Lawn Care: Expert Guides and Resources

A lawn is so much more than just a patch of grass; it’s the soft spot in your yard where you play with your kids, entertain friends and family, spread out the picnic blanket, and settle in for an evening of stargazing. For many of us, a well-kept lawn is a thing of beauty, a bright and healthy expanse that creates a welcoming stage for our homes and gardens.

Choosing an irrigation system is about convenience, efficiency, and water conservation. Deciding on portable sprinklers or an in-ground irrigation system basically comes down to cost versus time and convenience.Portable sprinklers aren’t necessarily the most efficient system to use to water your grass. You know — hooking up the oscillating or impulse sprinklers, dragging the hose all over the lawn, watching the clock, and trying to remember when you should move the sprinkler to a different part of the lawn.

How to mow a lawn or grass the right way is one of the most important practices in keeping your lawn healthy. Grasses are like most plants — if you clip off the growing points (for grass, it's in the crown, where the new leaves develop), the plants branch out and become denser, which in this case, turns thousands of individual grass plants into a tightly woven turf or a lawn.

Tool sheds and garages can harbor some of the least green garden products on the market. In addition to chemicals for killing weeds and pests, you’re likely to find fossil-fuel-burning gas-powered lawn mowers and electric tools. Cut down the energy you use in the garden by replacing your power tools with manual alternatives: Replace an electric or gas lawn mower with a push reel mower, also known as a hand mower.

Laying sod is a gratifying experience—you get a new, green lawn in no time! The time to lay sod is early morning before it gets too hot. The soil in the planting area should be moist, not soggy or dry. Water thoroughly one or two days before the sod is delivered so that the top several inches of soil are wetted.

Even if you can’t draw a straight line, you have to make a map of your property to plan your irrigation system. Draw your map to scale (such as 1 inch equals 10 feet) on graph paper as accurately as possible (most irrigation system instructions include graph paper for a map). Note all measurements, trees, shrubs, sidewalks, driveways, the house, tool sheds, gazebos, and any other obstacles that you need to consider.

If your yard includes some lawn and you aren’t yet ready to replace it with more sustainable alternatives, make your grass as green as possible by using eco-friendly, toxic-free methods to keep it healthy. Follow these suggestions: Use native grass seeds. They’ll grow better in your local climate than other varieties.

You can grow almost any tree successfully in a lawn, provided you properly take care of the tree and the lawn. You can prune densely growing tree branches to let more light through so that grass can grow underneath. You can also find ways to protect young trees from the meanest lawn mower. To get you started, the following lists suggests some common trees that get along with lawns.