It's never too late to make your lawn and garden measure up
Who really cares whether you have no flowers in your garden and a miniature forest of tree seedlings in the backyard.
There's always next year, right?
Wrong.
By now, the yard-care experts are probably screaming. Don't give up, they say. There's still hope this summer for even the most pathetic of landscapes.
It just takes patience and adherence to a few time-tested rules to make your lawn and flower beds look great. Let's review the basics.
Lawn care 101
There are three steps to growing a beautiful lawn, according to Trey Rogers, a professor of turfgrass science at Michigan State University.
Mow. Water. Fertilize.
Do those things correctly, and you'll experience better weed control and almost be guaranteed a lush lawn by next spring, said Rogers.
"These basic practices are what are going to drive getting a lawn back into shape," he said. "They all work together. If you are doing one or two together, but not the third one, you are not going to get what you're looking for."
With mowing, Rogers advises people to not cut more than one-third off the height of their lawn at any time. Otherwise the grass gets scalped and weeds have room to poke through, he said.
If you recently fertilized, you will likely need to mow every five or six days, according to Rogers. His advice for applying fertilizer is to follow the schedule and instructions on the back of the fertilizer bag, and don't use too much.
"It's like taking medicine," Rogers said. "If your prescription says to take two tablets, why take six?"
As for watering, Rogers said it's more of a personal preference as to how much you run the sprinklers. While water is scarce here in Utah, his advice is to not avoid watering altogether, but to water efficiently.
One of the best ways to avoid moisture loss is to run your sprinklers early in the day when the wind is calm and the sun still down, according to Rogers. Another tip is to consider an audit of your sprinkling system. The Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District offers free checks to help you determine the best ways to water your landscape.
"I might not get you back to beautiful by Labor Day, but if you follow these practices, within the next year, you'll be the envy of the neighborhood," Rogers said.
Intro to gardening
Before you skim through this section, resolving there is no hope if you didn't plant this spring, Darin Engh has this to say: "You can still plant."
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