Most well-maintained yards have a carpet of lush green grass and the maintenance of these lawns may at times require extra measures to ensure that they stay in peak condition.

Sometimes just a little more TLC is all a tired lawn needs in order to restore its dwindling beauty. For instance, watering the garden during the summer when rains are a no-show helps keep a green lawn from turning brown. Aerating trampled sections of the yard that have dead grass can rejuvenate the grass. Even raking can do wonders for lawn care; it helps to remove the dead growth, promoting a threadbare lawn to be a soft carpet of green grass.

1. Avoid Compaction

When too much grass grows in a small area, grasses compete for the meager resources in the ground, resulting in stunted development that leads to bare patches. The patches become mud baths during the rainy and winter months and dry and dusty spots during the summer months. Use a garden fork to correct the compaction.

Push the fork about ten centimeters into the ground as you rock it back and forth then pull it out and do the same after a spacing of about ten centimeters. The prongs of the fork break up the ground so that the roots of the grasses can breathe and find it easy to regrow. If the field is heavy, as is the case with clay soils, then pour a bit of horticultural grit of sharp sand into the holes created by the prongs; this will help improve the aeration and drainage while preventing further compaction.

2. Edging

You can keep the grass from growing into the edges by trimming them, which you can do using long-handled shears which will keep your lawn looking neat and well-maintained. Use a half-moon edger to chip-off and reshape the lawn if it has grown into the border. You may also consider installing a permanent edging that the grass cannot encroach.

3. Feeding

A wheeled lawn feeder is the best option when it comes to ensuring that you have well-fed grasses in your yard. The feeder is accurate and gets the job done fast. The feeding should be done prior to the onset of rains so that the fertilizer will easily infiltrate the soil, reaching the roots, preventing it from burning the grass blades. If it does not rain as expected, then run the garden sprinklers. The result is a lawn that looks green and healthy within a short period. Spring and mid-summer are the ideal times to add fertilizer to your yard.

4. Reseeding

Growing fillers for the bare patches in your lawn is not hard. You can also purchase pre-grown sod for this purchase.  To reseed the bare areas, cut out a rectangle or square in the ground and dig up the soil in the size and depth of the new turf you wish to put in its place. Lay the new turf in place, without pressing too much, and ensure no gaps are left and that it is level with the existing ground.

 5. Mowing

During the summers, maintain a grass height of 5-10 cm so that you reduce the risk of having dried grass.  The mower you use should be well maintained with sharp blades.  Moving should be once a week during the summer and once a fortnight during spring, autumn and the warm winters. Mowing encourages the roots to grow and spread. It also reduces the risk of having weeds in your yard.

6. Watering

Budding lawns need a bit more watering than those that have years to their existence. Unless there is a watering ban, you should leave the sprinklers running for a few hours during the evening so that the young grasses can have their fill. But even then, the established yards also need to be watered during the hot, dry months.

It also is advisable to do a bit of watering before mowing.  The mover should have the blades raised a few inches during the summer so that the longer grasses are the ones that get a trim. If irrigation poses an issue, then it is wise to plant tough fescue that has deep roots and spreads by rhizomes, and it will fill up the bare sections of your lawn.

7. Weeding

Dandelions and plantains can be a nightmare when they decide to invade any lawn because they have flat leaves that smother the grass. Troweling them out can be one way of dealing with these weeds. Buttercups, clovers, and the yellow medick are yet another menace since they spread fast. You can rake the lawn, and then run the mower so that the blades trim off the leaves or weeds, weakening them so that they die off.

Waging chemical warfare against the weeds can be expensive and may even affect the health of your lawn negatively. Proper and timely feeding, as well as regular mowing, can prove to be useful and an eco-friendly solution for dealing with the weeds.