Lawn and Soil

Get to know your lawns personality!

The first and most important step in healthy lawn care is getting to know your lawn better, You should ask yourself where your lawn will live, that is: 1) what type of soil will my lawn have under it? and 2) what are the climactic conditions? Answering these two questions will help you choose the ideal type of grass for your lawn and the best watering system for it, thereby promising your lawn a better and healthier future.

Soil :The three basic types of soil are clay, loam and sand. The soil you’ll probably find in your back yard is a mixture of different amounts and portions of these three types.

lawn and soil

Clay soil:

Clay soil is considered tough to work with due to its tiny particles and crowded structure type. While watering clay soil, water tends to soak-up slowly causing puddles and small floods if not watered properly. But on the upper hand, once watered, clay soil keeps water from evaporating and draining away thereby allowing plants to better establish themselves once planted. Clay soil is also known for its high percentage of nutrients and minerals compared with other types of soils, providing plants better opening terms of growth and survival with minimum intervention on your part when watering and fertilizing you lawn (at least in the first few years).

lawn sprinkler

Loam soil:

Your soil is likely to be loam; loam is a relative combination of two soils, partly clay and partly sand soils. Only different percentages and subtypes of clay and sand make the difference between loam soils over the world. Good loam soil will have the best features of both clay and sand, water draining away quickly like in sand types and on the other hand also good fertility like in clay soils.

Sand soil:

Sand soil, due to its structure of large particles and gaps, is known for its tendency to quickly drain water and will have an accelerated vaporization rate after watered. Watering sand soil is a delicate and long task; it requires an exact balance between frequently watering and smaller quantities of water per round, water will drain quickly in sand soil but it will also reach the grass roots faster.

What kind of soil do I have?

Your soil type is easy to discover, simply take a pinch of soil in your fingers and start playing with it trying to form small round shapes, like marbles. If you get a smooth kind of moistures texture and almost a perfectly round shape your soil type is probably clay. On the opposed end, if the marble you’re trying to form crumbles just as you start moving your fingers you’ve got sand soil. Any other variation of these two examples means your lawns sort is some kind of loam soil.

Grass types

Matching grass to climate

Knowing how to choose the right type of grass for your lawn is critical; matching the right type of grass to your local climate conditions will make the difference between a healthy lawn that requires minimum effort to maintain and a lawn that is pale, friendly to pests and a time spender type of lawn. Considering the local weather in your area, you should know that there are two main types of grass, warm-season and cold-season grass. You probably guessed from their names which types are good for your local climate.