A beautiful lawn works magic in the landscape. Its fine texture and vibrant green color contrast with the broader leaves of shrubs, trees and perennials, framing and unifying the plantings bordering its edges. A broad, flat swath of grass also creates a rest for the eye, letting your attention flow from its uncluttered expanse to busier looking plantings and landscape features and back again. Think of your lawn as a carpeted floor for your garden, enhancing the landscape in the same way attractive flooring flatters indoor rooms.
A lawn also serves practical purposes. It provides space for outdoor activities, such as ball games with the kids, entertaining friends and relaxing. Grass can also be a hardworking walkway between beds or a buffer zone between your house and the street. These two jobs are what lawns do best. If you find yourself spending many hours maintaining large areas of turf that do not serve these purposes, you might be growing too much grass.
Lawns are composed of turf grasses and different grass species have specific preferences for soil, sunlight and climate. Good care can bring out the best in any turf grass, but you may find that the reason your lawn fails to respond to your efforts is that the grass simply does not fit the site. Switching to a different grass species or blend of several species that is better adapted to your yard may be the answer or you can plant groundcovers in areas that are too shady, too dry or too steep for grass to thrive. Groundcovers are also invaluable for filling spaces that are awkward to mow and for reducing the size of your lawn and its maintenance, while preserving its lush, green look.
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Good care can bring out the best in any turf grass lawn.
