Today, most owners of homesteads in the arrangement of the territory chosen as an element of decoration lawn. Due to its versatility, it is able to fit into any landscape, and sometimes become its main decoration.
The well-groomed lawn in the best way helps to issue a recreation area, brings in surrounding space feeling of a cosiness and comfort and gives esthetic pleasure from early spring to late autumn. However, novice gardeners should know that lawn grass-the culture is quite finicky, it will require increased attention throughout the season.
And especially important is the autumn care of the green lawn. During this period, it is necessary to carry out a number of mandatory activities that will help the lawn grass to survive all the hardships of winter and spring again to appear in all its glory.
Irrigation
Autumn is often set dry weather, and in order to prevent yellowing and withering green “cover”, it is necessary to continue to regularly moisten the lawn. In the absence of precipitation, watering is carried out every 5-7 days, using the method of sprinkling and avoiding waterlogging of the soil, which can cause damage to the lawn by fungal diseases.
But in the first decade of October, watering is completely stopped to prevent the weakening of the root system of the grass in conditions of high humidity and lower temperatures. This will allow the lawn to adapt to changing conditions and better prepare for the winter.
Aeration
It’s no secret that for the normal development of any plant requires a sufficient supply of oxygen to its root system. Gardeners achieve this by loosening the soil between rows of vegetable beds and tree trunks of trees and shrubs.
Lawn grass is no exception, especially since it is subject to constant trampling throughout the season, and the soil under it is strongly compacted. But in relation to the thick lawn using another technique, called aeration, the essence of which is to pierce the soil to a certain depth.
This event, held in the autumn, improves the air permeability of the soil, which has a positive effect on the development of the root system of this perennial vegetation. In addition, aeration creates additional protection against freezing grass in winter, because the air has a low thermal conductivity. With prolonged autumn rains, this technique eliminates stagnation of water on the surface of the lawn and protects it from damage by root rot.
For this purpose, you can use ordinary garden pitchforks. They will need to be buried in the soil at half the length of the teeth and do on the site as many such holes.
But as many gardeners, this process seemed very tedious, the producers went ahead and replaced the fork invented a more convenient tool – sandals-aerators. These wonderful shoes no longer require methodical work with your hands, but simply allow you to walk on the green lawn and immerse the sharp spikes located on their soles to the full depth.
An alternative to such sandals can be a mechanical lawn aerator, which is a manual gurney equipped with studded inserts. This device perfectly copes with the task and without significant effort on the part of the gardener helps to increase the air permeability, and at the same time the water permeability of the soil on the site sown with lawn grass.
The above budget models are more likely to suit the owners of a small lawn. For aeration of the vast territory it is more expedient to use special mechanized devices that can have both an electric and a gasoline engine. Such units, presented today in a wide range in many specialized stores, will be more expensive, but minimize the labor costs of the gardener and help to aerate the lawn in the shortest possible time.
It is worth noting that this procedure should be carried out after rain or watering (on moist soil). In the next 2-3 days, it is important to try not to walk on the “holed” site, so as not to fall asleep before the time of the hole.
Additional fertilizing
Multiple haircuts make lawn grass consume a large amount of nutrients for its recovery, so in the autumn it is necessary to fill the lack of nutrients in the soil. Nitrogen stimulates the active growth of the terrestrial part of plants, and its use during this period is minimized. The emphasis is on phosphorus and potassium fertilizing, which helps to strengthen the root system of the grass, which will guarantee its successful wintering.
It is possible to use monocomponent drugs-double superphosphate and potassium sulfate by making them dry for 50-60 g and 30-40 g, respectively, for each m² of the lawn. Or the use of ready-made mixtures.
In addition, once in 2 years, it is useful to fertilize the lawn with organic matter, making for each m² 4-5 kg of pre-sifted through a large sieve of humus or compost.
Lawn grass also responds well to the introduction of autumn bone meal and wood ash, containing in addition to phosphorus and potassium complex of important trace elements. These natural fertilizers can act as an alternative to phosphorus-potassium preparations of chemical production. The rate of consumption-150-200 g of bone meal or ash per m² of green field.
Make any fertilizer better after rain or watering, and if in the coming days is not expected precipitation, immediately after this procedure it makes sense to once again irrigate the lawn with water from sprinklers. In order for the nutrients to have time to assimilate and produce a positive effect on the grass, it is not necessary to delay the autumn feeding — it is carried out no later than the first week of October.
In addition, when planning an autumn complex of measures for lawn care, it is advisable to fertilize the soil on the lawn a couple of days after its aeration. With this approach, the introduced preparations will penetrate into the deeper layers of the soil and become available for the root system of lawn grass in full.
Haircut
In autumn it is necessary to continue to periodically mow the lawn, but now it is necessary to focus on the weather forecast and try to spend the last haircut for 12-14 days before the frost. During this period, the grass will have time to recover after damage and grow to 6-7 cm – in this form it will better tolerate cold.
Shorter sprouts can freeze, and longer after withering will cause the appearance of unnecessary felt on the lawn, which can lead to the formation of bald spots on it. In addition, the overgrown green mass creates a large load on the root system of the grass, why it weakens and becomes more vulnerable in winter stress.
At the end of the last haircut with fan rakes rake all the garbage (fallen leaves) from the lawn and leave it alone. After such procedures, timely conducted in the autumn, the green lawn can easily endure winter hardships and next spring will be the main decoration of the plot.
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