Well-groomed grass on summer cottage looks no less aesthetically pleasing than flower beds. In addition, if you carry out all the work on planting the lawn correctly, then caring for your lawn in the future will be very simple. A beautiful lawn will become not only part of decorative design plot, but will also bring a lot of benefits. Over the course of a year, half a hectare of planted grass absorbs about 40 tons of dust, which means you will breathe healthy air. The second plus is that the humidity will increase, which in summer will help the owners tolerate the heat more easily. Every summer resident can make a lawn with his own hands, because this does not require special equipment or deep knowledge of an agronomist. The main rule here is to do everything slowly and efficiently.
Before excavation work begins, the type of lawn is determined. It is selected taking into account the further use of the grass area, because the construction of a lawn for outdoor games and for the patio area can differ radically in the quality and variety of cereals included in the grass mixtures. There is, so before going to the store, clearly determine what you need.
When purchasing a lawn mixture, read the instructions on the packaging, which indicate for what purposes such a lawn can be used.
It is sown in places where there is a planned playground, children's area or area for walking pets (for example, if someone breeds dogs). Sports mixtures contain grasses that are not afraid of trampling, so over time, “bald” spots will not appear on your lawn. Such lawns are dense, hard and unpretentious. True, a more durable substrate is built under them to avoid tearing the grass.
English (ground) lawn
This lawn is the complete opposite of a sports lawn. It is not intended for movement, but for contemplation. The mixtures are made from expensive delicate herbs that require good soil, ongoing care and haircuts, they are afraid shady places and trampling. In the landscape, the English lawn looks very luxurious and expensive, but it is clean decorative corner, which excludes picnics and tea parties.
Along with beautiful aesthetic parameters, the English lawn is very delicate, demanding to care for and does not tolerate traffic on it.
Garden lawn
The easiest way to make a garden lawn at your dacha is to do it yourself. The cereals included in its composition are unpretentious and tolerate both shade and scorching heat. Sun rays, grow in poor soils. Therefore, this option is most often chosen for recreation areas, patios, and areas near swimming pools.
Meadow (Moorish) lawn
If you like wild grasses and meadows dotted with flowers, then choose this type of lawn. This will be a lawn blooming all summer long with a bright palette of colors. You can create a mixture for a meadow lawn yourself by selecting plants so that they bloom alternately throughout the summer season.
An easier option is to buy a ready-made one, where herbs have already been selected that get along well together, do not drown out each other and are different bright colors. Naturally, such lawns are rarely mowed (only to remove faded plants and allow the next generation to sprout). But it is not recommended to walk on them, because tall, about 10 cm grasses will be crushed under your feet and are unlikely to restore their previous appearance.
Meadow lawns, especially Moorish lawns, are perfect for rustic styles of site design and look naturalistic
Universal lawns are created very quickly because they use ready-made rolled strips of grass. They are sold with turf and quickly take root in a new place. By using roll materials arrange any areas on the site in which traffic is planned. This option is not suitable as a decorative parterre lawn, because for its cultivation they use unpretentious, hard grasses that do not have high aesthetic qualities. It should be borne in mind that such a lawn will cost you much more than sowing grass for a lawn, because rolled strips require special soil preparation and the ability to lay them out correctly.
Rolled lawns are a universal type of lawn (albeit expensive!), on which you can create recreation areas and playgrounds
Rules for choosing a landing site
When dividing the landscape of the site into certain zones, keep in mind that not all lawn mixtures will grow equally well where you have allocated a place for them.
- So, an English lawn needs complete openness, absence of shade and wind.
- Any grass will not grow normally in an area of constant shade, which occurs in the immediate vicinity of buildings.
- If you are planning to sow your lawn under orchard or ornamental trees, then within the radius of the crown the lawn has little chance of survival. Firstly, most of the nutrition will be taken by the root system of more powerful trees. Secondly, the branches will give a large number of shadows that interfere with photosynthesis processes. As a result, the grass will have a pale appearance. You will either have to sacrifice the lower branches of the trees and cut them off, or refuse to sow grass in this place.
- If the dacha plot is located in a low-lying, waterlogged area, then the grass roots will constantly rot. The lawn does not like waterlogging, so you will have to provide high-quality drainage. True, there are mixtures of herbs that grow even when water is stagnant, but even they do not need a constant excess of moisture.
- If there are elevation changes in the area, then in places of transition the soil is susceptible to erosion and washout. You need to smooth out the slopes so that their steepness does not exceed 30˚ and additionally reinforce them with a mesh that will hold the soil and prevent it from crumbling.
- You should not make a lawn path in a place where there is constant movement of people and cars, for example, from the gate to the house. By trampling down the same rut every day, you will compact the soil so much that the grass will be deprived of oxygen access to the roots and will “suffocate.” Even sports mixtures will not work in this case, because they are designed for heavy traffic of people throughout the entire site, and not in one narrow strip. If the desire to keep the area green is so great, then lay strips of tiles or wooden blocks to walk on them and not on the grass.
Features of proper sowing
It is advisable that the drawing up of a rough design for your future lawn should take place in the winter. Then, with the beginning of spring, you will immediately begin earthworks. Lawn mixtures show better survival rate in early spring when the earth is saturated with moisture and there is no intense heat. If the moment is missed, then you should not sow the lawn in the summer. Wait until the autumn days, when the rains saturate the soil, and then start sowing. But don’t be late: before winter, the young lawn should go away after 1-2 mowings.
Preparing the soil for planting seeds
The work order is as follows:
- Clearing. First of all, the future site is cleared of all possible construction waste, stones. Stumps are uprooted and low-growing branches on trees are trimmed.
- Weed control. Then it’s time to control weeds. They must either be weeded out by hand, destroying them along with the roots, or chemically treated. In the first case, you will spend a lot of physical strength on destroying weeds, but you will be able to immediately begin the next stage of work. When using chemical weeding, you will have to wait at least a week until the drug begins to have a destructive effect. This is why it is recommended to treat the soil with chemicals in the fall. Then the weeds will disappear over the winter, and the chemicals themselves will have time to break down 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 rid the soil of waterlogging. To do this, make sure there is drainage before digging up the lawn. After rain, mark places where water accumulates and dig deep holes (about a meter) in them. Line the bottom of the holes with broken bricks, then with coarse gravel, and over it with a layer of sand. Leave 40 cm at fertile soil. After planting, the water will go into the soil and through the ground into the drainage hole.
- Leveling the area and digging. In uneven areas, it is necessary to level the terrain so that the lawn has an even horizontal surface. To do this, stretch cords to pegs at different ends of the site and watch the level differences. The holes are filled up and the hummocks are cut off. After this, the entire area is dug up. Any roots of perennial weeds, debris and stones are removed. Sandy soils are fertilized with black soil or peat. Too fatty ones are diluted with sand.
- Tamping and loosening. Before starting, you need to compact the soil tightly, walking on it in small steps or using a board. They place it on the edge of the plot and jump on it until the ground settles. Then they move the board and continue until the entire area is trampled. You can also roll a thick log. As soon as you step on the ground and it doesn’t soften under your foot, the soil is ready for planting. All that remains is to loosen it slightly with a rake and sow it with a lawn mixture at the density recommended in the instructions.
After the earth is compacted, you need to move the top layer with a rake so that the seeds have access to air and moisture
Grass sowing process
If you sow seeds yourself, it is difficult to get the lawn as smooth as a brush because the grass is not spread evenly. As a result, some places will grow thickly, while others will grow weakly. To achieve uniformity, a portion of seeds calculated 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 cannot always find one on sale.
Sprinkle the seeds with soil and roll them with a log to prevent birds from pecking them. If the soil is dry, it is recommended to water with a fine sprinkler under weak pressure water so as not to wash the crops.
The seeds are rolled with a special roller, and if there is none, then they are slammed down with a board or carefully trampled down with flat-soled shoes.
All that remains is to wait for the shoots to emerge and enjoy the beautiful lawn. By the way, along with the blades of grass, weeds will also grow. But they are no longer terrible for the lawn. After one or two mowings, the annuals disappear without a trace, and the grass becomes a lush, thick carpet.
The lawn creates harmony in the garden, emphasizing the beauty of flower beds, the lush greenery of spreading bushes and the neatness of paths, and also gives the site an aristocratic appearance. Thanks to the lawn, the chances of weeds to invade the territory are significantly reduced, the garden looks more well-groomed and, in addition, green grass absorbs dust and improves the microclimate near your home. There is no doubt - a lawn has many advantages, and if everything is done correctly, you are unlikely to regret the time and money spent. But which lawn is better: rolled or seeded, parterre or regular?
What is better: buy a roll lawn or sow the grass yourself?
On the question of how to choose a lawn, opinions often differ. Some people want to quickly decorate the area with an ideal emerald lawn, while the price of the issue does not play a special role, while others would prefer to save money and sow the area with grass themselves, having previously studied the structure of the lawn and selected the most suitable grass mixture.
Lawns for the lazy also include clover and Moorish lawns.
Grass lawns are also different: parterre lawns need to be carefully looked after in order to maintain their impeccable appearance; ordinary garden lawns do not look so elegant, but they are easier to care for, and you can safely walk on them. The so-called lawn grass for the lazy is gaining popularity - special grass mixtures from unpretentious plants that do not require frequent cutting and watering. Lawns for the lazy can also be classified as lawns, but they have their pros and cons, which are definitely worth paying attention to.
Video about lawn in rolls or seeds, which is better
If you do not take into account the cost of lawn in rolls, you can count many advantages:
- Rolled lawn grass is frost-resistant, so it can be laid up to late autumn, without fear that the turf will not have time to take root and will freeze;
- there is no need to wait for the grass to grow, the lawn looks impressive immediately after laying;
- weeds do not appear on rolled lawns for one or two seasons;
- the quality of the finished turf is very high, it does not fall apart, has good density and a uniform, rich color;
- Lawn in rolls is resistant to damping off, drought, heavy rainfall and trampling.
You most likely won’t be able to roll out the rolls alone, so immediately budget for the costs of hiring help.
Despite so many advantages, rolled lawn reviews are mixed. Firstly, it does not grow well in shaded areas; secondly, felt may soon appear under the grass, which contributes to the spread and spoils it appearance; thirdly, lawn in rolls is less durable than seeded lawn. In addition, installing a rolled lawn requires several hands due to the heaviness of the turf. You most likely won’t be able to roll out the rolls alone, so immediately budget for the costs of hiring help. You will need to care for a rolled lawn in the same way as a seeded lawn: regularly mow, water, feed, comb and aerate the soil.
Of course, creating a lawn with your own hands takes a lot of time and requires a lot of effort. This is precisely the main disadvantage seeded lawn. In addition, you will have to be patient: at the beginning of summer you will need to complete everything necessary work, sow the grass mixture, then conscientiously care for the grass throughout the entire season and prepare it properly for winter. And only on next year you will be able to evaluate the results of your efforts.
Sometimes it’s not easy to decide which lawn to choose, because both rolled and seeded lawns have their drawbacks
But you will be rewarded with the following advantages of a seeded lawn:
- durability and resistance to impact environment- provided that the grass mixture is correctly selected, the cereals you sow will immediately adapt to the local natural conditions and the type of soil on your site;
- The variety of lawn grasses allows you to choose a grass mixture for any conditions (adapted for growth in shaded areas, for trampling, intended for active rest or for decorative purposes);
- if bald spots appear on the lawn, you can always sow the grass;
- seeded lawn is more unpretentious than rolled lawn.
Sometimes it’s not easy to decide which lawn to choose, because both rolled and seeded lawns have their drawbacks. But no matter what option you choose, the appearance of the lawn will largely depend on how much proper care you provide it in the future.
An experienced consultant in a specialized store will definitely tell you how to choose lawn grass taking into account your wishes
Which lawn grass to choose to create a lawn with your own hands?
If you decide to try your hand at planting a lawn yourself, you will have to figure out which grass is best for the lawn, taking into account the climate, soil and the degree of expected load on the lawn - will it perform exceptionally decorative function or you expect to walk on the grass and play active games on it.
As the definition of a lawn states, it consists primarily of perennial grasses of the grass family. Most often, grass mixtures contain a certain percentage of bluegrass, fescue and raygrass seeds. Various combination of these basic components with minor additions of other plant species and provides a huge variety of herbal mixtures on the market. An experienced consultant in a specialized store will definitely tell you how to choose lawn grass, taking into account your wishes and the conditions in which the grass will grow.
Meadow bluegrass
With insufficient care, it loses its beautiful malachite color and gloss, thins out, but is able to quickly recover
Resistant to early frosts and frosty winters, durable, but in the first year it is very weak and may freeze or suffer from weeds. By the third year it turns into a thick carpet nice color. It begins to turn green earlier than other herbs and grows well in a sunny place for decades, but in the shade it can become sick with powdery grass and die. Relates well to plenty of water, loamy soils and liming. With insufficient care, it loses its beautiful malachite color and luster, thins out, but is able to quickly recover if you remember about it in time.
Red fescue
Drought resistant shade-tolerant plant, grows slowly in the first year and then grows rapidly. Forms dense turf, soft and silky. This is lawn grass for the lazy - even if you forget to water it on time or feed it, the plants will still not die.
Bentgrass
It grows quickly and is characterized by increased endurance, forms a very dense turf, and it is almost impossible to trample it. Ideal for children's playgrounds.
Video about growing a lawn with your own hands
Perennial ryegrass
Quite tough dark green grass, grows quickly and is not easily trampled. Due to the fact that reigrass is much brighter than other types of grasses in grass mixtures, it will stand out against the background of delicate greenery on the lawn.
Bluegrass and fescue get along well on the same lawn, complementing each other; these plants are best suited for creating a high-quality lawn in any climatic conditions, different types soil. The addition of ryegrass is necessary to ensure that the lawn turns green as quickly as possible while the bluegrass and fescue are gaining strength. The main thing is that there is not too much ryegrass in the grass mixture, otherwise it will crush the seedlings of the main lawn plants.
Each garden has its own unique appearance. But what gives it a truly refined, harmonious look is the lawn that unites the flower beds, alpine coaster and a pond into a single whole. Spring is a special time to take care of your green lawn. Today we will tell you about the types lawn grass, grass mixtures, as well as how to properly lay a lawn.
On the existing lawn, “comb out” the formed in autumn-winter period plant remains. To prevent the emergence of lawn grass diseases, they create favorable conditions for air exchange in the root layer - they pierce the soil.
Then the lawn grass is fed with complex fertilizers with a predominance of nitrogen: they ensure rapid regrowth and restoration of the lawn after winter. If necessary, they fight weeds, reseeding the grass if it is not uniform. If there is no lawn on the site, then spring, like early autumn, is the time to create it.
Types of lawn grass: g harvest or seed?
First of all, you need to choose a place for the emerald “carpet”. Moreover, it does not necessarily have to be located horizontally; slopes can also become beautiful lawns.
Then decide on the laying method: will you lay a ready-made rolled lawn or give preference to a seeded lawn. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Ready-made turf from lawn grass allows you to turn a bare plot of land into a beautiful green area in just a few hours. You bypass the stage of painstaking care for young crops, but at the same time you must remember that a rolled lawn will last less than one grown from seeds.
Our advice:
It must be taken into account that the soil type of the site and the finished lawn must be identical.
You can’t delay laying it either, because the lifespan of “carpet” in rolls is 6-8 hours in hot weather and 5 days in cool and humid weather. And yet, if you decide to purchase a rolled lawn, make sure that the grass has been recently trimmed ( long stems may hide “felt” and weeds).
Order turf 10-15% more than the area allocated for lawn, and if the area has a complex configuration, then even 25%.
Seed lawn
By growing a lawn from seeds, you will have a ready-made normal lawn in about a year. This will require more careful preparation of the soil for sowing, and the young grass will need additional measures to protect it from birds and animals. However, such lawns are distinguished by their durability and vitality, since the plants from the first stages better adapt to the natural conditions of the site.
Our advice:
It is also important that this method is much cheaper. Those who prefer it should first of all carefully choose lawn grass.
Herbal mixtures of lawn grass: from “A” to “Z”
The highest demands are placed on lawn grass varieties: they must be decorative, long-lasting, resistant to mechanical damage and adverse weather conditions. weather conditions and so on.
Not a single type of herb combines all these qualities. Therefore, despite the beauty of single-grass “carpets,” it is preferable to sow lawn mixtures.
What kind of lawn grass is best to plant at the dacha?
Based on the type of lawn being created, the type of soil, climatic conditions and lighting of the area.
Many varieties of lawn grass are sensitive to soil acidity, and in addition, the level of groundwater is important for them.
It also wouldn't hurt to general outline figure it out biological features different varieties lawn grasses
Our advice:
Creating a lawn on long years, take into account that lawn grasses can be long-lived, which develop slowly, and less long-lived, but with faster ontogenesis.
The appearance of lawn grass is largely determined by the density of shoot formation (thickness of the grass stand), which, in turn, depends on the type of tillering:
- Rhizomatous plants(red fescue, common bluegrass and white bentgrass) form a herbage of medium or low density and are one of the most long-lived grasses. They are often used to create universal and parterre lawns.
- Loose bush grasses- perennial ryegrass, meadow fescue, rhizomatous wheatgrass create a grass stand above average density. They are used for universal, parterre and meadow lawns.
- Grass stand rhizome-loose bush plants (in particular, meadow bluegrass and thin bentgrass) is dense, even and elastic. Plus, such grasses form dense and tear-resistant turf, so they are ideal for creating parterre and sports lawns.
- Dense bush grasses They form a grass stand of very high density and turf of the same density. Unfortunately, such excess is not good: next to these plants (fescue, white fescue, etc.), the development of cereals with a different type of tillering is almost impossible. Such herbs are included only in drought-resistant mixtures.
How tall should the cereals be?
The height of the grass grass plays a significant role in creating a thick lawn.
Riding grasses of lawn grass
(meadow timothy grass, hedgehog grass)
Description: They form tall, up to a meter, coarse stems and leaves, but bush little. They are present in grass mixtures for universal and meadow species lawns, and are also intended for shady places and landscaping of slopes.
Grass grasses
(meadow bluegrass, red fescue, bentgrass)
Description: with thin shoots 40-50 cm high, they bush strongly, form a dense mass of squat stems and leaves, therefore they are suitable for parterre types of lawns.
Semi-top lawn grasses
(meadow fescue and meadow foxtail)
Description: with fairly tall shoots they form medium-density bushes that grow quickly after mowing and bush well. These cereals are suitable for universal species lawns.
Purpose of the lawn
Another criterion for choosing a mixture is performance characteristics plants intended for a specific type of green “carpet”.
Parterre view of the lawn
Cereals for it should tolerate regular mowing well, which, in particular, is different from meadow bluegrass, red fescue and white bentgrass. On the other hand, these grasses do not tolerate trampling, which is considered a disadvantage of parterre lawns.
But today it has been overcome: exclusive lawn mixtures from varieties of meadow grass and red fescue are highly resistant to intense mechanical loads.
Universal type of lawn
Less beautiful than parterre, since it is sown not only from narrow-leaved bluegrass, fescue and bentgrass, but also broad-leaved, coarser ryegrass. However, it is precisely this composition of grasses that makes the lawn wear-resistant: you can even walk on it, even play on it, even put sun loungers on it.
Sporty looking lawn
Grasses for sports lawns are distinguished by their ability to withstand heavy loads, as well as their special resistance to adverse conditions. climatic conditions. Among these cereals are perennial ryegrass and white bentgrass.
Meadow and Moorish lawn type
These lawns are rarely mowed; weeds have time to grow on them. Therefore, appropriate lawn grass mixtures include grains that can displace weeds(for example, meadow bluegrass and bentgrass).
If desired, you can create a non-grass lawn using a mixture of ground cover plants. Such a lawn is suitable for arranging shady areas where the growth of cereal grasses is difficult.
How to lay a lawn?
Having chosen the type of future lawn, decided on its location and purchased the appropriate grass mixture, you can begin laying the lawn.
The site is cleared of debris, stumps, roots of removed trees, and weeds are uprooted. The surface of the site is leveled, and in places where water stagnates, drainage is provided.
A layer of gravel, large stones or broken bricks 10-15 cm high is poured onto infertile soil and compacted well. Then lay a layer of small pebbles or sand 15 cm high and compact it too.
The drainage is filled with fertile soil removed during leveling.
Our advice:
Just before sowing lawn grass, take a long, flat board, tie a rope along its edges and drag the board across the area. This way you can check whether the surface is level enough.
Approximately a week before sowing lawn grass, add starter complex fertilizer. And finally, let's get to the main thing:
- Thoroughly mixed grass seeds are sown by hand or using a seeder. The weather on the day of sowing should be clear and calm. The number of seeds, depending on the composition of the mixture, can be different, on average - 25-30 g per 1 square meter. meter.
- After laying the grass mixture, the soil is lightly leveled with a rake to cover the seeds with a layer of soil no more than 5 mm thick. With deeper planting, the time before germination increases, so the seeds are left almost on the surface, rolled with a roller or roller.
- The area is then watered using drip irrigation or sprinkling to prevent seeds from being washed out of the soil. Before mass shoots appear, the lawn grass is regularly watered, preventing it from drying out.
The first shoots of lawn grass will appear on the 7-21st day after sowing - depending on the weather, the type of grass mixture, soil fertility and watering. They will be a reward for all your efforts, and very soon you will see: an emerald lawn is a real godsend for your garden. After all, it emphasizes the beauty of flower beds and small architectural forms, helps create a beneficial microclimate in the area, soothing the eye with its even color.
Natalia Golubkova
© Ogorodnik magazine
Photo: depositphotos.com
A good well-groomed lawn at the dacha is the pride of any summer resident. However, beginners often don’t know which lawn to choose for their dacha so that it pleases the owner for many years country house and decorated the garden area.
First of all, you should know that all lawns are divided into two types - special and decorative. Special lawns are those that are designed for sports games, as well as for separating traffic in the city. Only decorative lawns are suitable for dachas, which are also represented by their variety; they can be parterre, ordinary, meadow, Moorish.
The most elite is the parterre lawn; high-grade grass is used to create it. You cannot walk on such a lawn; it is intended only for beauty, which can be observed from the side.
If the purpose of creating a lawn at your dacha was the desire to see children playing on the grass, you should choose an ordinary lawn. There is no need to sow grass every year, because lawn grass has the ability to shoot. It creates a dense turf on the ground, which prevents the germination of weeds, so that the lawn retains its aesthetic appearance longer.
You can buy grass seeds for your lawn at a good price on Aliexpress. This trading platform periodically offers significant discounts on all products, including those for the garden. Grass designed specifically for lawns has small and delicate leaves, making it pleasant to the touch.
For different types lawns, various grass mixtures are selected. They usually consist of bluegrass, fescue, ryegrass and some others. Many varieties of grasses are the result of breeders developing them specifically for lawns. They have certain qualities that are beneficial for country lawn, for example, good tolerance to drought, bright light and shade, as well as high frost resistance.
The most popular varieties of lawn grass are mint and fescue; they have a beautiful rich green. Bluegrass endowed high stability to trampling, but in the first years it grows very slowly.
To create lawns High Quality It is recommended to use one or two types of grass. They must have the same even texture and color. When choosing grass seeds, you should also take into account the type of soil in the summer cottage where the lawn will be created. Also, at first you will need to use special fertilizers.