Your grass is green. Your lawn care techniques should be too!
Here are a few suggestions to keep your lawn nice and green.

• Use a push mower or electric mower! They are quiet and don’t pollute. Keep blades sharp and oiled.

• Set your mower to mow high. Long blades of grass develop deep roots.

• Regardless of your mower type, dry tips on grass blades indicated that your mower blade is dull.

• Leave clippings on your lawn to provide nitrogen and moisture. Mow often.

• Use a hand weeder not herbicides. Develop a tolerance for a few weeds and weed when your tolerance is reached.

• Focus on the grass, not the weeds. Healthy grass makes it tough for weeds to thrive.

• Research has shown that corn gluten  meal (available at most feed stores like Fleet Farm) effectively prevent seeds from sprouting, including seeds from many weeds such as crabgrass, chickweed, and even dandelions. It is effective only against seeds, not existing plants. Annual weeds that are already up and growing will not be killed by products made of corn gluten meal.  To learn more check out this link.

• If you have compost available, spread a ½ inch on your lawn as a fertilizer.

Let your grass go dormant during the hot dry months (like now).  The Lawn Institute has some great tips including:

‘Summer dormancy is a perfectly normal response to the stress of heat and drought.  It is important to make sure grass is as healthy as possible before dormancy begins and not to stress the grass any more once conditions become unfavorable for growth.  Grass should be maintained slightly higher before and during drought.  Grass should only be mowed as needed and mowing should be preformed early in the morning or late in the evening with a sharp blade to minimize stress on the turf. ‘