DIY Network

Proper Lawn Care Learn how to maintain your lawn. From "Home Made Easy" episode DHME-135

Host Stephanie Lydecker visits guest Fran Sorin, a gardening expert, to learn ways to maintain a healthy beautiful lawn.

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Fran Sorin shares tips that will help you maintain your lawn.

Materials:

grass seeds
organic matter or top soil
rake
kneeling pad
organic fertilizer (optional)

Proper Lawn Care

• Soil is key. The healthier your soil is the healthier your grass will be. Good soil will make room for water, nutrients, air and roots to grow through with ease. Healthy soil will hold water like a sponge, but at the same time promote excess drainage. Without good soil you will find yourself doing lots of weed control and over-fertilizing. Good soil should be filled with microorganisms, worms, and other beneficial life forms.

• What do you do with a lawn that needs renovating? First, rake up any dry grass. Doing a good rough raking, making sure you get all the dead pieces on your lawn, is a good place to start.

• Lay down an inch or two of top soil or organic matter—either one—and then rake it in.

• Sprinkle grass seeds lightly over the lawn. You need to find out what grass works best for the area you live in. A local nursery can provide this information to you.

• Watering tips. You don't need to water your lawn every day to keep it looking green.

• Over watering or having grass too wet for too long can make it susceptible to diseases and insects. Use common sense and conserve water.

• If you live somewhere that has sandy soil, you may have to water more. But, if you just put down seeds, you will have to water every day.

• Grass seeds need to germinate and you need cooler nights for this to happen—late summer and early fall is a good time. But, and this is a point of debate, you don't have to water your grass in the summer—let it grow brown and in the fall it will grow back. This way, you will save water.

• How often should you mow your lawn? You should mow your lawn regularly with sharp blades. To recycle nutrients especially nitrogen leave the lawn clipping in place wherever possible.

• What about fertilizers? Chemical fertilizers are NOT good for you, your kids or your pets. They don't really build a healthy lawn. They can make unhealthy lawns look better quickly, but the chemicals can chase away earthworms, kill off the soil microbes involved in decomposition and soil formation, and can cause tremendous top growth of the grass blades without allowing the roots to grow at the same pace.

• Natural fertilizers are great. They break down slowly and offer more gradual but longer-lasting changes. You can fertilize in the early spring or in the early fall.

RESOURCES :

Flowers
Proven Winners
Website: www.provenwinners.com Proven Winners
Dekalb, IL 60115
Fax: 815-748-5186
Website: www.provenwinners.com

Gardening Tools
Fiskars
Website: www.fiskars.com

Pruners
Smith and Hawken
Website: www.smithandhawken.com

Gardening Supplies
Lowes
Website: www.lowes.com

GUESTS :

Fran Sorin
Author, Digging Deep: Unearthing Your Creative Roots Through Gardening
0446531669
April, 2004
Warner Books
Website: www.fransorin.com