What Type Of Lawn Do You Have - Part 2.

What Type Of Lawn Do You Have? - Part 2.

So, now we know what types of lawn there are, how do we know what type we have. That’s easier than you think. Just look at your lawn, what do you see?

You will know if you have a Premium Class type lawn straight away, a virtually perfect, carpet-like expanse of beautiful green, small-leaved grass that looks like a new snooker table. You will also be able to tell because you will be used to doing a lot of regular maintenance and mowing. It is no secret that this type of lawn requires quite an amount of regular work to keep it looking good.

A First Class lawn will show itself because it will be basically free from weeds, moss, brown patches lumps and bumps and will be the same basic green colour all over, with no bare patches. It will drain quickly and completely after a heavy downpour of rain, leaving no puddles.
This type of lawns appearance will be a mixture of broad and fine leaf grasses giving it a nice and smooth, but not velvety appearance. You can improve the appearance by using a medium weight cylinder mower to cut the grass, this will put those “light and dark stripes” on it, if that is what you like.

A Second Class type of lawn will have quite a number of problems, or signs, to look out for. It could have a mixture of one or more of the following.
Brown patches, lumps and bumps in the surface, differing shades of green, bare patches, puddles and doesn’t drain easily after rain leaving areas of black slimy algae on the surface, has moss, daisies, dandelions, clover, pearlwort, clover or other types of weeds in it.
If your lawn has some or all of the above problems then it will be Second Class, but probably can be saved and turned into a First Class lawn with a just a reasonable amount of effort.
Have a good look at the amount and type of “actual” grass that is in the lawn, is it a fair covering or patchy. Is there large areas of damaged, or weedy turf or just lots of small patches with reasonably good grassy patches in-between.

All of this will give you a clue as to the amount of work involved in saving the lawn you have, indeed, even if it can or is worthwhile saving.
It may mean working out a plan to repair lots of small patches bit by bit or one or two much larger areas, or even taking it up and laying a new lawn. You will have to work out what to do based on the time, money and desire you have to get the type of lawn you would really like. Getting the knowledge is the easy bit if you know where to look. (that’s why we are here).

There is however another class of lawn, and one that I hope you do not have…

The Worn Out Lawn
Not too much we can say about this type, but you will recognise it.
Generally there will be virtually no actual grass left in this type, the green colour you see will probably be made up of a collection of clover, moss, pearlwort and broad-leaved weeds. There will also be bare patches in heavily used areas.
The whole area may be like this, in which case the only option is to rip it up and start again or, if it is only like this in small areas, you can replace these areas as you would lay a new lawn,(see later article for laying new lawns), but make sure that you find out the cause of the problems before you replace the grass.

Once you have decided what type of lawn you have, you need to decide what type of lawn you want and can you upgrade the one you have.
You need to figure out what you want your lawn for.
Purely for decoration and just for looking at, (the Premium Class Luxury Type).
Functional and for general use but you want it looking good, (the First Class Everyday Type).
Just want something basically green because I am not going to bother with it too much, (the Second Class General Type).
Also, when deciding which type of lawn you would like, take into account if you have pets that are going to use the lawn as a toilet or any heavy, overhanging trees or shrubs creating a lot of shade.
All these things will affect the choices you have and the amount of work that will be required in achieving your perfect swathe of green velvet.

I hope that this article helps you in your choice of which lawn I have and which type of lawn you would like to have.