As a new homeowner, you’re probably feeling so excited as you check out your new space. Buying a new home or building a new home is a rewarding experience. You have a place that is all your own, and you can make improvements and beam with pride as you see your home come to life with your own personality and character. This is so exciting. We get it.
Some things in your new home are probably easy to figure out, like how to paint rooms certain colors that suit your tastes, take down out-of-date wallpaper, or replace artwork on your walls. In fact, there are probably tons of YouTube videos giving you play-by-plays on these tasks to help you get them done right. However, other important home tasks may seem more confusing, such as how to take care of your lawn.
Since your grass is a front-facing and even all-encompassing part of your home exterior, you certainly don’t want to be the only one on the block with a brown lawn riddled with weeds that makes the neighborhood look bad and makes you look like an ineffective homeowner.
That’s why we’ve put together these lawn care tips for new homeowners so you can have a lawn that you can take as much pride in as your home interior and enjoy it everyday.
Lawn Care For Beginners in Northern Virginia: Tips That Will Help You Thrive
Nothing can make your home stand out more than having it framed by the best looking lawn on the block.
And a lawn isn’t just pretty; it’s functional, too.
In fact, some of your favorite moments may be spent in your yard with family and friends, playing games, sipping on cool beverages, tossing a frisbee to the dog, or just relaxing. And, what’s more is that you get a great big boost in home value if you take care of your grass properly.
Here are some tips targeted toward lawn care for new homeowners that you need to know to tend to your new asset and keep your lawn in great shape.
1. Don’t Neglect To Get A Soil Test
Conducting a soil test is an essential one of the lawn care tips for new homeowners.
Whether you do a soil test yourself and send it to your local Northern Virginia extension service or hire a lawn care professional who conducts one prior to creating a lawn care program for your yard, it provides you with valuable insight and recommendations. For instance, a soil test gives you a score for your lawn’s pH. This number is crucial because it tells you whether your lawn is actually capable of absorbing nutrients. If your soil pH is too low, fertilizer applications could go wasted since your soil isn’t in a state to absorb it properly.
To fix your soil pH, lime applications can help. They can raise it to the correct levels, enabling your lawn to absorb nutrients again, improving its health and appearance. The proper levels are between 6 and 7 for Northern Virginia lawns.
2. Embrace Proper Lawn Watering Techniques
When it comes to lawn care for beginners, water is a crucial element in the health of your grass.
If you add in rainfall, your lawn needs approximately 1.5 inches of water weekly. You can get to this amount by watering your lawn a couple of times each week for about one hour at a time.
By watering in this way – long, slow irrigation – ensures moisture gets down to your lawn’s roots to encourage stronger growth.
3. Mow Your Lawn Correctly
One of the best lawn care tips for new homeowners is understanding how to correctly mow your lawn.
When it comes to caring for the types of grasses that grow best in Northern Virginia, you want to mow to a 3- to 4-inch height, especially in the summer. This helps shade your soil from potential weed seed germination, as well as keep your lawn stress-free.
Also, when you mow, you never want to remove more than one-third of the grass blade at any one time so as not to negatively impact your lawn’s health. This usually means you’ll be mowing weekly during peak growing season in spring and summer, and then it will die down a bit in late summer and fall since your grass doesn’t grow as fast.
Mowing at this rate ensures your grass stays fuller, thicker, and fights drought and weeds better during the hottest, driest times of the year.
4. Don’t Neglect Aeration, Overseeding & Topdressing
Annual fall aeration, which is the removal of small soil plugs from your grass with an aerator, can reduce and prevent soil compaction and give your lawn the boost it needs to continue healthy growth.
Your lawn can get compacted over time, and aeration really helps break this up to get your soil back to good health.
In addition, if you overseed your lawn after you aerate to fill in bare spots, you get a chance to optimize seed germination. This means you thicken your lawn, helping it to not only look improved, but also better resist weeds.
Some lawn care companies like Turf’s Up can also add topdressing at this time to further improve the composition of your soil. This is a great option at this time because it can settle into those aeration holes and help give your lawn soil a boost more quickly.
This lawn care for beginners strategy is typically best done in autumn.
When people ask us for one key lawn care tip, this is a great solution that naturally helps strengthen your lawn and improve its appearance for a minor cost.
5. Enlist the Help of a Lawn Care Professional in Northern Virginia
When you hire a lawn care professional for your new home, you don’t need to scour the home improvement stores looking at all of the products or waste time learning about proper lawn care.
In fact, hiring the right service professional can mean you receive all the lawn care tips for new homeowners you need, in addition to properly timed and targeted treatments to ensure your grass stays in great shape all year long. A professional can take away all of the concerns about fertilization, weed management, or insect control, so you have an educated partner in your corner when things go wrong and your lawn requires attention.
What’s more, when you bring in a lawn care expert, you can spend your time outside enjoying your lawn instead of working on it all the time.
Turf’s Up Can Help Make Lawn Care For New Homeowners Easier in Northern Virginia
You want a lawn that looks good and boosts your home value in Northern Virginia. We completely understand. A new home is something special, and you want your lawn to fit right in.
We hope these lawn care tips for new homeowners help you settle into your new adobe and get that lawn you love to give that home the look you’re after and help you fit in in your new neighborhood.
As you’re unpacking all of your belongings, you might find yourself still confused over what to do about your lawn. Stop worrying and give Turf’s Up a call. We can help you assess your lawn and suggest a proper lawn care program to ensure you give your new yard the attention it needs.
Ready to learn why Turf’s Up could be your totally awesome choice for lawn care services in Northern Virginia? We’re stoked to learn more about you and help you have the best lawn on the block. Get started today with a free quote. Together, we can prepare a customized plan that is perfect for you and your lawn.
