If you’ve just moved into your first home, congrats! But, there’s a lot of work to take care of. One place many new homeowners forget about is their yard. Unlike an apartment, it must be maintained and cared for not only so it looks great, but some cities have codes on overgrown lawns.
So how can you keep your lawn looking its best? How much fertilizer do you need, and when should you seed it? Oh, and, is it really possible to keep grass green in the sweltering days of summer? If questions like these are swirling around in your head, you’ve come to the right place!
Lawn Care Tips for New Homeowners in Omaha, NE
The fall season is the ideal time to prep your lawn for a dormant winter and tee up next year’s growth. Here are lawn care tips for new homeowners during the Fall season.
- If you have grass like tall fescue, overseed in early fall.
- Waterless as the temperature ticks down. In fall, your lawn only needs to be watered once or twice a week.
- Speed through fall leaf cleanup by breaking down leaves with a mulching mower.
- Pencil in the last mow of the season right around November.
- Apply fertilizer to your lawn a couple of weeks before winter’s freeze. (Feed is a term we are getting away from; maybe reword: Provide your lawn with fertilizer.
Common Lawn Issues and How To Treat Them for New Homeowners?
Trying to troubleshoot a problem with your lawn? Let’s get to the bottom of it. Here are three common lawn problems and tips for tackling them.
Problem: You fertilized your lawn, and now it’s turning yellow.
Solution: Too much fertilizer can burn your lawn. Luckily there are a few ways to turn things around. Start with water, then try out other repair tips if needed.
Problem: Your lawn’s been overrun by weeds.
Solution: Your task is to make your lawn a place where weeds won’t want to grow. Keeping up with proper mowing, seeding and fertilization will help.
Problem: Your lawn is turning brown in summer.
Solution: This blog post breaks down four reasons why your lawn is struggling in summer, and what to do.
New Construction Lawn Care Tips For New Homeowners
That dirt may look ready for planting, but it’s probably not. Unfortunately, the soil around a new or newly renovated house often suffers from one or more of these three conditions:
- Poor soil quality. Contractors frequently bring in fill dirt to elevate new homes, fill in depressions and provide a slope to get water to flow away from the house. The fill can come from a variety of sources. It could include some topsoil, but more likely it is mostly subsoil from the immediate area or trucked in from elsewhere. The subsoil hasn’t been watered or worked over by microbes, worms, insects, organic material and nutrients — your garden assistants, all required for a soil structure plants can sink their roots into.
What to do about it: Improve the soil. In the case of remodeled homes, if you are lucky, the contractor may have scraped aside the existing topsoil and you have some good soil to layer back over your yard. If not, you will have to build your own topsoil. Get a soil test to find what nutrients you lack and adjust your soil amendments accordingly. - Construction debris. Fill dirt isn’t just poor quality planting material because of what it lacks. It’s notorious for what it contains. Dig down into it to plant azalea and don’t be surprised if doink! Your spade hits a rock or a piece of construction debris.
What to do about it: Remove it as best you can, as you find it. You will find it as you prepare the soil. If you find a lot of it, expect an expense. While some municipalities will haul it away, many will not. - Compacted soil. Grass roots need a loose soil structure for their roots to grow and take hold. Heavy equipment and constant walking over the area compacts the soil. In fact, having compacted soil is a plus for builders, because they don’t want a building settling as they build it.
What to do about it: Any area where you will be planting grass requires tilling to loosen the soil before planting. If you have a layer of compacted subsoil, and you’re adding topsoil to it, you’ll want to till deeply enough to blend the two. Otherwise, you’ll discourage your new lawn from setting down deep roots, which will weaken it.
Graves Development Resources | Land Developer in Omaha, Nebraska
Graves Development Resources (GDR) has been designing and building the market’s finest neighborhoods since 2000, with over 5,000 home sites and important commercial development projects throughout Douglas and Sarpy Counties.
Our pages showcase current neighborhoods where new home buyers may select from hundreds of home sites. We are definitely “phone friendly” and welcome the opportunity to provide you all the information you need before making one of the most important decisions of your family’s future. Contact us for any questions.