Contact us for FREE lawn analysis
Tips to Keep Your Lawn and Landscape Healthy and Beautiful
Keepers of the Green keeps your property looking its best
Tampa Bay has a sunny climate that makes it a wonderful place to live, but that also makes it harder for you to keep your lawn looking great. The sun can be unforgiving on your lawn, turning the grass brown or killing it entirely so that you have patches of bare dirt in your lawn. It can be even harder to keep bushes and flowering plants healthy.
Keepers of the Green creates a beautiful, green lawn with lush plants through services like fertilization, pest and disease management, pruning, and more. Our experienced and friendly professionals also provide tips to help you care for your lawn between services so it can reach its full potential, becoming lush, green, and healthy.
Mow Regularly
Mowing your grass regularly will keep it trim and neat-looking, as well as put nutrients back into the soil to keep the grass healthy. You should always mow without a bag so grass clippings go right back into the soil. The mowed grass will decompose, putting minerals into the soil. The clippings will also spread grass seeds, which can help to fill in patches in your lawn.
Know the appropriate height for your type of grass. If you cut the grass too short, it will result in “burning”, killing the grass, leaving brown spots. Here are the recommended heights for the common grass types in Tampa Bay:
- Zoysia: 1.5 to 2 inches
- Augustine: 3.5 to 4 inches (2 to 2.5 inches for semi-dwarf)
- Bahia: 3.5 to 4 inches
- Centipede: 1 to 2 inches
As a general rule of thumb, don’t cut more than 1/3 of the grass blade. Always cut your grass with a sharp lawnmower blade. Dull blades will damage the grass. Always cut your grass when it is dry. Wet clippings will clump together and kill the grass below them.
Provide Plenty of Water
The temperatures in Tampa Bay can reach insufferable levels. Your grass can’t go inside to enjoy the air conditioner like you can. It will bake in the sun all day, and if it doesn’t get enough water, that means that it will be damaged. Outside of the rainy season, it is important to provide the right amount of water. Watering too much can be as harmful as not watering enough. Typically, you should give your lawn about ½ to ¾ inch of water per day. If you have sandy soil, you should give it the higher amount. If you see water running off the lawn or pooling, you are watering too much. The grass is no longer absorbing the water.
Whether you have a sprinkler system or a drip-irrigation system does not matter so much as how much you water the lawn. Choose the watering system that’s easiest for you, but make sure that you are timing the system right so that your yard gets the right amount of water. Signs that your lawn is not getting enough water include a blue-gray color, folded grass blades, and footprints and other marks in the grass, indicating that the grass is not springing back. Create a watering schedule or set up an irrigation system to get your grass healthy again. Always water around sunrise so that your lawn has a chance to dry out during the day and is more resilient to disease.
Fertilize Appropriately
There are plenty of products out there that allow you to fertilize your lawn yourself. However, we don’t recommend you take on this job yourself. It is too easy to damage your lawn by using the wrong fertilizer or the wrong amount. You can easily burn your lawn and create long-lasting damage that is difficult to correct. The experienced professionals at Keepers of the Green are the fertilization experts. We know the right type of fertilizer for your grass type and the unique conditions of your lawn. We will apply the right amount of fertilizer at the right times so that your grass gets the nutrients it needs when it needs them and is able to thrive. Fortunately, fertilizer can be applied at times throughout the year in Florida, so we can start helping your lawn quickly if it is in distress. You don’t have to wait a whole year to start nourishing your lawn and getting it back to beautiful.
Manage Pests and Disease
Just like fertilizing, there are plenty of products that allow you to manage pests and disease in your lawn yourself, but we don’t recommend you take on that job. Pests and lawn disease thrive on a complex combination of factors, and it takes a professional to properly diagnose these issues and develop an effective treatment plan that won’t further damage the lawn or local eco-system. The professionals at Keepers of the Green are outdoor pest control experts. We have the knowledge, experience, and tools to keep your lawn free of harmful pests and disease.
We carefully evaluate your lawn and diagnose any current infestations, as well as give you information about potential threats. We then develop a treatment plan that will eradicate your lawn of any existing pests or disease and prevent any new ones from becoming a threat. Your lawn will thrive, becoming the beautiful, green oasis you’ve dreamed of.
We do all the work so you don’t have to!
Proper lawn maintenance is essential to its overall health, and maintaining it on your own can quickly become an expensive, frustrating headache. Don’t stress about your lawn and landscape – contact the lawn care professionals at Keepers of the Green. We do all the work so you don’t have to! Call us at (813) 245-3432 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation today. Fast service and results you can count on since 1997!