Lawn care: tricks for the dream lawn
It should be full of color, dense as a velor carpet and free of any herbs - but why is that so difficult?
A lawn, it is believed, is the most easy-care part of a garden. With a bit of mowing the matter is already done. "A bit of mowing"? This is very understated. But since the men like to do this work, it does not really bother.
But what about the moss? Have you already seen a lawn without these nasty green lint - English conditions we leave out here? Well, you see. And near trees the sparse blades of grass fall to whole armies of squat moss pads. Since the dear husband is powerless. Because the commercially available moss killer, which he likes to sprinkle like a pail, only temporarily eliminates the problem. After a few weeks, the mosses regenerate from the spores in the soil, while the green stalks keep on waiting. So what do you do?
The most important lawn rules
Everything starts with the seed. Long-term breeding has produced the best varieties of grass. However, this is only offered by Markenfi companies (for example Wolf, Kiepenkerl). Stay away from everyday life blends like "Berliner Tiergarten". They usually consist of cheap seed waste. Good seed makes a dense lawn color grow, provided the soil is well loosened and cleared of weeds.
Fertilizing, mowing ... To preserve this dense scar, greenery needs three times a year (April, June, September) a balanced diet, preferably a lawn-long-term fertilizer, and a regular shave - during the main growing season at least once a week. When it gets hot, it needs to be watered.
... and scratch. It does not matter if you mulch, leave the grass clippings, or carry it away - over time, felt will form between the grasses, which impairs vital growth. This must be scraped out once a year, preferably from mid-April, when the ground has reheated, with a scarifier. Subsequent reseeding and fertilizing is very important.
And if the moss always wins?
Some locations are simply unsuitable for turf grasses. A sensible sward only develops in the long term if the grasses are superior to the other greens. In the shade, however, neither mowing, fertilizing, watering and scarifying nor using special seed mixtures. There, the moss has a competitive advantage. In bare, mossy soils, it is best to plant beautiful groundcover plants that can cope well with low light, such as elven flowers, cranesbill, periwinkle, Caucasus forget-me-not and ysander. Take care of all that, you are allowed to squint and compare to England. But then nobody says anymore, lawns do little work.