a landscaper if you don't have a a special ability to make plants grow and you are not going to have the necessary time to devote to removing the old landscape and planting the new. There are specific steps that must be put into place to prevent soil erosion so it will require at a minimum a weekend of hard work. Landscaper's are not cheap but you can find one at a fair cost contingent upon on how prominent the area is and how much labor you mean to do yourself. If you are going to upkeep the area, you will save money as well.
If I am resolved to do the landscaping of my house myself, what are some designs as well as ideas to assist me?
There are many software programs that are on the market at present that can help you create your own landscape. You will have to input the shape of your yard and then pick from the kind of terrain and environmental condition you live in. The software can provide you with the suggested plants as well as shrubbery that is best fitted for your yard. If you wish to have manmade terrains or structures, you will wish to contact a carpenter for suggestions or a do-it-yourself website for instructions.
Whats the best way to decide on the kind of plant to use?
The type of plant you choose will depend on your climate and the amount of water you want to use. It will also depend on the amount of sun your yard gets throughout the day. Some plants thrive in the shade while others will wilt. For those individuals who reside in areas that are prone to drought, they should consider planting hardy plants that require small amounts of water and actually help preserve the soil from process of erosion. Many people choose to have rock gardens as well as cactus if they live in desert environments.
When is the ideal planting season?
The ideal planting season is dependent upon what variation of plant you want to grow. The best time to plany bulbs is in the fall so that they have the necessary time to root within the soil. Other types of plants are more suitable to planting in the months of the spring. Some plants will not produce flowers or fruits for at least one or two seasons later so you have to prepare for this. Trees will need to work through several years prior to them becoming large enough to give the right amount of shade or to create fruit.
What will be the cost be to have my home landscaped?
Without knowing how large your yard is, what condition the ground is and what type of plants you want to place in your yard it is impossible to estimate how much it will cost. You can take a general guess that it will be at least five hundred dollars and can easily go in the range of several thousand dollars for exotic plants and features which are complex. A landscaper can give you an estimate for the cost.
To learn more educational information click here: Landscape Designs For The Southwest similarly Landscape Designs For Aroma Gardens and How To Choose The Right Landscaping Trees
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