The Biggest Lawn Care Mistakes

While every season is lawn season in California, summer is a particularly great time to enjoy our beloved grass carpets. The objective is to have a lawn that’s fit for tender feet—in other words, a lawn that is lush, soft, and free of weeds and bald spots.

But even when you try your hardest to be a lawn care expert, your lawn could be struggling. It’s not that you’re not doing enough to keep your lawn beautiful—it’s that you’re doing the wrong things.

In this blog, Bakersfield’s landscape supply experts at Kern Turf Supply will break down some of the biggest mistakes homeowners make when taking care of their lawns. Avoid these critical mistakes, and you’ll be well on your way to a lawn perfect for all the bare feet (and paws!) in your family.

You’re mowing the grass too short.

If you’re the kind of lawn care enthusiast who scalps the lawn to start the season, or likes to give your lawn a buzz cut throughout the year, you’re actually doing more harm than good. Cutting your lawn too short makes your grass more susceptible to disease and insect damage, and can jeopardize your soil structure.

When your grass is cut at a healthy length, it will be more dense and green, and will provide your soil bed with the shade it needs to retain water and nutrients. Cut your grass too short, and that central California sun will do damage to your exposed soil bed—plus, your lawn’s lack of density will leave room for—you guessed it—weeds.

Always cut your grass higher than 2 1/2 inches, and never cut more than a third of your grass’s length off at a time. Your lawn, and your soil bed, will thank you for it.

You’re mowing with dull mower blades.

When was the last time you had your mower blades sharpened? If you’re like most people, sharpening your blades has never even crossed your mind. Unfortunately, sharpening your mower blades is more important than you’d think—mowing with dull blades causes “white tipping,” a sign that your grass blades have essentially been torn off instead of cleanly cut. If your mower has dull blades, you’ll notice the white tips on the tops of your grass, and you also might start noticing dreaded bald spots and an increase in insect activity—things that can do damage to your lawn before you even have time to enjoy it.

Be sure to sharpen your mower blades (or have them sharpened for you) once a year, right before prime mowing season begins. This will help you avoid white tipping and all the pitfalls that come with it.

You’re watering your lawn too much and too often.

While things are looking up for water levels in California compared to last year, water for lawn care isn’t (and shouldn’t be) a hot commodity. If you’re overwatering your lawn, you’re only wasting water that could be used for better purposes—and you’re making your lawn and its root systems more heavily dependant on large volumes to survive. This can also prevent root systems from diving deeper into the soil, which inherently makes them more resistant to drought—something Californians are going to become a lot more familiar with in the coming years.

The key to effective lawn watering to water less frequently, but deeper into the soil. This will help root systems remain strong and retain water, and your water consumption will decrease dramatically.

You get a little too crazy with the fertilizer.

More isn’t always better—and this is often the case when it comes to fertilizing your lawn. Fertilizer is packed with nutrients and chemicals that feed your lawn and ensure that it’s chemically balanced—so if you add too much fertilizer in your lawn, you could throw off that chemical balance with copious amounts of any certain chemical.

The usual suspect in these cases is nitrogen. With too much nitrogen in your soil, your lawn will experience a spike in leaf growth and a decrease in root growth—and with highly excessive amounts of fertilizer, you can actually burn your lawn.

Adding the right amounts of slow-release fertilizer to your lawn will prevent burning and make sure your lawn maintains its chemical balance. Talk to your local landscape supply store to find the right fertilizer for your lawn!

You didn’t talk to the professionals.

Yeah, we know you watch YouTube videos from lawn care guys in Iowa, and we know your grandpa in Louisiana has a wealth of lawn-related knowledge. But this isn’t Iowa or Louisiana—this is Bakersfield, California. You need the knowledge and wisdom of Bakersfield’s lawn care experts for the best Bakersfield lawn. That’s where Kern Turf Supply can help. With decades of experience with lawn care and landscape supply, we can help you find the right strategies and products to get the lawn you’ve always dreamed of. Stop by one of our stores, and get started on the way to a luscious lawn today!