Well-groomed grass in a summer cottage looks no less aesthetically pleasing than flower beds with flowers. In addition, if you carry out all the work on planting the lawn correctly, then in the future lawn care will be very simple. A beautiful lawn will become not only a part of the decorative design of the site, but will also bring many benefits. For a year of half a hectare of planted grass, it absorbs about 40 tons of dust, which means that you will breathe healthy air. The second plus - humidity will increase, which in the summer will help owners easier to tolerate heat. Each summer resident can make a lawn with his own hands, because this does not require special equipment and in-depth knowledge of the agronomist. Here is the basic rule: do everything slowly and efficiently.
Classification of lawn types
Before the start of excavation, they are determined with the type of lawn. It is selected taking into account the further use of the grass field, because the lawn arrangement for outdoor games and for the patio zone can radically differ in the quality and variety of cereals that make up the grass mixtures. There are several types of lawn grasses, so before going to the store, clearly determine what you need.
When buying a lawn mixture, read the instructions on the package, which indicates for what purposes you can use a similar lawn
Sports lawn
It is sown in places where a playground, a children's area or a zone for walking domestic animals is planned (for example, if someone is raising dogs). The composition of sports mixtures includes herbs that are not afraid of trampling, so over time "bald" spots will not appear on your lawn. Such lawns are dense, tough and unpretentious. True, a stronger substrate is built under them to avoid grass breaks.
For playgrounds and play areas, it is recommended to sow sports mixtures that withstand constant trampling
English (ground floor) lawn
This lawn is the exact opposite of sports. It is not intended for movement, but for contemplation. Mixtures are composed of expensive delicate herbs that require good soil, constant care and haircuts, are afraid of shady places and trampling. In the landscape, the English lawn looks very luxurious and expensive, but this is a purely decorative corner, in which picnics and tea parties are excluded.
Along with beautiful aesthetic parameters, the English lawn is very gentle, demanding care and does not tolerate movement on it
Garden lawn
Do-it-yourself lawn and garden lawn in the country house is the easiest to do. The cereals included in its composition are unpretentious, well tolerate both shade and scorching sun rays, grow on poor soils. Therefore, for recreation areas, patios, territories near pools, this option is most often chosen.
And instead of a classic lawn, you can grow an unpretentious lawn from Irish moss. Read about it: //diz-cafe.com/rastenija/mshanka-shilovidnaya.html
Meadow (Moorish) lawn
If you like field grass and meadows dotted with flowers, then choose this type of lawn. It will be a lawn blooming all summer with a bright palette of colors. You can create a mixture for a meadow lawn yourself by choosing plants so that they alternately bloom the entire summer season.
A simpler option is to buy a ready-made Moorish lawn, where herbs are already selected that get along well, do not drown each other out and are distinguished by bright colors. Naturally, such lawns are rarely mowed (only in order to remove faded plants and allow the next generation to germinate). But walking on them is not recommended, because tall, about 10 cm. Herbs will crumple underfoot and are unlikely to restore their former appearance.
Meadow lawns, especially Moorish, are great for rustic site design and look naturalistic.
Universal lawn
Universal lawns are created very quickly, because they use ready-made roll strips of grass for them. They are sold with turf and quickly take root in a new place. Using roll materials, they equip any zones on the site in which traffic is planned. As a decorative, ground grass, this option is not suitable, because unpretentious hard grasses that do not have high aesthetic qualities are used for its cultivation. It should be borne in mind that such a lawn will cost you much more than sowing grass for a lawn, because roll strips require special soil preparation and the ability to properly lay them.
You can learn about the laying technology and the rules for growing a roll of lawn from the material: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/texnologiya-ukladki-rulonnogo-gazona.html
Rolled lawns are a universal type of lawn (albeit expensive!), Where you can create recreation areas, playgrounds
Rules for choosing a landing place
When dividing the landscape of a site into certain zones, keep in mind that not all lawn mixtures will grow equally well where you allocated a place for them.
- So, the English lawn needs complete openness, the absence of shade and winds.
- Any grass will not grow normally in the zone of constant shadow, which happens in the immediate vicinity of buildings.
- If you are planning to plant a lawn under an orchard or decorative trees, then in the radius of the crown the lawn has little chance of survival. Firstly, the root system of more powerful trees will pick up most of the nutrition. Secondly, the branches will give a large amount of shadow, interfering with the processes of photosynthesis. As a result, the grass will have a pale appearance. You will either have to sacrifice the lower branches of trees and cut them, or refuse to plant grass in this place.
- If the summer cottage is located in low-lying waterlogged areas, then the roots of the grass will constantly rot. The lawn does not like waterlogging, so you have to do a quality drainage. True, there are mixtures of herbs that grow during stagnation of water, but even they are not shown a constant excess of moisture.
- If elevations are observed in the area, then in the places of transitions the soil is subject to erosion and leaching. You need to smooth the slopes so that their steepness does not exceed 30˚ and additionally reinforce with a grid that will hold the soil, preventing it from sprinkling.
- Do not make a lawn path in a place of constant movement of people and cars, for example, from the gate to the house. Trampling the same rut every day, you will condense the ground so much that the grass will lose oxygen access to the roots and "suffocate". Even sports mixes in this case will not work, because they are designed for intensive movement of people throughout the site, and not in one narrow strip. If the desire to keep the site green is so great, then lay strips of tile or wood chocks between the lawn to step on them, and not on the grass.
Features of proper sowing
It is advisable that the preparation of a rough draft of your future lawn should be in the winter. Then, with the beginning of spring, you will immediately begin excavation work. Lawn mixtures show better survival in early spring, when the earth is saturated with moisture and there is no strong heat. If the moment is missed, then do not sow the lawn in the summer. Wait for the autumn days when the rains feed the soil, and then proceed to sowing. But do not be late: before the winter, the young lawn should leave after 1-2 mowing.
You can learn more about how to prepare a lawn for winter from the material: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/podgotovka-gazona-k-zime.html
Preparing the soil for planting seeds
The procedure for the work is as follows:
- Clearing. First of all, the future site is being cleared of all kinds of construction waste, stones. Stumps are uprooted, low-growing branches on trees are cut.
- Weed control. Then comes the time for weed control. They must either be weeded out manually, destroying along with the roots, or chemically treated. In the first case, you will spend a lot of physical strength on the destruction of weeds, but you can immediately proceed to the next stage of work. With chemical weeding, you will have to wait at least a week until the drug begins to be destructive. This is why it is recommended to treat the soil with chemicals in the fall. Then the weeds will disappear during the winter, and the chemicals themselves will have time to decay into safe elements and will not harm when planting the lawn.
- Creation of a drainage system. If your site is in a lowland, then you need to save the earth from waterlogging. To do this, before digging in the lawn, make a drainage. After the rain, mark the places of accumulation of water and dig deep holes in them (about a meter). Line the bottom of the pits with broken bricks, then with large gravel, and on it with a layer of sand. Leave 40 cm on fertile soil. After planting, the water will go into the soil and through the soil fall into the drainage pit.
- Site leveling and digging. In uneven areas, it is necessary to level the terrain so that the lawn has an even horizontal. To do this, pull cords to pegs at different ends of the platform and watch the level of differences. Pits fall asleep, bumps cut off. After that, the entire site is dug up. The trapping roots of perennial weeds, debris and stones are removed. Sandy soils are fertilized with chernozem or peat. Too greasy diluted with sand.
- Ramming and tilling. Before planting seeds for the lawn, it is necessary to compact the soil tightly, walking on it in small steps or using a board. They put it on the edge of the plot and jump on it until the earth settles. Then move the board and continue until they trample the entire site. You can also ride a thick log. As soon as you step on the ground, and it does not rinse under your foot, the soil is ready for planting. It remains to slightly loosen it with a rake and sow the lawn mixture with the density recommended in the instructions.
After the earth is rammed, it is necessary to move the upper layer with a rake so that the seeds gain access to air and moisture
Grass sowing process
If you sow seeds with your own hands, it is difficult to make the lawn smooth, like a brush, because the grass is scattered unevenly. As a result, some places will sprout densely, while others will grow weakly. To achieve uniformity, a portion of seeds per meter of space is mixed with the same volume of fine sand and then sown. It is optimal to sow with a manual seeder, but you will not always find it on sale.
Sprinkle the seeds with earth and roll them in a log so that the birds do not glue. If the ground is dry - it is recommended to pour from a small sprayer under a weak pressure of water, so as not to wash the crops.
Material about lawn care technology will also be useful: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/uxod-za-gazonom.html
Hand seeder helps to more economically consume lawn grass seeds and at the same time the quality of planting is more uniform
Seeds are rolled up with a special roller, and if it is not, they are slammed with a board or thoroughly trampled on flat shoes
It remains to wait for shoots and enjoy the beautiful lawn. By the way, weeds will climb along with grass. But they are no longer afraid of the lawn. After one or two mowing, annuals disappear without a trace, and the grass becomes a juicy, thick carpet.
