Tools of the Trade: The Lawnmower
Using the right kind of lawnmower for your garden is essential in keeping a healthy lawn. Cut it too low and you starve the roots, leave it too long and weeds can encroach.
The best way to create a healthy lawn, even in Naples, is to mow frequently but not cut it too low. By cutting regularly excessive leaf growth is reduced while not allowing weeds and the coarser grass a chance to grow. The best lawnmower for your needs is one that is big enough to keep the lawn under control and small enough to be manoeuvred easily. Budget is a factor in any purchase, but there are lawnmowers of each type available for a variety of budgets nowadays.
The most popular type of domestic lawnmower is the rotary type. They are easy to use and can cut quite quickly which is why it’s so popular. They can also cope with wet grass, and the first winter cut when the grass may be longer. They come in two flavours, electric or petrol. The petrol version is more powerful and has no leads to run over, but is mainly suitable for larger lawns. The electric version is lighter and ideal for the smaller lawn.
The hover type mower is ideal for older gardeners as it is light and easy to use. Most of the weight of the device is supported by the air cushion it creates when switched on. They perform similarly to the rotary mower and come in the same petrol and electric varieties.
Manual lawn mowers are very cheap to buy and maintain but are much harder work to use. They are ideal if you don’t want to use petrol or electric. They are cylinder mowers which do give a good cut, but all of the momentum and energy needed to do the cutting comes from you. These are really only suitable for very small lawns.
The cylinder mower gives the best cut to any lawn. They come in the manual as described above, petrol and electric types. Petrol rotary’s are the most powerful but all will give a great cut. These mowers will give your lawn the traditional striped look if you wanted one.
Although they are the best, rotary mowers are also the most expensive. There are a couple of other choices to be made here too. The size of the cylinder should be scaled to the size of lawn. The average lawn in Naples would need a 16 inch cylinder with at least 8 blades to give a good finish. Larger versions are available but they mower becomes less manoeuvrable when you increase the cylinder size. Anything bigger than the 16inch would only really be suitable for exceptionally large lawns.
How to keep your lawn weed free.
There is nothing like looking at a lovely weed-free lawn to put a smile on any gardeners face. The problem is that good growing conditions for grass is also good growing conditions for weeds.
There are some weeds that are so adept at survival that they can even make it through a good mowing by keeping their leaves below the level of the blade. I have no idea how they do it, just that it’s very annoying having to go back over the lawn and remove them afterwards.
Your lawn is a battleground between your grass and the weeds. They are both in competition for the moisture and nutrients of the ground as well as the space to grow. Many times though it seems the weeds have the edge when it comes to adapting to survive.
Fortunately you can tip the odds in your favour with a little knowledge and application. Not everyone is in favour of using weed killers. I tend to avoid using chemicals wherever possible, but I make an exception for my lawn.
There are two kinds of weed killer, the contact or systemic types. The contact type is generally in the form of a lawn sand and contains iron sulphate, nitrate sulphate and sand. This word by burning the weeds. Grass is tall and thin so the weed killer doesn’t stick to it, weeds are generally broadleaved and can support the sand.
Systemic weed killers concentrate on the differences between weeds and grass. Grass is a monocote and has a completely different growth clock to a weed, which is a dicote. A systemic weed killer concentrates its anger on dicotes and forces the weed to outgrow itself so much that it can’t support the growth and dies. To be most effective the grass has to be at least a few days without being mown, and the weeds should have enough leaf growth to suck all the energy out of the roots.
Soil Ph control can also help with weed prevention. Most lawn weeds like their earth around 6.5Ph but grass prefers a slightly lower 6Ph. This is how lawn feeds work, they lower the Ph of the ground thus feeding the grass and removing the weeds. If you feed your lawn, a little and often approach works here as it can regulate the soil and provide nutrients to recently mown grass.
If you want to remain completely chemical free then a watering program may help. Giving your lawn a good, thorough soaking once a week instead of having the sprinkler on a couple of hours a day will encourage the grass to push its roots deeper into the ground to acquire moisture. This leaves much less water for shallow rooted weeds and they simply can’t survive. This is also an effective method of keeping a healthy lawn in our lovely Naples sunshine.
These are just some of the ways you can prevent weeds from taking over your lawn. Some use chemicals and other don’t. Whichever method you use, if you follow the guide, you should be enjoying a weed free lawn in no time!
Sowing a new lawn
Early autumn is the ideal time to sow a new lawn while the soil is still warm but a bit damp. You can buy seed mixes which are tailored to suit different types of garden. There are ones for drought, shade or any kind of lawn. I use them all the time doing lawn and yard maintenance and can thoroughly recommend them!
Prepare the soil by removing stones and weeds and roughly leveling it. Clean it up the best you can then rake it. Firm the soil up by walking over it, then rake it again. A couple of days before you want to seed add a granular fertilizer to give your lawn a good start.
Mark your area out in to meter squares using canes and string. Then shake the seed box to mix it all up. Weight out your seed mix so you have approximately 50g per square meter of ground. If the type of seed mix you have says something different then go with that.
Split your meters worth of seed in two and scatter half in one direction, then take the other half and scatter in the opposite direction. Then lightly rake the area over and water. This will give your lawn the most even finish.
It’s important not to let the area dry out until the grass is well established. Seeds are very susceptible to drought so keep an eye out for the weather. If you find birds eating your seeds then you can spread netting over the area to protect it. This will also stop any curious cats or other animals from walking all over your newly sprouted lawn.
Once the lawn is at least 2″ high you can begin mowing it.
So the site is up and ready for Spring
I got the site up and everything is pretty much ready to go for this spring. It’s pretty slow at the moment, not many yards need attention in the middle of Winter…I guess it’s technically just the start of Winter but whatever.
I’m thinking about expanding some of my services next year beyond trimming, mowing, and fertilizing. Tree trimming would be nice except I would probably need to get some kind of special insurance for that, I doubt my current insurance covers anything that extreame. Depending on how many leads this site generates for me I may get into that.