If your new lawn is properly planted in the beginning, caring for it will be less trouble. Unfortunately, when new subdivisions are built the topsoil is often scraped off, so you may need to improve the soil in order to encourage a healthy lawn to grow. Take a soil test before adding any amendments to the soil. Inexpensive do-it-yourself test kits are available at garden-supply stores, but your county Agricultural Extension Service can perform a more accurate test for less than $10, in most cases. A soil test will tell you how acidic or alkaline the soil is--its pH--and whether it's deficient in phosphorus and potassium. Once you know the soil's pH, you can correct it with lime, if the soil is too acidic, or sulfur, if it's too alkaline. Soil-test results provided by your county Agricultural Extension Service will indicate exactly how much of any amendment or fertilizer is needed and how often to apply it, given the crop you're trying to grow--a lawn, in this case. After applying needed amendments--and perhaps tilling in a soil conditioner such as compost or rotted manure to improve the texture--rake it flat and remove any stones. To select seed, ask a neighbor with a good-looking lawn what he or she uses, or ask ag extension for recommendations for your area. When you buy seed, you generally get what you pay for, and the cheapest varieties yield the poorest results. Depending on your climate, you'll plant a warm-season or a cool-season lawn. Cool-season grasses such as tall fescue, fine fescue, perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass grow best when the temperature ranges from 60 to 75 degrees, staying green most of the year, then going semidormant and turning brownish during the hottest months. Warm-season grasses such as zoysia and Bermuda grass grow best during the summer, then go dormant in fall and stay brown until spring. Spring seeding is best for warm-season grasses; fall for cool-season species. Seed may be applied by hand or with a spreader, which can also be used to apply fertilizer. Broadcast spreaders work well for smaller lawns; drop spreaders for larger areas. Once planted, grass seed will need water as often as twice a day. The seed bed must be kept moist to ensure successful germination. If you're interested in an easier way to achieve a beautiful lawn, consider laying sod--an instant green carpet of soil sold in rolls. Sod may be installed anytime except winter, and you can install it yourself. It is much more expensive than growing a lawn from seed, however. The better your soil preparations, the more readily the sod will become established. You can also plant grass plugs: small tufts of grass that will spread by runners when planted in a prepared soil bed. Prepare the soil in the same way as you would to begin a lawn from seed or sod.
| 
)
)
)
