How To Make Your Grass Green: 3 Simple Steps To Get Your Lawn Healthy Again
If your grass is not as thick and dark green as it should be, it can be a sign of several things, from nutritional imbalances to weeds and dull mower blades, to applying weed and feed at the right time. Dont worry, its easy to correct with the right lawn maintenance practices.
These are the basic steps to making your lawn get that beautiful and healthy dark color.
Deal With The Shady Spots In Your Lawn
Occasionally, conditions just arent ideal for lawn growth. Maybe the lawn was growing around young trees, but as those trees grew, they created more shade, limiting the suns access to the lawn. Sun, water and nutrients are necessary for thicker, greener grass. Take one away, and you wont accomplish your goal.
Raising or thinning the tree canopy can increase the sunlight to these lawn areas, boosting sun exposure.
But maybe thinning the tree canopy isnt enough. You could have an area where grass just may not grow well. An alternative solution, such as a shade-loving groundcover, mulch, decorative gravel, or a hardscape area might be a better option.
Lawn & Order: Special Mowing Unit
The height you set your mower deck plays such an important role on your lawns health and greenness. The mowing rule of thumb I suggest you follow goes like this: only mow when your grass is dry, only when the blades are 3 to 3½ inches tall and never cut it shorter than 2 to 2-1/2 inches .
The reason for this rule of green thumb is to help your grass keep all the valuable nutrients it needs and it will also mean you can leave your grass clippings left on your lawn to do some good because they wont be too long or thick. If you dont, however, and you decide a good old scalping will mean you get to mow your lawn less, youll stress your grass out, especially during the summer months. So, to cut your grass properly, mow high, mow often and mow with a sharpened blade so you arent tearing your grass blades and inviting in a whole bunch of unwanted diseases.
And there we have it, 5 easy lawn care tips that will make your grass the greenest and give you bragging rights over the neighbours.
Thanks for reading Joes 5 Tips for Making The Grass Greener On Your Side! For more lawn care tips and tricks, follow us on and
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Dethatch During The Growing Season
Dethatching is good for a Bermuda grass lawn if it is done during the active growing season and only when the thatch is more than 1/2 inch thick. If you dethatch when Bermuda grass is dormant, it can easily kill the lawn or leave it thin and sparse.
Id recommend that you overseed your bermudagrass lawn to get it to thicken up faster if you dethatched with a power rake during the slow-growing or dormant season.
While overseeding a bermudagrass lawn is best done in September or in the fall, you can do it early in the spring as soon as the grass gets out of dormancy. This will help fill in the bare and thin spots that were caused by heavy dethatching during dormancy.
Water You Going To Do Next
This will always feel weird to say living in England, but the temperatures are rising, heat waves are becoming more frequent and we have had some of the driest months on record, which is why you really need to think about regularly watering your lawn. The trick is to adopt heavy watering sessions less often to help your roots grow the longer the roots, the healthier the grass.
Basically, your lawn needs to have enough water on a consistent schedule for it to remain green and healthy . Of course, overwatering can create its own set of problems, but an under-watered lawn is even worse because an under-watered lawn will lack the vigor and resilience to overcome weeds and diseases .
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Control Lawn Weeds Insects & Diseases
All of the tips above help create the best lawn possible to ensure thicker, greener grass. This naturally reduces weeds, insects and diseases. However, these pesky lawn invaders are always lurking, waiting for the opportunity to infiltrate your lawn if it shows any signs of weakness.
Sometimes, certain conditions can lead to some weed breakthroughs or an excessively wet season can result in turf disease. Keeping an eye out for these challenges and managing them quickly can make simple problems disappear versus exacerbate into bigger, more visually unpleasing results.
A lawn care pro can offer solutions such as a combination of pre-emergent and post-emergent weed control tactics to keep all weeds at bay. Nothing blemishes thick, green grass faster than weeds, insects, and diseases.
Revive Your Lawn With The Ultimate Lawn Thickener
Westlands Lawn Revive is a one stop solution for a thick, greener and lusher lawn.
Not only does it have the highest seed content in the market , but it enhances the soil and feeds every blade too. Lawn Revive will bring tired lawns back to life, fills patches and delivers all the essential nutrients your lawn needs to thrive. It is also completely natural and safe to use around children and pets. What more could you want?
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Feed With A Nitrogen Fertilizer
Nitrogen is a crucial nutrient that helps regulate water and nutrient uptake. Lack of nitrogen not only leaves the lawn thin and poorly developed but also makes it lose its color.
- Apply 1 lb of nitrogen per 1000 square feet of lawn to encourage the grass to grow thicker and greener.
- Use an organic slow-release fertilizer to constantly feed your grass over 8-10 weeks to help the lawn thicken and green up throughout the growing season.
Pro tip: While there are some fertilizers specifically great for bermudagrass, Id advice that you start with a soil test to determine the deficient nutrient. This will guide you choose the best fertilizer for your Bermuda grass lawn.
Water The Lawn Properly
While it may be tempting to give your lawn a quick watering every day, any pro will tell you that a better plan is to water deeply and less frequently. Giving the grass a good long soak is another way to encourage roots to grow deeply into the soil, which strengthens the lawn and helps it survive during times of drought. When the grass has started to look a little grayish and the blades dont bounce back when you walk on them, its time to water. Run the sprinkler until you can easily push a ¼ inch diameter dowel or plant stake about 12 inches into the ground. You dont want the soil to be so saturated that if you squeeze a handful, it drips, but you do want the soil to be a little sticky.
Its worth noting, too, that grass uses less water in the spring and late fall than during the summer. In the spring you might only need to water once per week, while in the summer you might need to water 3 times per week. Of course, if you receive a long, soaking rain, theres no need to water that day. For more information on watering, read our Lawn Watering Tips.
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Mow Your Lawn Correctly
Mowing is a seemingly simple task that you probably think you cant get wrong. But your mowing habits can have a big impact on your lawns performance. Mowing properly can lead to thicker grass.
One of the largest mistakes people make is mowing their grass too short. Mowing too short can put unnecessary stress on your lawn. This can cause a dull green or yellow color, which you dont want. It can also increase the likelihood for weeds — additional headaches you dont need.
The goal is to cut no more than one-third of your grass blades at any one time. Ideal mowing timing is weekly and ideal mowing height is in between 3.5 and 4 inches, depending on your lawn type. Your mower blades should be sharpened to ensure a clean cut.
How Do I Make My Grass Grow Thicker
Feel like your grass grows quickly, but never really looks that great because its too sparse?
You might notice your neighbours lawn always looks thick and lush, but yours, even though its the same variety, just doesnt quite look the same.
There are many factors that could be contributing to your lawns poor performance. The main culprits are shade, compaction or a pest related issue. Look as these potential issues first to rule these out as the problem. If you dont, the underlying problem will continue to cause you headaches and you will never get the result you are looking for.
If you have ruled out shade, compaction and pests, it could simply boil down to a difference in mowing techniques. A few tweaks to the way you mow your lawn and the frequency can make all the difference.
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How To Select Grass
Beyond selecting a grass that will grow well giving your climatic conditions, there are some other things to consider like pH, fertility, soil moisture, and environmental stresses.
Some grasses will be more shade tolerant than others , while others are better at forming sod . Additionally, some grasses are better suited for very specific activitieslike bentgrass being used for a putting green or a croquet court.
When to plant grass can be found in our gardening guide!
What Are Some Grass Growing Tips
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Use A Sprinkler Or Soaker Hose To Water Your Lawn Evenly
If youre looking for an easy way to water your lawn evenly, consider using a sprinkler or soaker hose. This will help ensure that the entire area gets the same amount of water.
Check this article out for more watering your lawn tips.
In a hurry? If you dont have much time to review the post, below is a briefing of the top products we recommend. You can rest assured that we only chose the best weed-killing applications.
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How To Keep Grass Green All Year Round
This keeps the grass green all year round. First you need to study the drainage, is the soil well-draining? Drained or heavy clay soil. overseeding. So the grass is in good condition, or sometimes it needs to be seeded in old lawns that may need scarifying to remove moss. Mousse. Fertilization. Herb.
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How To Make Lawn Green And Thick: 9 Methods
As a homeowner, taking care of my lawn is one of my top priorities during spring and summer! At the beginning of my gardening journey, I had some issues with grass seed not germinating. It was so frustrating, and it seemed like I tried every possible solution to no avail.
It turns out I was using bad-quality seeds which had already expired and lost their viability. I was really upset at the time, but it inspired me to learn everything I could about lawn care so all was not lost.
Now lets look at everything I discovered to help you grow a thick and lush lawn!
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Improve Sunlight In The Lawn
Bermuda grass established in a shaded area will appear thin and patchy. When establishing your lawn by sodding or seeding, ensure that the lawn area is not completely obstructed from sunlight access. Bermuda grass has poor shade tolerance, and as such it requires at least 7 hours of sunlight exposure every day to grow thicker and greener.
Here are tips to improve sunlight exposure in your lawn:
- Prune trees around the yard to reduce the canopy above your lawn for better sunlight penetration.
- Establish your lawn away from the shade of tall buildings. Allow the grass to receive at least 7 hours of morning sunlight.
- For a smaller lawn, install a sunlight reflector in the yard to increase the hours your lawn receives sunlight.
If improving sunlight exposure is not an option for your lawn, you might want to consider planting a more shade-tolerant turfgrass such as centipede grass, or even some types of St. Augustine grass such as Floratam and Palmetto.
Remember That There Is A Right And A Wrong Way To Mow
When it comes to how to make the lawn greener, ensuring that youre mowing properly is also important. A lot of people dont recognize that there is a right and a wrong way to mow their lawn. Its a simple enough task, but mistakes can still be made.The vast majority of the time, homeowners mow their lawn too short. When this occurs, you can really put a lot of stress on the grass. As it struggles to recover from such a drastic cut, it will turn yellow. The ideal cut height will depend upon the type of grass that you have. Here are some of our recommendations.
- Tall Fescue: 3 to 3.5 inches
- Perennial Ryegrass: 2 to 2.5 inches
- Zoysia: 2 to 3 inches
- Bermudagrass: 1 to 2 inches
In addition to cut height, also make sure that you arent mowing your lawn with dull blades. This can also put stress on your lawn. You want to make sure that youre using a sharp blade that will make a nice, clean cut.
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How To Keep Grass Green Naturally
Want to support your lush green grass, but do so without chemicals? Here are a few tips for supporting healthy and natural grass growth:
- Apply a thin layer of compost on top of your lawn at the beginning of spring to give it a quick nutrition boost. This can also be done again throughout the spring and summer seasons, just be sure to avoid making too thick a layer.
- Manually remove weeds as you spot them as theyll compete for any available sunlight, moisture, and nutrients and will ultimately impact the greenery you want.
- If you want something a little easier, but still natural, you can add corn gluten meal to naturally kill weeds and also fertilize your lawn.
- Minimize the amount of pet urine that ends up in your lawn. Over time, it can cause the grass to turn yellow and even die. Make a designated toilet spot for your dog.
- Regularly aerate your lawn and remove compacted areas or any build-up of thatch.
Start With A Good Base
A thick lawn starts with great soil, so do the preparation before you even think about establishing the grass. The best place to start is with a soil test a simple process that gives a big return in terms of thick, healthy grass. A soil test takes the guesswork out of soil preparation, and allows you to accurately address any issues in your soil. For example, if your soil pH is too low, the grass wont be able to absorb the nutrients it needs to grow thick and strong. Correctly addressing the problem will restore pH balance and nutrient availability so that the grass can grow well.
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Dont Forget To Fertilize
As we already mentioned, soil can lack certain nutrients that are necessary for grass seed germination and grass growth. We often forget to treat grass with the proper care we would any other plant, and fertilization is a crucial step in the grass care process!
The three most important nutrients are nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus any lawn fertilizer should have all or at least one of them. Once again, this depends on the results from the soil test, but also what grass type you are growing.
You should apply fertilizer to the soil before planting the seeds, and also throughout the growing season because the grass will use all available nutrients for growth and development.
You can choose from liquid or granular fertilizer, just bear in mind that liquid fertilizers should be applied every other week and you should always follow the instructions, while granular is often applied once a month.
If you are busy and dont have much time for lawn care, then I would suggest you apply slow-release fertilizer. This type of fertilizer can be applied once in the early spring and it will continuously feed your grass by releasing the nutrients over time.
If you have just installed new sod, then check out the best fertilizers for new sod.