7 Things You Need To Avoid When Maintaining Your New Lawn

Are You A New Homeowner? If So, Then Here Are 7 Things You Need To Avoid When Maintaining Your New Lawn

It’s taken months, maybe years of hard work; but you’ve finally purchased your own home! Now comes the fun part. You get to make this house into your own dream home. This isn’t all fun and games though: there are a lot of new responsibilities you need to get used to.

One of the biggest responsibilities you’re going to face will center around your lawn and garden. The care and maintenance of your house takes a lot of work, and it’s an area that often gets overlooked and underestimated by first time home owners.

If you’ve closed on your home in the latter parts of the year, it’s easy not to think about the lawn. After all, that’s something that can be put off until the spring or summer! Waiting is a bad idea though, lawn maintenance is meant to be a year-round process. Skimping at any point of the year will lead to unexpected problems later.

Don’t stress too much. Everyone makes mistakes when owning a new home. Lawns are resilient and rebound well, so this isn’t a do or die thing right out of the gate. To make sure you get your lawn off to a good start though, you’ll need to know what to watch out for.

And if you want some professional help? Worry not. You can get quotes from lawn care professionals like landscaping Durham NC firm Leisure Landscapes for free, right now.

1. Improper Watering Habits

This is the most common mistake that homeowners make, and it’s the simplest one to fix. Getting your lawn organized and planted takes a lot of work, but that’s only the first step! As soon as you’ve moved into your new home, you need to figure out (and immediately stick to) a proper watering schedule.

You don’t have to manually water your lawn, so don’t fret if you think sticking to a schedule will be too hard. Installing a sprinkler system with automatic timers would be a great idea, and will keep your lawn healthy year round. You’re looking at a price of about $2-$2.5k to install a new system.

2. Not Maintaining Proper Grass Length

Your lawn is essentially a self-contained ecosystem, and thus requires a perfect balance to thrive. Once you have watering down, the next thing you need to do is ensure you aren’t cutting your grass improperly. It may seem wise to cut your grass as low as possible, but that often leads to damaged turf (as you can see here) and degraded soil.

If you want to keep your lawn full and lush, cut the grass down somewhere between 2 and 4 inches. This translates to mowing the lawn about once a week. That may seem like a lot to some of you. Don’t worry, we’ll address that in a later common mistake.

3. Planting At The Wrong Time

Most lawns these days are more than just patches of grass. Flowers, shrubs, and vegetables can go a long way towards making a good lawn great. It’s important to remember that supplementary plants are NOT created equal though, nor are they the same in all US Counties. They need to be planted at different times, in different soils. Do your research before filling out your yard. There are few things that are more frustrating than losing a season of planting because you weren’t prepared ahead of time.

4. Not Transplanting Plants Correctly

When inserting new flowers and shrubs, you’ll often be removing the species from a temporary pot. Seems like a simple process, right? The process is simple, but you need to be careful. Plants can be stressed, and you need to do your part to ensure they survive and thrive in their new environment. You’ll need to dedicate time to properly pruning and watering new plants a lot early on. Don’t forget to use good landscaping design software to properly plan everything, OK?

Placement is important as well. You need to make sure your research includes figuring out the sun/shade needs of each plant type you procure. This research may rule out some ideas that you’ve had; but don’t worry: there will be plants that you like which will work for your specific situation.

5. Removing Plants You Don’t Recognize

Many new homeowners undo their hard work like this and ruin their landscaping efforts, especially if they have a wedding reception planned soon. They go through weeks of research, do the hard work of planting, then notice a sprout that doesn’t look like it belongs. These homeowners seem proud to have rid themselves of a bothersome weed, but in reality they just got rid of the flower that they worked so hard to select!

Sprouts rarely look as they will when the plant has matured, so don’t be too quick when it comes to yanking up strange looking plants. When in doubt, seek professional help or at least give the plant some time. You’ll be happy that you did.

6. Planting Without Regards For Space

Like most people, plants thrive the most when given a little bit of personal space. You may be thinking that density is the best option. After all, a lush lawn and garden is what everyone strives for. You can achieve that look, but not by planting everything too close together.

When you don’t properly space your plants, you force them to fight over a limited amount of nutrients. This is where your research becomes important again. When you understand the spacial needs for each plant’s root system, you’ll be able to make smart plans for your garden.

7. Not Seeking Professional Help When Needed

Every new homeowner gets hit with that DIY bug and want to create a landscape from scratch. It feels good to do things yourself, and this is YOUR domain after all! Here’s the thing though: you don’t know what you don’t know yet. It’s okay to seek professional help, and frankly you should do so with your lawn, at least early on.

You won’t break the bank either, with the most expensive lawn care professionals costing just a few hundred dollars per month. That expertise is invaluable for your new home though.

Conclusion

You have a lot to learn about your new home, and you’re doing a great job by coming here to begin learning. Keep on educating yourself, and keep these mistakes in mind as you begin working on your lawn. This information will save you money and heartache for years to come. And if you have any other questions about our landscaping services or need advice on a new project, feel free to contact us or learn more about us here.

Read more