It’s officially June and that means the smell of burgers on the grill and fresh cut grass will soon fill the air. For some, mowing the grass is simply another box to check off on the weekly to-do list. But for others, mowing the lawn is an art form. Regardless of what end of the spectrum you are on when it comes to lawn care, chances are great that you still want your lawn to look nice.
Kurt Hockemeyer is the Turfgrass Diagnostic Lab Manager at University of Wisconsin-Madison and he has three tips to help you obtain that perfect lawn in 2020. These tips are for everyone and take you back to the basics of lawn care. “My personal lawn care philosophy is ‘what can I do that is minimal effort but gives me maximum bang for my buck,” he says.
Tip One: Fertilize your lawn two-four times per year
Hockemeyer says that fertilizing your lawn a handful of times per calendar year is the number one thing you can do to encourage a healthy, green, and thick lawn. On top of that, fertilizing often will fend off unwanted weeds. The general recommendation for when to fertilize, Hockemeyer says, is to do so around four distinct holidays: Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Halloween. This spaces out the application of fertilizer and provides stellar results for a small amount of work.
Tip Two: Mow high
“So many times I see people still trying to cut their lawns at two inches….and that’s just cutting it down too much,” he explains. Generally, when mowing your lawn you should set your mower at three inches or three and half inches. You want some thickness within your lawn and cutting it too low will prohibit that. Now setting your mower so high also makes it possible for you to not have to water your lawn as much. This leads us to our next tip…
Tip Three: Don’t over-water
“Many people don’t have irrigation systems anyways,” says Hockemeyer, “but so many times I see issues because people are turning on their irrigation systems every day.” That much water is rarely needed by a lawn, especially here in Wisconsin.
If you follow these tips you should see vast improvements with your lawn within no time. For more information on lawn and grass management, visit the Turfgrass Diagnostic Lab’s website. To hear Josh Scramlin speak with Kurt Hockemeyer, click the play button below:
Leave a Reply