Proper watering techniques and maintenance guarantee the heath and beauty of your lawn and plants. It's important to water your lawn and plants deeply. The appearance of your lawn and plants reflects how much moisture they have. Yellow, drooping leaves indicate over-watering, while grayish leaves and wilting indicate under-watering. If you can leave a footprint on the grass, it is also an indication of under-watering, if you can leave a foot print in the soil you are over-watering.

     Look at your lawn and plants carefully before watering them to gauge the right amount of water they need. It's best to water early in the morning before 10 a.m. because evaporation and burning caused by the sun is less during these hours. Evaporation is also less during the night, however night watering encourages fungal infestations and disease. However with proper maintenance and fertilization fungus and diseases are not as common as they would be with improper maintenance and no fertilizers. A big part of proper lawn and plant maintenance is proper care of your tools, especially your lawn mowers cutting blades. Dull cutting blades result in tearing of the lawn instead of actually cutting the lawn. When the lawn is torn instead of properly cut it is more open to disease and fungus than a properly cut lawn.

     Your lawn benefits most when it receives 1 to 1.5 inches of water all in one sitting as opposed to small waterings a few times per week. To help with measuring the water you are using I suggest using an empty tuna can as they are typically a little over 1 inch tall. Your watering schedule will depend on the rainfall as well because including rainfall you do not want your lawn to receive over 1.5-2 inches of water per week. So especially in the Spring and Fall months adjust your watering accordingly. Also, remember that clay soils need less watering than sandy soils.

     Leaving grass clippings on your lawn instead of bagging them is generally a good thing, however when thatch (which is basically the dead grass left behind) starts to build up to a height more than half an inch, it's time to dethatch your lawn. Doing so will allow the water to access the roots of your grass rather than just slide on the surface. Aeration is also a great technique for allowing air and water to properly enter the ground and your lawns roots. 

     Conserving water is an important aspect of lawn care, especially in areas where water is limited or watering bans often occur due to drought.  Always make sure that your watering equipment is working properly. Broken sprinklers and hoses waste a lot of water, which could create a bigger expense than you may expect (ie. water bills, dry out well faster than normal). If you are using sprinklers, set them to water only your lawn and not sidewalks, driveways, and roads. You can also mix in peat moss with your soil, and cover the ground with mulch in flower beds which help to retain a lot of moisture needed by your plants.

    Horton's Lawn Care L.L.C. offers many services to assist you in the proper care, maintenance, and beautification of your lawn including: aeration, detaching, lawn rolling, re-seeding, granular fertilization, lawn mowing, weed whipping, edging, hedge trimming, flower, tree planting, landscaping, spring clean ups, fall clean ups, and snow removal. They currently provide lawn care services in the Genesee County Michigan area primarily in Burton, Davison, Flint, Flushing, Grand Blanc, Swartz Creek. For a Free Estimate call Chris @ (810) 877-9655.