If your lawn is doing yoga, eating vegan, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator, you’ve got some pretty impressive grass out there.
But that’s not how to tell if your lawn is healthy.
Go gaze at your lawn and look for these signs:
1. It’s Green
What does a healthy lawn look like? Rich, dark green. Not brown, not yellow. Not pale.
How do you get that dark green grass?
- Choose quality fertilizer. Buy it at a local garden center or fertilizer supplier rather than a big box store. They’ll have fertilizer blended for your area. Choose a fertilizer blend that contains some slow-release nitrogen and your dark green color will last longer.
- Boost your lawn’s iron. Look for fertilizer that contains a high percentage of iron — between 3 and 7 percent. Iron encourages darker green grass.
- Add extra sulfur. Lawn care in Idaho Falls and Boise, ID includes adding sulfur, because of the pH of our soil and water. Since we have a higher pH, we lower that by applying sulfur with our lawn treatments.
- Water less often but deeply. That helps your lawn’s roots grow deeper and healthier — and your grass will be that healthy dark green.
2. Signs of Healthy Grass: Few Weeds
Nothing screams unhealthy lawn like a big crop of ugly weeds.
The trick to keeping these bad guys from popping up throughout your lawn is well-timed treatments.By applying pre-emergent herbicides during the winter or early spring (before growth begins), you can prevent weeds from growing.
Weeds are sneaky, though, and some still push through. Once weeds have broken ground, you can use post-emergent herbicides to control them.
But there’s a trick to this — you need to know what you’re up against.
Weeds can be either grassy or broadleaf, with each kind requiring a specific treatment plan. Once you know what type of weed is in your lawn, you can take action with a weed killer that targets the type of weed you have. Be sure to follow the label instructions exactly.
Or, better yet, kick pesky weeds to the curb with professional weed control that includes pre-emergent weed treatment in the spring, to battle weeds before they sprout; broadleaf applications to hit dandelions and clover; and spot treatments when pesky intruders sneak in.
3. No Bugs in Your Lawn
How to know if your lawn is healthy? No grubs, no sod webworms, no army worms, no billbugs.
Bugs can turn a healthy thriving lawn into a brown dying mess really fast.
No one insecticide kills all pesky lawn bugs. Some need a control that targets them underground. Others need surface control that zaps them in the grass.
A skilled lawn care technician can diagnose your bug problem and recommend the right solution.
4. No Fungus
Lawn damaged by fungus definitely looks unhealthy. It will often have a brown dead spot where the grass has died, but a lighter yellow-ish-brown ring around that where the fungus is spreading. Not exactly signs of healthy grass.
The type of disease will determine the course of treatment.
Applying fungicides can help treat many diseases and revive brown grass. A professional lawn care technician can help with diagnosis and proper treatment.
Meanwhile, you can head off lawn fungus with good preventive maintenance. Invest in a balanced fertilization program that provides the necessary nutrients at the appropriate times of year.
And keep your mower blades sharp. Grass blades that are torn by dull mower blades are not only susceptible to lawn fungus, they also help to spread it across your lawn by introducing it to healthy grass while it clings to the mower blades.
5. No Moss
Yes, moss is green, so if you squint you can trick yourself into seeing signs of a healthy lawn. But moss isn’t grass, so it doesn’t count.
Moss loves to fill in bare spots where your lawn is thin. If your lawn is struggling and you see moss happily filling in the gaps, it means your lawn needs some help to grow thicker and healthier.
Moss is a spongy green sign of a deeper lawn problem, like poor drainage, compacted soil, a soil pH problem, or too much shade.
6. It’s Thick and Full — No Bare Spots
How do you know if your lawn is healthy? A healthy lawn is luxurious and thick. You want to wiggle your bare toes in it.
Are thin or bare spots driving you crazy? You might have compacted soil that can’t breathe.
When your soil becomes compacted, your lawn is gasping for air. Its roots can't take in water or nutrients, which weakens your turf.
Aeration and seeding can be your best friend here. Lawn aeration uses a machine to pull out plugs of soil, creating spaces so that air and water can penetrate, which leads to healthier roots.
Lawn aeration also helps break down thatch — another lawn problem in Idaho — that layer of dead grass and stems that sits between the grass blades and the soil.
Aeration is typically followed by overseeding, as the holes created by aeration are perfect new homes for the grass seed.
A proper seeding with quality grass seed can often do the trick to fill in the occasional lawn bare spot. Then, yay! Signs of a healthy lawn.
7. The Grass is Tall
Healthy grass is taller grass, so don’t mow your lawn too short.
Cutting your grass too short stresses the grass, and makes it more susceptible to damage from insects and disease. Never cut off more than a third of the grass blade at any one time.
That way, the grass will develop a deeper root system to support the longer blades and need less water. That leads to a fuller, greener lawn.
Get Signs of Healthy Grass with Proper Maintenance
How to know if your lawn is healthy? It will be, if you stay on top of proper maintenance.
Establish healthy turf with proper fertilizing, watering, and mowing. Keep on top of weed control. Watch for signs of insect damage or lawn disease.
Struggling, neglected lawns are targets for all kinds of trouble.
A healthy lawn doesn’t just happen. It takes a lot of work, and the right knowledge.
If all this sounds like a big pain, you’re right. You have better things to do than toil in your yard every weekend, right?
Why not leave it to the pros? Professionals do all the pesky scheduling for you. They also have access to fertilizers and weed control you can’t buy without a license. And they know exactly how much of each product to apply.
Is Your Lawn Ready for a New Best Friend?
If you want simple, hassle-free lawn care in Idaho Falls or Boise, ID that offers quality core lawn care services for a healthy, impressive lawn, it doesn’t get easier than Lawn Buddies.
No stressing about which complicated combination of lawn care services will get you beautiful dark green grass.
You don’t have time to fuss with all that. Give yourself a break.
Welcome to one premium, six-visit lawn care program that includes everything your lawn needs to grow healthy and green.
Fertilizer, weed treatments, and grub control, all wrapped up in six visits, each perfectly timed throughout the season, so your grass is green and strong and resists weeds.
We’ve got your back.
Got a few minutes? That’s all you need to get started.
Fill out the form on this page.
Call us at (208) 656-9131.
Or read more about our services.
Then kick back and relax in your healthy, thriving yard.
