After surveying many of our customers, we found some common myths which can be very problematic. In an effort to alleviate some of these misunderstandings, we offer the second instalment of our 5 part series, we give you myths 8 and 7.  As always, if you have any questions or comments, please take advantage of the comments section below this post.

Myth #8: If I keep my lawn short, it will make it healthier and greener.

The top of a blade of grass is where you will find the deepest green. With green as the goal for your lawn, it is best to cut off as little as possible while still leaving it neat and healthy.  A longer blade also allows for more sunlight absorption and therefore more nutrient production and healthy growth. On the other hand, if the blade is cut too short, there is less of the blade to absorb the sunlight, leaving a weaker lawn. This gives more opportunity for invading weeds to germinate and infest your grass. New weeds are most commonly found in the edges of your lawn, therefore, the same principles apply when edging.

Solution: We recommend that your bluegrass lawn be mowed on the second highest setting (2 1/2 to 3 inches). With this in mind, avoid cutting off too much green by only mowing (or edging) off the top 1/3 of the blade.

Myth #7: The more grass fertilizer sprayed, the greener my lawn will be.

If a little works well, a lot will work great…right? While that may work with some things in this world, it actually doesn’t apply to grass fertilizers. Applying too much fertilizer would be like a human eating 10 salads at one sitting. Salad can be very healthy for us (as long as you don’t put in too much Ranch dressing), but too much at a time makes it impossible for us to absorb all the nutrients and leaves us with a very sore stomach. The same happens when too much grass fertilizer is applied to a lawn at one time. We call this “lawn stomach ache” a burned lawn.

Solution: If applying fertilizer yourself, make sure you stay within the recommended limits on the label. If you use a lawn care service such as Turf Plus, you can let the professionals worry about the amount applied.

Related posts:

1. The Top Ten Myths of Lawn Care and What YOU Can Do About It: Part 3
2. The Top 10 Myths of Lawn Care and What YOU Can Do It: Part 1

Tags: grass fertilizer, Lawn Care, Lawn Grass, Mowing, Soil, Weeds, when to fertilize

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 10:57 am and is filed under Featured, Lawn Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.