Lawncare is an important step when planning your outdoor space and garden. You can spend hours planting the perfect grass seed or laying the perfect sod, but without proper lawn care, your hours of manual labor and energy will be wasted. Your lawn is alive and requires the proper nutrients and care to grow properly. There are a few key basics when caring for your lawn properly - amount of water, sun, fertilizer and maintenance.

Hydration and Light - Rain is the best way to provide water to your lawn; however, we have no control over the amount of rain that will grace us with its presence. In times of a drought, it's absolutely necessary to run a sprinkler for a certain amount of hours every other day, especially in the summer! It's always best to water in the early morning so when the sun is at its highest in the afternoon your lawn has been fully saturated, storing its reserves in its roots to avoid drying out in the sun.

The healthier your soil is the healthier your grass will be. Some would say that soil is the key to a healthy, plush lawn. Healthy soil will promote proper drainage as well as hold water in like a sponge. Keep in mind that if you live somewhere like the southwest which has sandy soil, your lawn may require watering everyday. If you have just laid grass seed the seeds will need time to germinate. For the seeds to germinate properly they will need cooler nights. So the best time to plant grass seed will be late summer or early fall. Also, newly laid grass seed will need to be watered everyday.

Fertilizer - When it comes to choosing the proper fertilizers, try to go with natural versus chemical. The natural selections may take longer for you to notice a difference, but the changes are longer lasting because natural fertilizers do not kill off all living nutrients found in the soil like the chemical choices will. You should fertilize in early spring or early fall.

Maintenance - Another important part of keeping a healthy lawn is proper mowing and edging of the lawn. Think of mowing your grass as the lawns hygiene. It's just as important for you to mown your lawn to stay healthy as it is for us to take a shower. You should mow your lawn to keep it between 1 � - 3 inches long and leave the clippings in the lawn to re-circulate nutrients found in the cut blades. It's also important to have sharp mower blades so the mower slices the grass not shreds the tips. Shredding the tips can cause the grass to dry out and turn brown and stiff. Edging between your lawn and garden beds provides a nice buffer to prevent grass from growing into your beautiful plants.

Having the greenest, plushest lawn on the block is definitely something to boast about. It is considered an art to keep a beautiful lawn. Lawns require a lot of maintenance, but also many benefits. Follow these basic considerations and you will have a beautiful, healthy lawn.