What’s the secret to a perfect lawn? If you’re like a lot of Louisville homeowners, you probably want to know what it takes to have lush green grass that you can be proud to show off.
While everyone is looking for that magic bullet answer, the truth is that the best lawns are the result of a variety of lawn care services that all work together for great results. Lawn care in Louisville, KY doesn’t have to be elusive or confusing when you’ve got an expert on your side.
In this helpful guide, we’ll share with you everything that’s involved in Kentucky lawn care. After you’ve read through it, you should have a good understanding of what you need to do to produce the best lawn.
The Foundations of a Perfect Lawn in Kentucky
Basic Lawn Care Practices for Louisville Homeowners
Enhancing Lawn Health and Appearance
Lawn Weed Control and Pest Prevention
Common Lawn Problems in Louisville and Solutions
The Value of Professional Lawn Care Services
Lawn Care Services in Louisville: What to Look For
The foundation of the best lawns comes down to two key factors:
The truth is, you can’t grow a great lawn if you’ve got unhealthy soil. And if you select a grass type that isn’t the best grass for the Kentucky area, then you’re going to have continual problems.
Let’s take a look at these factors and what you need to know.
One factor that isn’t given much attention but is so much more important than people realize is lawn soil in Kentucky.
While our focus is on what’s growing above the ground, it’s actually what’s happening at the soil level that really matters. Grass is only going to be as healthy as the soil that it’s growing in.
Healthy and thriving soil is full of beneficial microorganisms like fungi and bacteria. These organisms help the grass plants digest nutrients and also naturally build strength against pests, diseases, and even environmental stressors.
Healthy soil also has an optimal pH and can provide your grass with the nutrients that it needs to grow. Healthy soil can also breathe and is not compacted.
Unfortunately, due to the clay makeup of soil here in Kentucky, our soils do have a propensity to become compacted easily. This is why services like lawn aeration and power seeding (which we’ll talk about further along) are so important.
The bottom line is that before you can focus on what’s growing above the ground, you’ve got to make sure that you have a healthy foundation beneath the surface. Healthy soil is the start of a healthy lawn.
In order to grow a healthy lawn, you’re also going to want to make sure you’ve selected the best grass for the Kentucky area. You’ll want to make sure that you choose something that is suited to our region in terms of climate and growing conditions.
At Limbwalker, choosing the best grass seed is something that we are constantly researching. That’s because the information on this topic is ever-evolving. Scientists and researchers are constantly testing out new grass types.
Based on our research and our experience working in lawn care in Louisville, the best grass for our region is a Turf Type Tall Fescue blend.
This grass type grows well in our region and has become increasingly resistant to concerns like pests and disease. There is no grass type that is 100 percent resistant to all issues, but some types are certainly better than others.
You’ll get the best lawn care results when you choose a smart grass type and couple it with great lawn care practices. We’ll talk about that part next.
The best lawns are created with a partnership between the homeowner and a lawn care professional.
While there are a lot of important tasks that will be handled by a lawn care pro including fertilization and weed control, there are also some tasks that you’ll still be responsible for yourself.
Lawn watering and mowing are two vital services you’ll be taking care of for your lawn. While they certainly aren’t rocket science, improper watering and mowing mistakes can be detrimental to your lawn’s success.
Let’s look at each of these, including some best practices so that you can achieve optimal results.
All living things require water to survive and thrive and your lawn is no different. If you’re concerned about how to get a perfect lawn, but you aren’t giving your lawn enough water, it’s never going to achieve maximum potential.
The key is knowing a few simple things about watering.
It’s a lawn care myth that you can water your lawn at any time. In reality, there is a “best time to water,” and that’s during the morning hours.
When you water your lawn in the morning,it allows plenty of time for that water to soak down to the root zone where it’s needed before being lost to evaporation. On a windy or scorching day, water is going to evaporate quickly.
But another key reason why watering in the morning is important is the fact that watering at night exposes your lawn to the risk of fungus growing. When water is left to sit on the lawn overnight, it creates just the right conditions for fungal growth.
Homeowners often mistakenly assume that Mother Nature is supplying ample water to their lawn. In reality, your lawn needs some supplemental water during the dry months of July through October.
The best way to know for sure is to purchase a simple tool called a rain gauge. This is a tube that can be left outside and will fill up and measure the amount of rainfall.
You want to make sure that your lawn is receiving at least 1 to 1.5 inches of water each week. If the rain gauge shows that it’s falling short, then you’ll need to water your lawn yourself. This might mean watering twice a week for a mature lawn but it all depends on the amount of rainfall you get.
You can remove a lot of the guesswork from this process by investing in an irrigation system that can be programmed to deliver exactly what your lawn needs. Typically, watering each zone for around a half hour twice a week will deliver what your lawn needs.
As a homeowner, you’ll likely also take care of your own mowing. While mowing is a relatively straightforward service, mowing mistakes occur more frequently than you might think.
Proper Mowing Height
One of the most common mistakes is improper mowing height. It’s quite common for people to cut their lawns too short. But when you mow too short, you put your lawn under a lot of unnecessary stress.
We advise raising the mower deck to 4 inches. While we understand that people love a short lawn, it’s actually not healthy for the grass.
Frequency of Mowing
Frequency mistakes are also common. People get busy and they don’t keep up with mowing the lawn. But when you don’t mow frequently, you end up having to cut too much of the grass at once.
Ideally, the goal should be to cut no more than one third of the grass blades at a time.
To achieve this, you’ll probably need to mow 1-2 times per week. While we know that people often fall into a habit of every other week when they get busy, that’s typically letting too much time pass. If this happens, you might need to catch up by mowing higher rather than cutting it all down at once.
Proper Equipment
Finally, we want to mention that mowing with the proper equipment is also important. Avoid mowing the lawn with a dull blade that is going to rip the grass rather than make a nice clean cut. You want a clean slice (almost like a “surgical cut”) as this is easier for the grass to recover from.
We understand that people don’t think of mowing the lawn as being a stressful experience for the grass….but it truly is! You are making cuts and that puts stress on your grass plants. The goal is to ease that stress as much as possible. Mowing with a sharp blade and also a level mowing deck can help.
Also check to make sure that your tires are properly inflated. Mowing with deflated tires is also not ideal.
As we mentioned Kentucky lawn care is typically most successful when there is a strong partnership between the homeowner and the lawn care provider. While you’ll handle mowing and watering on your own, other important services like lawn fertilization and aeration can be handled by a professional for the best results.
Let’s talk about what’s involved with these services when it comes to enhancing the health and appearance of your lawn.
Understanding when (and how often) to fertilize your lawn can make a big difference in your results.
People are often surprised to learn that there is optimal timing for different lawn care services.
As far as when to fertilize your lawn in Kentucky, it can actually benefit from fertilization treatments throughout the active growing season. The key is that different amounts and types of fertilizer are applied at different times to meet your lawn’s needs in that season.
Figuring out when to fertilize a lawn or how much fertilizer to apply can be complicated. You can also cause lawn problems if you don’t know what you’re doing. It all gets a bit more complex than people tend to realize.
For that reason, many people turn to professional lawn care in Louisville to handle this service.
Another important service that you can have performed on your lawn by a professional is lawn aeration.
Because Louisville’s soil is predominantly clay, it compacts easily. This makes it difficult for oxygen, water, and nutrients to penetrate to the root zone where they’re needed. But lawn aeration can help your lawn breathe again.
As far as when to aerate your lawn in Kentucky, we recommend the fall. This is because grass seed is best planted in the fall, when the conditions are optimal for growth. In the fall, your newly sprouted grass is not going to get fried like it might in the spring or summer.
Another reason why you should aerate and seed in the fall is because you’ll still be able to address crabgrass in the spring with crabgrass pre-emergent (also sometimes called “crabgrass preventer”).
Crabgrass preventer works by forming a barrier at the surface of the soil that intercepts crabgrass germination. When the germinating seeds come into contact with that barrier, they stop growing.
The trouble is that crabgrass preventer will also stop grass seed from germinating. That means that if you were to seed your lawn in the spring, you wouldn’t be able to also apply crabgrass pre-emergent.
Even the healthiest lawns are subject to problems. Lawn weeds and pests are two common issues that you will face. Both of these issues can be frustrating. But the good news is that there are solutions.
Let’s look at a few of the common lawn weeds in Kentucky (and lawn pests) as well as how to deal with them.
Nobody likes dealing with weeds. But here in Louisville, there are some common weeds that we frequently see in lawns.
Here are some of the common lawn weeds you might be seeing and what to do about them.
These are just some examples of common lawn weeds in Kentucky, but you might be dealing with others. The key to effective weed control is multi-faceted.
For one, it means using a diversified strategy. That’s because different weeds should be controlled in different ways. While some can be prevented with pre-emergents, other weeds will require post-emergent controls. There are also specialty controls needed for certain weed types.
But good weed control also means promoting a thick lawn that can defend itself against weeds. You might notice that weeds spread more quickly in areas of the lawn that are thin and struggling. The healthier and thicker that your lawn is, the harder it will be for weeds to grow in the first place. That’s because they’ll have to compete with healthy turf for things like oxygen, water, and nutrients. When your lawn is thriving, it’s harder for weeds to grow.
Another problem that your lawn might face is lawn pests. One of the most common lawn pests that we see is the lawn grub.
Grubs, which is the collective name for several species of beetles in the larval stage, are tiny c-shaped creatures that have the power to do a lot of damage to your lawn. Grubs have white/gray bodies and can be as large as two inches. They’d be noticeable if they weren’t buried in your lawn, feeding on grassroots at the sub-surface level.
Unfortunately, since they are hidden beneath your feet, many people do not notice grub damage until it’s severe. Since grubs feed on lawn roots, they can kill your grass.
Nobody wants to see a lawn destroyed by lawn grubs which is why preventative control is so critical. Preventative grub control products work by addressing young grubs as they hatch. This is important so that grubs never get a chance to feast on your lawn.
These products need to be applied prior to hatching in order to be effective. This means there is a timing window. The product will not be effective on older grubs and you will need to switch to a curative product if you’ve missed it.
Properly diagnosing lawn problems is important to the health of your lawn. We’ve talked about lawn weeds and pests as two common problems that you might face. But your lawn may also deal with lawn disease, environmental stressors, soil health problems, and other concerns.
It’s not uncommon for many lawn problems to share symptoms that mimic one another. That can make it very challenging to figure out exactly what’s going on in your lawn.
For instance, lawn disease and drought stress can both cause the lawn to turn yellow. So can mowing the lawn too short. But you’ll need to figure out exactly what’s going on before you implement the proper solution.
If you fail to properly diagnose a problem, and you attempt a solution, you could actually make it worse. For example, if you water a yellowing lawn because you think it’s experiencing drought stress but it’s actually a fungus that’s caused the discoloration, you could spread that fungus even faster by watering.
While we know that it can be tempting to take matters into your own hands with a DIY lawn care approach, it’s typically best to call in a Kentucky lawn care pro. There are quite a few benefits that come with hiring a professional, which we’ll talk about next.
But one of the big ones is the proper diagnosing and treatment of problems. You’ll gain peace of mind when you have a professional keeping an eye on your property.
When you choose professional lawn care in Kentucky, you’ll gain some valuable benefits that help make this investment worthwhile.
Here are a few key considerations.
If you’ve decided you’re going to invest in professional lawn care in Louisville, your next step will be to choose a company that is right for you.
Here are a few things to consider as you look to make the best decision for your property.
Hopefully, after reading this guide, you have a much stronger sense of what’s involved in Kentucky lawn care. We know it’s a lot! There are many factors that go into maintaining a healthy and thriving lawn.
It can all be a bit overwhelming…but it doesn’t have to be! That’s because a lawn care professional can help.
When you make a wise choice in lawn care providers, you’re finally able to let go of the stress and worries associated with maintaining a beautiful lawn and simply start spending more time enjoying it. That should leave you with valuable peace of mind.
Are you ready to have a thick and healthy lawn that’s getting everything it needs at your Louisville, KY home? Get in touch with us to get a quote for our lawn care programs, which include three lawn care pricing options.
