subject: Do It Yourself - Grow Grass [print this page] You look out in the yard and what do you observe? Gravel, dirt, rough patches of grass in all directions to be exact, an unappealing yard. What could make you despise the qappearance even more is if when you look over by the neigbours your eyes meet green, level and attractively neat lawn. Obviously, you would like a lawn like that. You want to convert your yard to keep up with the Joness and to make it more homely. You want to see your yard carpeted by green beauty free of weeds. The secret to having neat lawns is planting grass, applying lawn fertilizers, proper weed control practices and having a an appropriate mowing regime.
What exactly is grass? It is a type of plant belonging to the family of Gramineae. There are nine thousand different species of grass. Whether we believe it or not, grass is very essential to our living. Some types produce food for us such as rice, other kinds form the diet for animals such as cows and some kinds are used in construction or to help stop soil erosion for instance bamboo.
People grow different types of grass on their lawns but it depends to a great extent on the kind of climate. Grass has fibrous roots so once planted, they expand around an area very rapidly to carpet that particular area. If your goal is to have your yard carpeted in the beauty of green grass, heres how to achieve that aim:
Materials necessary:
Grass seeds
Hay or straw
Loose soil
Phosphorus
Soil conditioner
Tools required:
Watering can
Metal rake
Instructions:
1.Use the metal rake to loosen the soil as a way of preparing it to plant grass.
2.Add phosphorus and soil conditioner to the soil to prepare it to give good growth of grass.
3.Use the metal rake and plow the soil again to ensure that the phosphorus and soil conditioner are correctly distributed into the soil.
4.Scatter the seeds by hand onto the bare soil.
5.Moisten the seeds using the watering can. By doing this, the soil will also be hydrated.
6.Cover by sprinkling loose soil over the seeds.
7.Spread some hay or straw over the area to supply the proper growing conditions, particularly the right temperature, for the grass.
8.Water the grass no less than twice daily to fuel growth. In no time you will have sprouts of grass on the lawn.
Tips:
Do not apply seeds too thickly to an area as the nutrients in the soil will become inadequate for excess grass.
The suitable time to plant grass is in April and October and it has been discovered that seeds planted in October yield better growth as well as re-growth.
When planting the seeds, be certain to do so uniformly on the soil to avoid thick areas and thin areas which will give a patchy appearance.
It is always best to use a watering can rather than to use a hose since the hose is likely to wash away the seeds from the soil which would defeat the whole purpose of you planting them.
Before you plant any grass in your yard, it is very crucial to get rid of existing grass.
You may bear in mind edging the borders of the lawn where you want the grass to stop growing as this will provide a neater appearance when the grass has grown.
Do not walk on the lawn when you observe small green shoots. The grass is very fragile at this point and cannot withstand abuse so it needs to become mature
