Lawn Mowing

Every Australian home will not be complete without a lawn. This is an extension to their living area where they like to relax and have a BBQ or throw a party. More and more Australians prefer to have a backyard in their home. Some of the council regulation requires to maintain a lawn in every new house. Check with your local council to know more about this. When you have a lawn there are certain additional maintenance work comes with it. One of them is mowing the lawn.

Certain variety of grass require more frequent mowing and some comparatively less. So you have to choose the correct variety to suite your lifestyle. Nowadays you can even get synthetic turf which requires less maintenance. But nothing beats the look and feel of a natural grass.

There are number of things to be considered when it comes to lawn maintenance. Some of the key points are listed below

·         Trees and shady area in the backyard

·         The frequency of mowing

·         The height of the grass

·         The type of mower to mow the lawn

The above topics will be discussed in this article.

 

Trees and shady area in the backyard.

It is always better to choose a shade tolerant grass if you have trees in your backyard which cast lot of shadow in your lawn. When mowing, keep your lawn slightly longer side. This will help the grass to do photosynthesis with little light. This will also be useful during winter to keep the lawn in a better shape. Never cut back more than one third of the leaf. It will also be beneficial to leave few clippings. When putting new lawn under the tree, make sure you level the lawn correctly. Otherwise the mower will damage the tree roots while cutting. It will also damage the mower blades. If there are lot of uneven surface then it will be difficult to maintain the same height for all the grass.

If you are using whipper snipper around the trunks of the tree, please make sure not to damage the bark around the base of the tree. If it’s damaged, it may even kill the tree itself. To avoid this, it is recommended to mulch the base of the tree so that unnecessary weeds and mowing can be avoided.

 

 

 

Weed Control

I hate spending time removing weeds between the pavers. I checked in the local Bunnings and they suggested using Roundup. It’s about $17 for 1 litre. I have sprayed it on the weeds and it did the work.  But I find it too expensive and hence I started searching the net. Finally I found some other alternatives and found it very effective and cheap.

I mix 1 litre vinegar with 1 cup common salt in my bottle sprayer and spray it on top of the weeds. That’s the end of my weed problem. I have cleaned the sprayer after the use. Vinegar tend to corrode the rubber parts inside the sprayer. Hence do not leave it uncleaned overnight.

Another alternative is to use Baking Soda. Baking soda neutralizes the pH in the soil. This soil will not be good for any plants to grow. Do this after the rain as it may wash it down to the gutter. So I brushed Baking soda between the pavers. I normally repeat this treatment twice a year.