5 Easy Steps to Fix an Ugly Lawn With Results

How to Fix an Ugly Lawn?

You want to have an amazing lawn, but you have an ugly lawn right now. The general thing I want you to understand is you’re going to make small steps of progress, it’s not going to happen overnight. There are 5 steps to fixing an ugly lawn. The more steps you complete, the better your lawn will be.

Step 1: Proper Mowing

The first step for lawn care is going to be about the mowing technique. The most important thing will be that your blades are actually sharp. The second thing is mowing height. Now a lot of people would like to mow short. Because they think they’re going to have to mow less often but there’s something called a one-thirds rule.

Basically, you want to cut off 1/3 of the lawn at a time that’s based on height not an area of your lawn. But if your lawn is really thin, you don’t want it to be laying over, that’s not good. So, go up every week just go up another notch until it starts to look like the grass. It will help you to fix an ugly lawn.

How to Keep Lawn Green and Healthy

Step 2: Proper Watering

Many people do this wrong. They assume that if you water for an hour, then that’s enough water. But if you have cheaper sprinklers it might take six hours. Just turn your lawn sprinklers on for an hour, and then measure how much water is in. If it’s not an inch, keep watering and you know you might be surprised.

So, you want to be watering one time a week the full inch. If you look at weather reports and you already got an inch you can wait seven more days and then water another inch.

Step 3: Proper Fertilizing

Now you might notice that sometimes you could water the whole lawn, and certain areas were always brown. Once you’re mowing properly nice and you got your watering down one inch a week the next step is proper feeding. You need to apply fertilizer to your lawn. That’s feeding the lawn and making grass green and healthy.

Before buying any lawn fertilizer, make sure about the type of grass you have on your lawn. Because all fertilizers are made for a specific type of grass. Before applying the fertilizers, always read the instructions on the label. First, try to know about the type of problems your lawn has. And then buy the fertilizer, according to that.

Most of the fertilizers release slow nutrients, and they feed your lawn for up to 4 months. And fertilizers can be applied twice a year to fix an ugly lawn.

Step 4: Killing and Preventing Weeds

Weeds make your lawn look ugly and irritating for you. So, you have to remove these weeds from your yard for a beautiful and healthier lawn.

Weeds can be removed from various tools such as weed snatchers. But you can also kill the weeds from fertilizers. That is the most effective way to kill and prevent the weeds in your lawn. Weed control or weed killer fertilizers work best to fix weeds in an ugly lawn.

These fertilizers kill weeds quickly plus stop the germination of weeds for up to 4 months. But before buying the weed killer fertilizer, make sure the type of grass and the type of weeds you have on your lawn. Because fertilizer kills a specific type of weeds. Also read the instructions and guidelines, before applying the weed killer.

This is where most people get it wrong! And it’s so easy. The simple method would be to apply a crabgrass preventer. Then use the “ready to spray” weed sprays, starting with killing crabgrass and then moving on to the harder weeds. Just leave a few weeks in between to allow your grass to not get stressed.  

But if the weeds are tough and not killed by one application. Then apply the weed killer fertilizer after a few weeks.

Step 5: Overseed

Now, we got the weeds done. The next step to fix an ugly lawn is repairing and feeding the lawn. Everybody in the spring wants to get going with lawn care and plant their grass seed. And then they wonder why I never grew well. That’s because you put weed preventer down, preventing the good grass seed. It’s because spring is not the best time to be growing grass.

In the fall. After completing Step 4 you’re likely to have areas in the lawn with no grass. It happens! But lucky for you seeding in the fall is very easy to do. Some people will just throw the seed down and water it. I prefer applying a layer of peat moss on top. Aerator? Fall is the perfect time to aerate and oversees.

Read: Best Weed and Feed For Your Lawn?

FAQs

How do I fix a bald or patchy lawn?

To fix a bald or patchy lawn, you can reseed the area with new grass seed. Be sure to water them regularly until the new grass grows in.

How do I fix a lawn that is overgrown?

To fix an overgrown lawn, you can mow it lower. You may have to mow it several times in a row so the grass will be short enough to cut in one good pass with a lawnmower. If your grass is too tall for a lawnmower, you can use a weed eater or trimmer on low power and trim along the top of the grass.

How often should I water my lawn?

Your grass needs about 1 inch of water each week to stay healthy. You can get 1 inch by watering for about 10 min or by watering twice for 5 min each time. Also, make sure to water your lawn early in the morning or late in the evening so the sun doesn’t evaporate the water before it has a chance to soak in.

How do I know if my lawn needs to be fertilized?

To know if your lawn needs fertilizer, take a look at the color of your grass. If it is a light green, it probably doesn’t need to be fertilized yet. If it is dark green, then it needs to be fertilized. You can also test the soil to see how acidic or alkaline it is. If the soil is too acidic or alkaline, that will also affect the health of your lawn. You can buy a soil test kit at most hardware stores.

Conclusion

In addition to being a great way for people to show off their homes, lawns are often used as an outdoor area where kids can play. If you want your lawn’s appearance to be more attractive and functional, then follow all these instructions or consider hiring a professional landscaping service.

Reference

https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2021/04/how-do-i-repair-my-lawn-bring-it-back-life

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-04/documents/healthy_lawn_healthy_environment.pdf