How To Create A Beautiful Lawn In Your Garden: Planning, Picking Herbs, Soil, Sowing Seeds

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Planning and arranging a lawn in a garden area

In front of the house, in a ceremonial place, you can always carve out a piece of land and make it the main composition of the site. If trees and bushes are the main figures of the landscape, then lawns and dirt carpets are its foundation.

Lawns are surprisingly pleasing to the eye, giving solidity, elegance, grace and significance to the entire site. There is a wide variety of plants for them. I want to share my experience of creating a lawn in a small area, caring for it and dealing with pests and diseases. If desired, by spending some time and patience, you will create your original landscape.

Lawn planning

In many private plots, lawns are not sufficiently green and have bare soil that creates a feeling of untidiness and incompleteness. The edges of my small lawn are clearly cut with a sharp shovel, and fragrant perennials and bushes are planted around. You, too, can create a fragrant space or provide a horizontal relief in the garden with the addition of vertical elements separating different groups of plants. Lawns play an important role in decorating the entire garden. When planning it, decide what role you will assign to it so that it is useful.

The best herbs

The ideal lawn grass is elegant, fine structured with dark, rich, oily greens. It should grow well in your garden environment. Provide deep growth of lawn grass in the soil so that the roots grow vigorously and withstand drought. To do this, carefully study the range of lawn grasses for your conditions, just as you study trees, shrubs and perennials.

Herbs for the cold and warm seasons

More than forty types of grass for lawns are known. They are divided into two main categories: cold season and warm season

The first is for regions where temperatures drop to frost during the winter months. These herbs grow best in spring and fall, dormant in winter and briefly in hot, dry summer weather.

Warm-season grasses are ideal for mild southern climates. But in our northern conditions, they grow well from the southern and covered from the north sides of the site.

They require less water than most cold-season grasses, dormant in winter and turn brown.

When choosing grasses for your lawn, take into account the amount of sun the space is taking for the lawn, whether there will be a walking path, and the quality of the soil.

Sun-loving plants

In nature, we see grasses growing in open meadows, abundantly illuminated by the sun. Few species breed and grow in the shade. However, they do require a certain amount of daily sunlight. It is better if the shadow is relatively light. To reduce the amount of shade on your lawn, prune tree branches on or around the lawn. This will allow the ground to receive more light.

Walking path

If there are children who will run and play on the lawn, pick up resistant and strong types of grasses, such as perennial rye, festuka, bent grass. With constant walking, dry patches appear on the lawn. Grass stems have a worn, trampled appearance. Dense planting of grasses better resists trampling when walking.

Difficult land plots

Some grasses grow well in areas with difficult land conditions. For example, bent grass (escaping, creeping) grows well in coastal, damp places, in sandy poor soil. Numerous creeping shoots 30–40 cm long take root easily and give rise to new ones, rapidly growing along the ground. This grass forms a continuous soft carpet. Mow it, like other herbs, only after the second year of cultivation. It is especially recommended for sodding playgrounds.

The lawn out of it is better in the shade.

Pasture ryegrass. It is very hygrophilous, does not tolerate drought and late spring frosts. It grows poorly on dense and acidic soils.

Among the cold - season grasses, meadow bluegrass and various forms of festuki are popular.

Meadow bluegrass perfectly withstands severe winters and late spring frosts, grows early and ends the growing season in late autumn, retaining its green appearance until snow. Combining it with other cereals is impractical.

Preliminary soaking of seeds for a day creates conditions for their friendly germination in the first two weeks after sowing. Meadow bluegrass grows on different soils, but prefers loose loamy, as well as light, humus-rich sandy loam. Liming is especially important for bluegrass. This cereal can live, renewing vegetatively, for tens of years.

For ordinary small lawns, meadow fescue is suitable. Its leaves are coarse, short stems form a not very dense and brittle sod. It grows in tufts and does not create a silky carpet. This herb is resistant to frost and frost. It grows early in the spring. Drought does not tolerate.

Fescue and bent grass are more hardy, but they also respond favorably to a decrease in acidity.

Preparing the soil for the lawn

With serious preparation for the construction of a lawn, you first need to determine the composition of the land. The results of the study will show which fertilizers need to be applied and how much. Clear the lawn area, remove debris, stones, tree stumps and building materials.

Improving the soil. We use a minimum of chemicals for weeds. Sown grass with deep roots in rich soil is inaccessible to pests and diseases and does not need to be treated with chemicals. It grows strong, vigorous and prevents weeds from developing. Fertile soil creates favorable conditions for the growth of lawn grass, the development of a good root system.

We add complex fertilizer to the soil, loosen the soil to a depth of 10-15 cm, which facilitates the creation and development of new roots. From organic fertilizers, we use peat-manure humus. We usually add sand to heavy clay soil. The soil must definitely settle in order to get a dense field for future seeds.

We destroy weeds and their seeds already during soil preparation. We water the area regularly a month before sowing the lawn grasses to encourage the growth of weeds from the seeds left in the ground. Once they grow, they are easy to pick. It is not necessary to cultivate the soil deeply, since the remnants of weed seeds may be raised from the depths. Although this technique delays the laying of the lawn by four weeks, it helps to get rid of unwanted weeds.

You can skip this step if you cover the ground with a thick cloth. Weed seeds won't break through it. For small lawns, this is a great option.

Leveling the place. It is extremely rare that the surface for the lawn is flat and ready for processing. Most often, it needs to be leveled. A steep slope is difficult to mow. The hilly area is also difficult to level. It is easier to create an easy-care soil carpet here. Small dives in which water accumulates and hillocks also make mowing difficult. Slightly level this surface before planting. With a rake we collect any debris, cobblestones and plant residues that are dug out of the ground.

Sowing seeds

Before sowing seeds, level the ground surface with a board or roller to compact the top layer. Sowing seeds is a crucial stage. The quality of the future lawn largely depends on its correct implementation. Carefully select the type of grass that matches the soil quality and climatic conditions. After sowing the seeds, it takes several months for the plants to emerge and grow stronger. The lawn can then be used. However, there is always a risk that the seeds that have not yet sprouted may be washed away by rain or birds will eat them, and the weeds will grow taller than the grass.

In the south, warm-season grasses are sown in late spring or early summer. In the Leningrad Region, the ideal conditions for sowing cold-season grasses are late summer or early autumn. Cold temperatures stimulate the development of grasses, and autumn rains make watering easier. Of course, success is difficult to achieve in the first year. It is necessary to constantly moisturize the grass to ensure root growth. Prolonged cold weather has a beneficial effect on root development. It is hoped that the summer heat will not destroy the tender roots.

Seeds are sown scattered. When scattering seeds by hand, first go in one direction and then in a perpendicular direction to ensure even seeding. Rake the scattered seeds lightly with a rake for safety, but do not bury them deep. It is important to create good contact between seeds and soil. Spread compost or straw lightly over the surface to maintain moisture. Then again compact the ground with a board. Use fine spray spraying to wet seed and soil. Seeds that are consistently wet germinate quickly. If the weather is warm and dry for a week, water the lawn at least three times a day. As the grass begins to grow, the lawn begins to turn green.

Dense sowing of seeds and the growth of grasses make it difficult for people and animals to move. If birds eat the seeds, this is a problem. This can be avoided by stretching ropes over the lawn at regular intervals after planting the seeds. They frighten birds by wobbling in a light wind.

Do not mow your lawn for four to six weeks after the grass emerges. If you cut earlier, you risk uprooting the young grass. The best green mats come from single crops rather than mixtures.

The small lawn created on our site has beautiful clean edges cut with a sharp shovel. The border around the lawn consists of perennials, annuals and ornamental shrubs.