10 Pro Tips for Keeping Your Lawn Looking Its Best

We all want to have a beautiful, green lawn, but knowing all the ins and outs of yard care takes time and experience. We asked our owner, Brent, for the top lawn care tips he’s gathered after over 15 years of lawn care experience to get you started on the right track. 

Don’t Mow Too Short

Homeowners often like the look of a lawn that is mowed short, about 1 to 2 inches tall. This will require more frequent mowing, especially during active growth seasons. It will also require a lot more water to keep looking green as the temperature start to rise in the summer. If the lawn dries out, it can be very difficult to bring it back to looking its best with the water restrictions we frequently have in Utah. Keeping your lawn a little longer makes it more drought-resistant and lessens the amount of time spent mowing.

Take Care When Spraying Weeds

When spraying weeds near a lawn, be extra careful with where you’re spraying. Even a small gust of wind can carry the spray to your lawn or other nearby plants and kill them. Take the time to ensure the sprayer on your weed killer is only hitting what you want it to. You should also only spray weeds on a calm day with no wind to ensure the safety of the other plants in the vicinity.

Be Careful With Roundup

If you’re using Roundup (or a similar product), double-check the label before spraying it on your grass. Many weed spray products will kill your grass as well as the weeds you’re targeting. It’s important you ensure your spray is intended for use on grass so you don’t wind up with a bunch of unsightly dead spots all over your yard. Even Roundup makes a product that’s safe for grass, you just need to take care to pick the correct one.

Watch Out for Grubs

Grubs can take your lawn from beautiful to awful looking in just a few weeks. Grubs feed on the roots of your grass which causes it to die in patches. If you have Cedar Lawn Care taking care of your mowing needs, we’ll be able to identify a grub problem early on and take care of it with minimal damage to your grass. 

How to Handle Mushrooms

Mushrooms are a common nuisance in an otherwise beautiful yard. We often have clients who find them and want us to spray them immediately. However, mushrooms are almost always caused by the lawn being overwatered. If you ease up on how long and how frequently you’re watering your grass, more often than not they’ll go away on their own. 

Don’t Use Pellet Weed Killer

We don’t recommend using pellet weed killer to spot-treat weeds in your yard. By using pellets for post-emergent weed treatment, you’re essentially counting on a little pellet sticking to the leaf of a weed to kill it. More often than not, the pellet will just fall into the grass and do nothing. Spraying weeds works much better as the liquid will stay on the weed and cause it to die. 

Prevent Crabgrass

Preventing crabgrass is much easier than trying to kill it once it’s grown. Do one or two applications of a preventative product in the spring to create an invisible barrier in the soil and stop the crabgrass from germinating. This way, you’ll never see it in the first place.

Spraying Weeds in Non-Grass Areas

If you spray weeds in your decorative rocks, garden, or other landscaped areas without grass, don’t walk on the grass after walking through those areas. The weed and grass-killing spray will stick to the bottoms of your shoes and will leave literal footprints of dead grass in your lawn. 

Be Cautious Fertilizing in Heat

If you have to fertilize your grass in the heat, be very careful what product you use. The wrong fertilizer can burn the lawn which takes weeks to recover from or can even kill your grass. Low-nitrogen fertilizers are your best choice here as they won’t burn your grass.

Mow Regularly

If you’re going on an extended vacation or just don’t have the time to mow your grass, get someone else to do it for you weekly. If you let your lawn go a month without being mowed, it’ll take four times as long to finish. If you end up having to hire someone to help with your overgrown lawn, it’ll cost you at least four times as much to have it done. If you’d paid someone to do it for you weekly, you avoid a hefty one-time charge and your lawn will look better.

By carefully following these tips, as well as other helpful guides on our blog, you’ll be taking care of your lawn like a pro. If you need assistance getting your lawn looking its best, the pros at Cedar Lawn Care are here to help. With over 15 years of lawn care experience and a variety of lawn care programs, your lawn will be green and beautiful in no time.