Gardening - Lawn Maintenance Chores Part IV

In this next in our series of articles on lawnCreeping Charley, Clover and Dandelion. If you're
maintenance we're going to continue with chores thatagainst chemical use remember, a strong healthy
should be done around late May or early June.lawn reduces the need to use chemicals. With only a
Around this time of year the weather is warming upfew weeds in your lawn you can easily remove them
and it's hopefully raining regularly. CuT the lawn asby hand.
needed. Try not to let the grass get higher than 3Once July hits you'll need to reapply all your crabgrass
inches. Also, do your June feeding. Remember toand weed killers if needed. Around now you can ease
watch out for broad leafed weeds and applyup on your cutting as it will probably be very hot
chemicals as needed.with little rain. This is usually the driest time of the
Around the end of June is the time to start lookingyear.
for crabgrass again. Even though you have alreadyAround the end of July apply grub killer if you see
treated for this you may still get seeds from yourany of it on your lawn. If you see any brown
neighbor's lawns or even from birds passing by. If thepatches, dig around the area. Mostly likely you'll find
soil of your lawn is very sandy the chemicals will draingrub there. Dig up small patches. If you see any grub
more quickly and a second application at this time willapply chemicals only to that area. Or you can apply a
help prevent any problems down the road. Crabgrasscombination of lawn food and grub killer. Make sure
has a very sneaky way of disguising itself among theyou water your lawn well after doing this. This will
regular grass. Then suddenly it rears its ugly head. Sohelp carry the chemicals down to where the grubs
it is important to carefully inspect your grass forare hiding.
these pests and get rid of them while they're young.Also, if you find any leafed weeds apply a good
Keep your mower blade at the same height ofquality leaf weed killer or a combination of weed killer
around three inches. This keeps the roots shaded andand fertilizer. Don't cut your lawn for about two days
helps protect against draught. This way you canafter treatment. This will give the weed killer and
reduce how often you water to about once everyfertilizer time to work. Cutting the grass is a waste
ten days. Of course this depends on the weatherhere because it will cut off the leaves to which the
and how much shade your grass gets. By using achemical is clinging and thus you'll be cutting away
longer blade this allows the plant to give all its energyyour treatment.
to the growing of the roots. If the root base isIn the next article in this series we're going to
strong this will help prevent weed grasses fromcontinue with chores that need to be done in late
growing. This will also minimize the growth ofJuly and August.