Tips in Growing Grass

For someone who's not into gardening or into landscaping, grass are just grass but this should not be the case. We can benefit from grasses in many ways. It is used as food for livestock and, for some, as part of their landscaping project. Working with this plant is easy to do. All you need to have are the ideas on how grass should be taken care of. Since there are a lot of grass species, there are also different ways to plant and maintain them. Despite this, one should be able to understand the general methods on how grass should be grown.

The process of growing grass can become complicated since the method you'll use will depend on the kind of grass used. So make sure that you choose the right kind. How important is choosing the right grass? What's the rationale behind it? In this process, you need to consider two major factors. To grow them, you need the right seeds and the correct materials. You also need the right place where you will grow the grass so you can decide how to maintain and develop the area where it grows.

You need to think about the climate and the zone for starters. There are two types of humidity in which grass grows, depending of course on the specie. The first type is called warm season which of course can come in various forms. The kind of grass that can grow in this type of humidity are buffalo, bermuda, zoysia, centipede and bahia. Bent, zoysia, centipede are just a few which are part of the second kind.. These are part of the cold season grass. Therefore, considering the zone's humidity when you choose the right specie is important. The accessibility of the area to sunlight and water as well as the elevation of the area should be considered. You need all these factors to be right for the growth to be healthy.

The different species require high-maintenance. There is the ordinary type that simply grows once planted but there is also another types that requires a lot of water, fertilizers and other chemicals that help improve your grass. Once you grow the plant correctly, all you need to do is follow the maintenance procedure. At this point, you can do your landscaping project. During some form of weather phenomenon like the El nino, you need to plant the drought-resistant variety. It does not require a lot of care since grass grows fast and will survive a long time as long as the soil is in the right shape.

Grass seed is smaller than most other plant seeds, and it should be planted shallow. The larger grass seeds should be fully covered with moist soil, whereas smaller seeds like bent grass only need to be partially covered by moist soil. For every 1000 square feet of lawn you have, you should use 4 lbs. of seed. Adding extra seeds won't compensate for poor growing conditions. In fact, it will hurt the growth because the seedling will have to compete with one another.
You can hand spread the seeds if necessary, but it is better to use a mechanical spreader if possible when sowing grass seed. Either way, you should sow the seeds by spreading part in one direction, then the rest crosswise. This will ensure that you didn't miss any spots. You should then lightly rake the seeds. To firm the seeds in the soil, you should roll over it lightly with a roller. You can put a small amount (1/8 inch) of compost or screened soil over small lawns.
If you lawn is sloped, you need to take some extra precautions so new seedlings won't wash down the slope with rain water. One option is to cover the area with straw. Another option is to cover the seedlings with an open mesh cloth that will just become part of the soil and dissolve with time. It will protect the seedlings from washing away and from sun exposure. If you use burlap to cover the seedlings, it should be removed when the grass grows to a height of around ¼ inch.