3 secrets for better lawn

[Winslet234]

1. Try Homemade Lawn Tonics

Some "my-grass-is-greener-than-yours" lawn growers achieve great success with homemade lawn tonics made from ordinary items. Add any of the following ingredients to the reservoir of a 10- or 20-gallon hose end sprayer and water your lawn with the mixture every three weeks or so. Adding 1 cup dishwashing liquid each time will help spread the solution more evenly and make it stick to blades of grass.

• A 12-ounce can of non-diet cola or beer. The sugar in both stimulates microbes that help to break up the soil.

• 1 cup corn syrup or molasses. See note on sugar, above.

• 1 cup household ammonia. Ammonia adds nitrates, the primary ingredient in most fertilizers.

• ½ cup mouthwash. The alcohol in mouthwash kills bacteria and spores and helps deter some pests.

2. Recycle Your Grass

Take a cue from public parks and golf courses and "grasscycle" when you mow your lawn — which means leaving clippings on your lawn when you finish. Just mow often enough to make sure no more than one-third of the length of the grass blades is lopped off each time. The resulting clippings serve as beneficial mulch and keeps yard waste out of community landfills.

3. Oil Your Mower Blades

Spraying lawnmower blades and the underside of the lawnmower housing with aerosol cooking oil or WD-40 will keep cut grass from building up in your mower, so whip out a can and spray away before you rev up the machine.

[Mars2012]

Are these your secrets? I think a good quality lawn fertilizer would serve the purpose of your first point without all the kitchen gobbledygook.

I agree with not cutting your lawn too short, but your point about leaving the clippings in the lawn can result in a lot of thatch build-up too (which isn't necessarily a good thing).

Oiling your lawn mower blades may prevent rust, but keeping the blades sharp are even more important so that you make a clean cut and not tear at the grass.

[jedi1648]

Your suggestion of cutting "no more than one-third of the length of the grass blades is lopped off each time" is primarily not to stress or weaken the grass for cutting too much. I agree with that suggestion, just like not to cut the grass during hot summer day at noon. My personal secret is to mow the lawn HIGH at 3.5 to 4.0 inches (depending on the outside weather), which keeps the soil cool and thus favourable for our cool season grass in canada to grow, and which discourages weeds to grow.

[toisanwu]

What happened to the other 4 secrets, OP? http://www.readersdigest.ca/home-gar...ts-better-lawn

BTW, today is the coldest day (at least in the Capital) recorded over the past 80 years, why on earth anyone wants to talk about lawn cares!

[Mars2012]

What happened to the other 4 secrets, OP? http://www.readersdigest.ca/home-gar...ts-better-lawn

BTW, today is the coldest day (at least in the Capital) recorded over the past 80 years, why on earth anyone wants to talk about lawn cares!

Ahhh...makes sense now, probably a spammer filling in time...