After six years of reclaiming my lawn from the surrounding paddock I noticed that it is was not quite what I wanted despite my best efforts.
I began to make notes of what I was doing and a clear picture began to emerge.
First off let me say that I am not keen on chemicals so feeding with commercial fertilizer was not a preferred method for me. It was also a fairly expensive option as I have a lawn that is about 1/3rd of an acre in size. Initially I was feeding with a weed and feed product which seemed to control the weeds to a certain extent but did little, if anything, for the lawn. So I stopped that.
Secondly when mowing I left the clippings on the lawn, having read somewhere that mowing the lawn diminished the nitrogen content. Apparently this was compensated for by not collecting the grass clippings. There was one negative to this. Not having a grass catcher meant that there were lines of clippings left lying on the lawn. This disappeared after three days but was unsightly until then.
I NEVER watered my lawn, relying rather on natural rainfall to do the job. In summer this was disastrous as it would frequently not rain for weeks on end. The result was that my clay soil got rock hard and then when it did rain the water ran off faster than it could seep into the soil! These dry spells also helped bring out the weeds.
During a business trip one day I spotted a stunning lawn within 15 kilometres of my own home. I made a note of the address and vowed to return one day to both compliment and question the owner.
Having spent some considerable time on the internet trying to solve my problem it was several weeks (maybe even months) before I remembered the promise to myself. So on a Saturday I set off, with note book and camera in hand, to speak to the owner of the wonderful lawn that I had previously seen.
My luck was in.
Not only was the owner home but he had just finished mowing his lawn! It was a ideal opportunity and he was more than happy to chat about his lawn.
His lawn looked absolutely ideal immediately after being cut, something mine took three days to do. I also noticed that he had no lines of clippings lying around.
During our discussion I discovered the following:
- In an attempt to encourage the turf to spread and hence smother any weeds, I was cutting my lawn too low.
- He was mowing twice a week during the growing season to my once. Believe me this makes a huge difference.
- He had a mulch mower with a catching bag. This will be my next purchase.
- He did not use commercial fertilizer but relied rather on earth worms to keep his soil healthy. Worms were stimulated by the continuous spreading of compost over the lawn on a regular basis.
- He had a regular supply of cheap compost made primarily from the grass clippings he collected twice a week.
- He had an automatic pop-up sprinkler system with a regulated timing device and could control the exact amount of water going on to his lawn.
- His lawn was absolutely weed-free, or at least I never saw any.
I have installed an automatic sprinkler system and bought myself a compost tumbler.
I saved hundreds of dollars by installing the automatic pop-up sprinklers myself (it took a weekend and a bit to do).
The compost is working brilliantly, albeit with a little more work than my new friend, as I have to rake up my clippings by hand.
The grass is greener on this side of the fence.