Having a lush, green lawn makes you feel luxurious. There’s that amazing feeling of being surrounded by beautiful landscape, and there’s no doubt that you feel proud of yourself for having a lush, green lawn. It isn’t easy to make yourself experience something like that.
A good garden requires significant investment, regarding money and time. While it’s impossible to cut back on the time spent on creating an excellent lawn, it’s certainly feasible to implement some money-saving lawn care ideas. Today’s post is just about them.
Find below some tried and tested techniques to save money on lawn care. These low-budget methods will aid you to control your budget and still enjoy the fulfilling feeling of being a responsible lawn owner.
1. Get dirty
Hiring a lawn care service is often a superb idea. These set of experts provide your yard a timely care, and they barely go wrong with their decisions. But when you’re trying to cut back on your expenses, such a service might not be the first thing you want to hire.
What you can do in such a situation is get your hands dirty and take care of your lawn yourself. It will require some investment. You will need lawn care equipment, but that’s a one-time investment. It is highly likely that you already own some of the equipment required. If not, consider investing in it and then reap the benefits of a ‘low-budget lawn.’
Then you will need to change your schedule and incorporate the lawn related tasks in it. You don’t require working on your lawn every day for most of the lawn related tasks are low-frequency. For example, you will need to fertilize your lawn during the early spring and fall. You will need to water it once a week (more about it later in the post). You will need to check for weeds once a week. And you will need to mow your lawn once in every three to five days. It depends on how quick the grass blades are growing.
If you make a schedule and don’t miss it even once, you will be able to wrap up these tasks in a very less amount of time.
When you’re trying to cut back your expenses, it’s not a good idea to put your lawn at risk, as you’ll end up spending much more than usual. Therefore, good care is a must. The following points will help you to take care of your lawn and keep it in good shape.
2. Pay attention to lawn mowing
In the previous post about lawn mowing tips, I have listed a lot of important things related to lawn mowing. The most important of those is to wait until your lawn reaches the right height. It should be cut just at that point; no sooner or later.
I also suggest that you go for a push mower rather than a rotary mower. First of all, a rotary mower is harsher on the grass and will make it want more attention and care. On the other hand, a push mower with sharp blades will cut the grass blades in a perfect manner and also save you some money on the lawn upkeep.
Moreover, as these are manual lawn mowers, you can save on some energy expenses. It is also a good exercise and therefore, will reduce your need to hit the gym every day. It is indeed an excellent physical exercise to mow your lawn. But be careful! If you’re sick or have back or knee injuries, this activity can aggravate your condition.
3. Pick the right fertilizer
Fertilization is a lawn care activity which you shouldn’t miss. I understand that it may seem like an unnecessary overhead, but it truly isn’t. Fertilizer helps your lawn grow and keeps it healthy. This directly leads to fewer expenses on lawn maintenance.
But here’s the issue. A lot of us pick the wrong fertilizers and end up with a dead lawn. Invest in a good quality fertilizer that releases nutrients slowly. It will keep your lawn well-fed for the entire season. Also, it reduces the risk of damage to your lawn due to overfeeding.
Moreover, you have to do it just twice a year. It isn’t that big of an expenditure considering its frequency and its benefits. Go for it!
4. Naturally feed your lawn
Just like the human body needs to be fed, your grass requires food. Fertilizers are one way to meet this requirement. Another way to feed your lawn with proper nutrients is to leave the grass clippings on the lawn after mowing.
Here’s the problem. A lot of us don’t know when this activity is good and when it’s bad. If you’re timely mowing your lawn, the amount of clippings is just enough and apt for your lawn. But if you missed a lawn mowing session, the clippings would be too long and block the sunlight and make the grass dry or yellow.
There are two more things that your lawn requires to stay healthy – sunlight and water. There shouldn’t be any big trees that are overshadowing your lawn and blocking the sunlight. In my post about reasons why you require a tree service, I have highlighted how a tree that’s stripping your lawn off the sunlight can push up your lawn care expenses. It’s better to fix this issue before you face major garden troubles.
5. Water your lawn properly
A lot of us just count the direct lawn maintenance expenses like fertilizers, weed killers, lawn care service expenditure and so on. What we often miss are energy and water bills. These also contribute a lot to your monthly expenses. Therefore, I found it crucial to include this point to help you save money on lawn maintenance.
Contrary to the popular belief, one doesn’t need to water the garden every day. Not only are you wasting water, but also causing harm to the grass. Rather, go for deep watering once a week. Let me warn you that this isn’t a sure shot number. It varies with the type of grass you have. So, do your research and find what’s the right amount of water your lawn requires per week.
6. Aerate your lawn yourself
Lawn aeration is significant expenditure and can be easily avoided. All you need is to dig up some YouTube videos on how to aerate your lawn correctly and then do it yourself. Just like fertilization, it’s a task that needs to be done just twice a year. Moreover, it’s a fun activity. Even your kids can help you out with this task.
Aeration helps your lawn breathe and soak in the nutrients you’re feeding it. Apparently, it helps your lawn grow greener and healthier.
7. Use homemade pesticides
What worries me most about my lawn is when I have to use pesticides. Pest invasions happen, but the use of harmful chemicals on the grass do create a lot of troubles in future. There are a couple of homemade pesticides recipes that I try when I am dealing with minor pest infestations. For example, you can use a mixture of soap & water to deal with flies, mites, and aphids. Cayenne pepper, fresh garlic, and water are good to hush away the beetles. Similarly, you can use Pinterest to find more of such recipes and save up some bucks!
By following the tips mentioned above, you can certainly save hundreds of dollars on lawn care per year. But let me warn you! You need to perform these by heart to get some results. Are you ready for it?
