Your yard landscaping may include trees, shrubbery, flowers, and a thick lawn that you take care of from early spring to late fall. As part of your yard maintenance, your lawn needs the right amount of water, aeration, de-thatching, fertilizer application, and a good mowing schedule. Here are some essential lawn care recommendations to keep your lawn in the best shape and healthy with watering and mowing.

Watch For Appropriate Watering

Without enough water, your lawn will quickly turn limp, brown, and dry out from the stress of the sun's heat. For this reason, watering your lawn in a regular and managed pattern will keep it alive and thriving with deeply-set roots. 

Your lawn needs anywhere from an inch and one-half to two inches of water each week, and if you don't get that amount in rainstorms, you will need to apply with irrigation or sprinklers. But you need to know how much water your sprinklers deliver onto your lawn. You can measure their output by placing an empty tuna can in your yard when your sprinklers are running. Measure the water every five minutes until you have a good idea of the sprinkler's output. 

Apply this application rate to make sure your lawn gets sufficient water each week. You can also watch for signs of heat stress on your lawn. This includes your lawn not springing back after you step upon it or its color turning darker and dull looking.

Follow a Regular Mowing Routine and Pattern

As your lawn begins to grow healthy and fill on any bare spots, you need to keep up on its mowing. Mowing does not mean that you cut its length when it becomes too long for the sprinklers to spray over the tops or when the dandelions go to seed, keep up on its trimming regularly. A good rule of thumb for mowing your lawn is to mow once a week, which will provide you a regularly scheduled timing and keep your lawn trimmed the right amount. 

If, for example, you were to let your lawn go for two to three weeks without mowing, then cut off all the extra length, the lawn plants will become stressed from too much leaf length chopped off. This will also expose too much of the lawn's roots to the sunlight too quickly, as the lawn has become accustomed to a good amount of shade on its roots. Trimming your lawn each week will make sure you don't trim off more than one-third of the length of the blades, which is the required amount.

Keep your lawn's height a bit longer each time you mow. This will also help keep the soil and roots shaded effectively, which will keep the soil moist for longer and can reduce the amount of water loss you have and increase the length of time you can go before you need to water your lawn again.

Also, look at the pattern you mow over your lawn. Do you go in a circular pattern clockwise or pass back and forth making a checkerboard pattern? The direction in which you mow your lawn can cause your lawn plants to grow in one direction. So, it is recommended to switch up the direction in which you mow to keep your lawn growing straight up and down and not leaning one direction.

For more tips on improving your lawn, talk to a lawn care service.