How to make a lawn in the country with your own hands: step by step instructions. Decorative elements of the garden: flower garden, lawn and pond

Until recently, lawns adorned only city squares and front lawns. administrative buildings. This was due to the lack of free sale of special herbs for the lawn and equipment for caring for it. Today, the cult of growing vegetables in summer cottages is being replaced by a desire to create beautiful areas recreation. Landscaping, regardless of the chosen style, in any case implies neat lawns, mowed weeds will never create beautiful background for ornamental flowering plants. In the article we will tell you how to make a lawn at home.

Choice of lawn grass

When the question is how to make a lawn with your own hands, then you need to start by studying the varieties of herbs and selecting the right one.

How to make a green lawn in the garden photo

Herbal mixtures complete different varieties. Some of them are more decorative, and some are resistant to trampling. Some are rapidly growing green mass, while others are slow growing. But such universal grass mixtures are not always suitable for implementation. specific tasks or suit the climate. In this case, it is better to choose only one type of grass.

• One of the most commonly found herbs is meadow bluegrass. This low-growing grass, even without a haircut, does not grow above 20 cm. But during the flowering period, spikelet inflorescences rise by 60-80 cm. This frost-resistant culture grows in Russia and in the wild. It has a powerful root system, which, after a couple of years, suppresses weeds, preventing them from germinating. In addition, it is heat-resistant, not afraid of trampling, and quickly recovers. The best lawn results from meadow bluegrass can be achieved on soil rich in humus. This grass ensures that the lawn is beautiful even in the shade.

• Fescue- not a single grass mixture can do without it either. Red fescue is considered the best for the lawn. It is an unpretentious frost-resistant and drought-resistant cereal. They make excellent lawns from it, as it grows quite quickly even on poor soils, but at the same time its height does not exceed 25 cm.
• If it is important to make a low-growing surface with high trampling resistance, then the best choice would be timothy grass. But its decorative effect is low, so it is not used for parterre lawns. For a country lawn - this is a good option, as it is able to endure even harsh winters, it grows thick rosettes quite quickly, and the height does not exceed 30 cm. In addition, this is the most cheap look lawn grasses.
• Another type of unpretentious grass - bent grass. It has beautiful colour green, tolerates low mowing and forms a very dense herbaceous cover.
• ryegrass certainly a beautiful cereal, it grows very quickly, therefore it is used for lawn repair mixture. Due to the growth rate, it clogs all the weeds and already in the first year after planting a beautiful lawn is obtained. But it is good only for the south of Russia, as it has low frost resistance. In regions where the temperature drops below 12 degrees, it will not overwinter.

Tip: you should not buy grass or a mixture that contains the following cereals: cocksfoot, soddy pike, sheep fescue, annual bluegrass. The latter, with regular mowing without the possibility of earing, will disappear in a year. The rest have a too powerful root, which is capable of forming hummocks in the area.

Advice on how to make a low-growing lawn. Even though many grasses are advertised as stunted, they still require to be mowed every 2 weeks. An alternative way to a traditional lawn would be a front lawn or white clover garden. This is a low-growing creeping grass that will quickly fill the entire space with itself, completely crowding out the weeds. It will never be higher than 10-15 cm, clover inflorescences are also low. During flowering, such a lawn turns into a fragrant blooming lawn. But we must remember that it will attract bumblebees and bees, so planting is not recommended for the children's area.

Parterre lawn

• You wouldn't call it a front lawn. This is the most decorative of all types, designed to be an ornament that can only be admired, but not walked on. The most beneficial parterre lawns emphasize the beauty garden sculptures and fountains.

• Grass for the parterre lawn: meadow bluegrass, red fescue and thin bent grass.

The disadvantages include:

• it does not withstand heavy loads and is quickly trampled;
• requires professional care, otherwise it sharply loses its decorative effect;
• the cost of such grass mixtures is higher than others;
• requires very careful and expensive site preparation, as the seeds of these grasses grow green mass very slowly and can suffer from weeds. In addition, he is constantly cut short, and this will immediately reveal all the irregularities.

Garden lawn

• This is the most common type of lawn we have. It is this name that unites all those lawn grass mixtures that are chosen by summer residents for lawns in their areas. It is he who can most often be seen in city squares and parks.

• Herbs for garden lawn must be frost and drought tolerant. It is good to grow in the shade and not to be trampled.

Most of these mixtures contain grass for parterre lawn, but in small quantities. Most of the cereals are such as:

• ryegrass;
• common bluegrass;
• sheep fescue.

These lawns look very attractive, especially from a distance and are undemanding to care for. It is enough to carry out weed control and mow at least once a week.

But it also has its significant drawbacks:

• The first is the quality of the grass. This is due to the fact that in Russia this industry is not yet developed, and to provide the market the right amount seeds high grade impossible. And foreign herbs are not always acclimatized to our climate;
• also when choosing expensive grass, you need to understand that it will not work without preparing a lawn site. In order for the grass to begin to actively grow and develop the root system, it is necessary to fully prepare the site by introducing mineral fertilizers into it.

meadow lawn

• It is not always possible to dig and level the site, but you want to ennoble the weeds. For example, in orchard among trees or shrubs. In this case suitable option meadow lawn.

• Its meaning lies in the fact that without any digging and removal of weeds, seeds of hardy and unpretentious lawn grasses are sown directly into the existing herbage.
• It is allowed to loosen a little upper layer, without damaging the superficial roots of plants, which are located along the perimeter of the plant.

Grass for meadow lawn:

• clover;
• horned loon;
• alfalfa.

Thanks to the large number wild grass, which is not customary to mow, a grass carpet will create a beautiful, dense lawn, which will be decorated with meadow flowers.

moorish lawn

• How to make a lawn in the garden? For this, it is best to use Mauritanian grass mixture. This mixture does not contain a large number of cereals, its main advantage is the variety of flowering herbs. But unscrupulous manufacturers often put too few of them, and place someone else's photo on the color packaging.

To make beautiful and rich in color Mauritanian lawn should be mixed with the following herbs:

• bluegrass meadow;
• red fescue;
• gypsophila;
• cornflowers;
• marigold;
• nemesia.

• It is best to place it in an orchard, as the abundance of flowers will constantly attract bees. And beautiful appearance will create a cozy summer atmosphere, filling the garden with colors.
• It does not need to be cut often, it is enough to cut it short once in the fall so that it does not rot. It is undemanding to soils and fertilizers.
• With insufficient watering, the number of flowers will drastically decrease. Exceptions are such flowering plants like sage, cloves or cornflowers.

sports turf

Its main quality is its high resistance to trampling. It can be planted in the country in those places where people often walk during the day, for example, on the playground.

Grass for sports turf:

• perennial ryegrass;
• red fescue;
• shooter bent field.

Lawn fertilizer

1. In order for the lawn grass to create a dense and dense grassy cover, on which it will be pleasant to walk barefoot, one must be able to fertilize it correctly and in time.
2. Depending on the month, you need to make certain mineral fertilizers or their complex.

• At the end of spring and until mid-summer, nitrogen (urea, carbamide) can be applied. It stimulates the growth of the green part of the cereals. Plants consume it quite actively, so top dressing can be carried out every 2-3 weeks.
• Starting from August, nitrogen in the composition of fertilizers should be as small as possible, as it reduces frost resistance. At this time, special attention should be paid to nutrition and building up the root system for a good wintering. Therefore, superphosphate is added.
• Also, starting from the second half of summer, the lawn is fed potash fertilizers, which increase the resistance of cereal crops to diseases and adverse weather conditions. For this, potassium nitrate or potassium sulfate is suitable.

How to make a lawn in the country with your own hands

• The desired lawn grass or grass mixture has been selected, it is the turn to start arranging the lawn. But before you make a lawn in front of the house, you need to lay all the underground communications and finish all the ground work.
• Including, paths and borders should already be made so that the lawn can be planted close to them.
• If the soil is too heavy clayey or there is water on it in the rain, then sand must be brought in advance for the drainage layer and fertile soil.

Stages of work

• First, the area is cleared. Remove all debris, uproot trees and shrubs. Then begins the false and time-consuming process of leveling and clearing the site of weeds.

• If the area under the lawn is small, then you can dig it up manually. If space allows or work is carried out on virgin lands, then you can’t do without a walk-behind tractor. It is recommended to dig them once, you will get large lumps of earth, but at the same time most of weed roots will be on the surface as a whole. Breaking these clods with a pitchfork, it is necessary to get all the rhizomes, especially dandelions, as carefully as possible. If even a small piece of the tap root remains in the ground, it will sprout as a weed in the first season on a young and still weak lawn.
• Digging work should be carried out in dry weather to make it easier to work with the ground. When most of the weeds are selected, the walk-behind tractor is re-passed. After that, the earth is already loose and homogeneous.
• Leveling starts from the edge with a rake. This allows not only to level the ground, but also to additionally collect many remaining weeds from the surface.
• The next step is to compact the earth. This guarantees a level lawn in front of the house, without holes and bumps. For these purposes, special rollers are sold, the weight of which is 50 kg. But craftsmen come up with many alternative ways. For example, making this skating rink from a gas cylinder filled with water, wooden pushers, etc.

How to make a lawn near the house photo

• Now the area should be well spilled from the hose with water. This will help identify those areas where puddles accumulate. In this place, you need to add earth. If this is not done, then in the second year, moss will grow in this place instead of a lawn.
• Preparing a lawn area is very time consuming and perhaps the most time consuming part of the process. When everything is done, it is necessary to loosen the surface a little with a rake so that the seeds are not blown away by the wind or washed away during the first watering.
• Now evenly pour granular mineral fertilizer. It is better to take a complex, designed for lawns. It is already balanced and does not require independent calculations of the necessary proportions and mixing of different components.
• If grass mixture is taken, then before planting it is necessary to mix it thoroughly with your hands for two minutes. The recommendations on the packaging indicate the consumption of seeds 50-100 g/m2. It is better not to save and sow 100 g at once. Then after 1.5-2 months there will be a rather thick cover that can drown out some of the weeds. If planted more infrequently, it is likely that dandelions and other perennial weeds will simply crowd out the still weak grass sprouts.
• After evenly planting the seeds, they are pressed with a roller and watered. Watering should be carried out through a fine sprayer so as not to wash off the seeds and thereby expose land.

• That's the whole principle of how to make a lawn in the country. But landing is only the beginning. In order for the lawn to be thick, without weeds and bald spots, it needs careful care. Next, we will consider how to properly water the lawn, what fertilizers to use and what equipment it is desirable to purchase.

Lawn watering

• This is one of the components beautiful lawn. Even an inexpensive front lawn without watering will very soon lose attractive appearance. will appear brown spots dry grass and bald spots. In these places, the root cereals did not die, but went into dormant mode, and if you start watering, it will quickly recover.
• It is best to water the lawn in the early morning, when there is still no heat and light wind. It is possible during the day, but only on those days when there is no scorching sun. Otherwise, water drops will turn into lenses and leave numerous burns on the blades of grass. Evening watering is best done before 6 pm, so that the lawn has time to dry before nightfall. If moisture is retained throughout the night, it can lead to moss and various fungal infestations.
• The golden rule of lawn watering is better less often, but more plentifully than often and a little bit. Of course, during the dry months, watering will have to be done every 3 days. And in the fall, you can not water at all. It is good if the soil dries completely between waterings, which becomes an incentive for the grass to root. The volume of water depends on the type of soil, the average amount for middle lane is 30 l/m2 of lawn. If puddles begin to form on the surface, then you need to stop watering.

Tip: A young lawn that has just been planted should be constantly moistened. Otherwise, it will dry out quickly.

• If the lawn area is small (for example, along the flower garden by the path), then you can water it with a watering can. Also, with its help, problem areas are watered, which are not enough automatic watering or hose.
• For standard lawns around the house, it is most convenient to use a hose with a sprayer. But at the same time it should be required pressure water, which is not always the case in summer cottages, when water is supplied centrally. This will require a well.
• A sprinkler is a special device, very simple in design. Its purpose is to evenly spray the water supplied from the hose. Depending on the model, one sprinkler can immediately irrigate a hundred square meters of lawn.
• If the lawn area is very large, then put automatic system glaze. The hoses are underground. Sprinklers at rest are located at ground level and do not interfere with movement. At the beginning of work, they rise and begin to produce watering.

Lawn care equipment and tools

Spring

• When the snow has melted and the ground has dried out (not earlier than the end of April), the lawn must be combed. This removes all autumn debris in the form of old foliage, dry grass, moss. A small lawn can be processed garden rake. For larger area special equipment required scarifier. They are gas or electric, choose better model with grass catcher.

Tip: you should immediately sow the bald spots, if any appeared after the winter. To do this, 150-200 g of grass mixture and the same amount of land are taken per 1 m2 of the plot, mixed and evenly distributed.

• In May, the grass already grows to 8-10 cm, the time has come for the first mowing. At this time, you should not mow it briefly, the lawn will recover for a long time. It is best to leave a height of 5-6 cm. For this you need lawn mower with adjustable cutting height. It must be powerful enough and have a capacity for collecting mowed grass. For hard-to-reach places come in handy trimmer. For such purposes, you can take an inexpensive battery model.

Summer

• If there is no desire to treat the lawn from weeds with herbicides, then you should buy a root remover. This is hand tool allows you to go deeper into the soil to pull out the weed with the root without digging with a shovel.
• The time is coming for nitrogen fertilizing, for a uniform distribution of mineral granular fertilizer, you can use seeder. Better choose plastic model so that it doesn't rust over time.

Autumn

• Moles can seriously damage the lawn, disfiguring it with mounds and passages. Folk methods do not always help, it is better to install special ultrasonic repellers.
• At the end of autumn, it is necessary to aerate the root system (you can do it in summer). The plot is tightly passed with a pitchfork. For this, leg aerators are sold that look like climbing cats and are worn on the legs. But for a large area, you need to buy motor aerators, which look like lawn mowers without a grass box. They are both electric and petrol.

Well-groomed grass suburban area looks no less aesthetically pleasing than flower beds. In addition, if you do all the work on planting the lawn correctly, then in the future lawn care will be very simple. A beautiful lawn will become not only a part of decorative design site, but will bring a lot of benefits. For a year, half a hectare of planted grass absorbs about 40 tons of dust, which means that you will breathe healthy air. The second plus is that the humidity will increase, which in the summer will help the owners to endure the heat more easily. Every summer resident can make a lawn with his own hands, because this does not require special equipment and deep knowledge agronomist. The main rule here is to do everything slowly and efficiently.

Prior to the start of earthworks, they are determined with the type of lawn. It is selected taking into account the further use of the grass area, because the lawn device for outdoor games and for the patio area, it can radically differ in the quality and variety of cereals that make up the herbal mixtures. There is, so before going to the store, clearly define what you need.

When buying a lawn mixture, read the instructions on the package, which indicates for what purposes such a lawn can be used.

It is sown in places where it is planned playground, children's area or area for walking pets (for example, if someone breeds dogs). Sports mixtures include herbs that are not afraid of trampling, so over time your lawn will not appear "bald" spots. Such lawns are dense, hard and unpretentious. True, a stronger substrate is being built under them to avoid grass breaks.

English (parterre) lawn

This lawn is the exact opposite of a sports lawn. It is designed not for movement, but for contemplation. Mixtures are made up of expensive tender herbs that require good soil, constant care and shearing, are afraid of shady places and trampling. In the landscape, the English lawn looks very luxurious and expensive, but it is clean. decorative corner, in which picnics and tea parties are excluded.

Along with beautiful aesthetic parameters, the English lawn is very delicate, demanding to care for and does not tolerate movement on it.

Garden lawn

Do-it-yourself gardening lawn in the country is the easiest to do. The cereals that make up its composition are unpretentious, tolerate both shade and scorching sunlight well, grow on poor soils. Therefore, for recreation areas, patios, areas near pools, this option is most often chosen.

Meadow (Moorish) lawn

If you like field forbs and meadows dotted with flowers, then choose this type of lawn. It will be a lawn blooming all summer with a bright palette of colors. You can create a mixture for a meadow lawn yourself by choosing plants so that they bloom alternately throughout the summer season.

An easier option is to buy ready-made, where herbs have already been selected that get along well together, do not drown out each other and are different bright colors. Naturally, such lawns are rarely mowed (only to remove faded plants and allow the next generation to germinate). But walking on them is not recommended, because high, about 10 cm grasses will be crushed underfoot and are unlikely to restore their former appearance.

Meadow lawns, especially Moorish lawns, are great for rustic styles site design and look naturalistic

Universal lawns are created very quickly, because they use ready-made rolled grass strips. They are sold with turf and quickly take root in a new place. Via roll materials equip any areas on the site in which movement is planned. As a decorative parterre lawn, this option is not suitable, because unpretentious hard grasses that do not have high aesthetic qualities are used for its cultivation. It should be borne in mind that such a lawn will cost you much more than sowing grass for a lawn, because rolled strips require special soil preparation and the ability to properly line them.

Rolled lawns are a universal type of lawns (albeit expensive!), on which you can create recreation areas, playgrounds

Rules for choosing a landing site

When dividing the landscape of the site into certain zones, keep in mind that not all lawn mixtures will grow equally well where you have allocated a place for them.

• So, the English lawn needs complete openness, the absence of shade and winds.
• Any grass will not grow normally in the area of ​​permanent shade, which is in the immediate vicinity of buildings.
• If you are thinking of planting a lawn under orchard or ornamental trees, then within the crown radius, the lawn has little chance of survival. First, most power will take away root system stronger trees. Secondly, the branches will give a large amount of shade that interferes with the processes of photosynthesis. As a result, the grass will have a pale appearance. You will either have to sacrifice the lower branches of the trees and cut them off, or refuse to plant grass in this place.
• If the summer cottage is located in a low-lying waterlogged area, then the roots of the grasses will constantly rot. The lawn does not like waterlogging, so you will have to make high-quality drainage. True, there are mixtures of herbs that grow even with stagnant water, but even they do not show a constant excess of moisture.
• If elevation changes are observed on the site, then at the transition points the soil is subject to erosion and leaching. You need to smooth the slopes so that their steepness does not exceed 30˚ and additionally reinforce with a mesh that will hold the soil, preventing it from crumbling.
• Don't do it lawn path in a place of constant movement of people and cars, for example, from the gate to the house. By trampling the same track every day, you will compact the earth so much that the grass will lose oxygen to the roots and “suffocate”. Even sports mixes will not work in this case, because they are designed for heavy traffic of people throughout the site, and not in one narrow lane. If the desire to keep the area green is so great, then lay strips of tiles or wooden chocks between the lawn so that you step on them, and not on the grass.

Features of proper sowing

It is desirable that the compilation exemplary project your future lawn had to winter. Then, with the beginning of spring, you will immediately proceed to earthworks. Lawn mixtures show the best survival rate in early spring when the earth is saturated with moisture and there is no strong heat. If the moment is missed, then you should not sow the lawn in the summer. Wait until the autumn days when the rains nourish the soil, and then proceed to sowing. But do not be late: before winter, a young lawn should leave after 1-2 mowings.

Preparing the soil for planting seeds

The order of work is as follows:

• Clearing. First of all, the future site is cleared of all kinds of construction debris, stones. Stumps are uprooted, low-growing branches on trees are cut.
• Destruction of weeds. Then it's time for weed control. They must either be weeded out by hand, destroying them along with the roots, or chemically treated. In the first case, you will spend a lot of physical strength on the destruction of weeds, but you can immediately proceed to the next stage of work. With chemical weeding, you will have to wait at least a week until the drug begins to have a destructive effect. That is why it is recommended to treat the soil with chemicals in the fall. Then the weeds will disappear during the winter, and the chemicals themselves will have time to decompose into safe elements and will not harm when planting the lawn.
• Creation of a drainage system. If your site is in a lowland, then you need to save the earth from waterlogging. To do this, before digging up the lawn, make drainage. After rain, mark the places where water accumulates and dig deep holes (about a meter) in them. Line the bottom of the holes broken brick, then coarse gravel, and over it - a layer of sand. Leave 40 cm on fertile soil. After planting, the water will go into the soil and through the soil into the drainage pit.
• Site leveling and digging. On uneven areas, it is necessary to level the terrain so that the lawn has a flat horizontal. To do this, pull the cords to the pegs at different ends of the site and look at the level of the difference. The pits fall asleep, the bumps are cut. After that, the entire area is dug up. Perennial weed roots, debris and stones are removed. Sandy soils are fertilized with black soil or peat. Too greasy diluted with sand.
• Ramming and loosening. Before, it is necessary to compact the soil tightly, walking on it in small steps or using a board. It is placed on the edge of the plot and jumped over it until the earth settles. Then they move the board and continue until they trample the entire area. You can also ride thick log. As soon as you step on the ground, and it does not wash under your foot, the soil is ready for planting. It remains to slightly loosen it with a rake and sow it with a lawn mixture with the density recommended in the instructions.

After the earth is compacted, it is necessary to move the upper layer with a rake so that the seeds gain access to air and moisture.

grass sowing process

If you sow seeds with your own hands, then it is difficult to make the lawn even, like a brush, because the grass is scattered unevenly. As a result, some places will germinate densely, while others will grow weakly. To achieve uniformity, a portion of seeds calculated per meter of space is mixed with the same volume of fine sand and then sown. It is optimal to sow with a manual seeder, but you will not always find it on sale.

Sprinkle the seeds with earth and roll them with a log so that the birds do not peck. If the ground is dry, it is recommended to water from a fine sprinkler under weak pressure water so as not to wash the crops.

Seeds are rolled with a special roller, and if it is not there, then they are slammed with a board or carefully trampled down with flat shoes

It remains to wait for the shoots and enjoy the beautiful lawn. By the way, along with the blades of grass, weeds will also climb. But they are no longer afraid of the lawn. After one or two mowings, annuals disappear without a trace, and the grass becomes a rich, thick carpet.

In Europe, in home gardens, lawns are often used as an element of gardening. Our lawn is still gaining popularity. But I see that every year the number of houses with well-groomed lawns of green grass is becoming more and more.

Lawn Benefits

However, the lawn not only looks beautiful - it is also able to reduce the temperature of hot air in summer. Cut grass intensively evaporates moisture from the soil, and unlike paved areas, it is more comfortable to be on the lawn on a hot day. Therefore, I recommend that you think about how to equip the lawn in your summer cottage.

In addition, the lawn has a lot of useful qualities - it retains dust from the road, and in the turf layer created by the roots of lawn grasses, useful material that will protect your site from weeds.

Having decided to plant a lawn on your site, you should understand that it will take time and effort, including for subsequent regular maintenance. Also important preliminary preparation soil under the lawn, the final state of the lawn itself will largely depend on its quality.

Soil preparation

Start by clearing the area chosen for the lawn. All rubbish must be collected and thrown away. Do not bury garbage - the grass will grow poorly after that. At the same time, dig out unnecessary stumps, shrubs and trees.

After that, the grass is mowed, and then the sod is removed, cut into layers of 30 by 50 cm, thickness - 3-5 cm. Fold the layers in the shade and periodically water to moisten.

Soil preparation is a labor intensive process. If water stagnates in the soil, then bald spots will appear on the lawn. Excessive soil permeability, on the contrary, can cause a moisture deficit, which will also affect the lawn - it will be frail and yellow.

Weed removal

Then you can start removing weeds, that is, all plants, since the lawn should consist only of the grasses that you have planted. For this, mechanical or chemical methods can be used.

In the case of the use of chemistry, use Roundup, diluted 80 - 120 ml per bucket of water. 50 sq.m will require 2.5 liters of funds. Weeds are completely destroyed about four weeks after treatment.

Digging the soil

The hard task is digging. Here you can use a cultivator, but it is preferable to work with a shovel. Clods of earth are broken up to the size of peas, while removing stones, plant roots and the like.

The soil needs to be worked out on a shovel bayonet. When digging, mineral fertilizers must be applied to the soil at the rate of 20-30 grams per sq.m.

Creating a seed bed

Preparation ends with the creation of a "seed bed". The leveled and dried soil is rolled so that when walking on it there are no traces left. At the same time, avoid overcompacting. After leveling, the soil should be watered to speed up the germination of dormant weed seeds.

Then keep the site fallow for 1-1.5 months. At this time, destroy all germinating weeds. Only after all these operations have been completed, can the preparation be considered complete and proceed directly to planting the lawn.

Buying Lawn Grass Seeds

You can buy a mixture of lawn grasses in gardening stores, in specialized supermarkets for home and garden - such as Leroy Merlin, etc.

Usually the mixture indicates what you can get - a lawn for shaded or sunny areas, sports lawn(he has an increased resistance to trampling), lawn for gardens and parks.

Lawn areas can be located:

in front of the facades of houses; in the courtyard; on sports grounds for playing volleyball, tennis; between the rows garden plantings, under the trees in the garden, between the ruts of highways.

Simplified do-it-yourself lawn planting scheme

For planting a lawn, it is best to prepare the ground in autumn in this way: dig the ground with a shovel, remove weeds, fertilize the soil - you can use compost with a layer of 2-3 cm, adding to it wood ash or special fertilizers for lawn grasses.

Sowing the lawn is carried out in early spring - the best of all in April-early May. after the snow has completely melted. If you can provide systematic watering, then sowing can be done in the summer.

Before sowing lawn mixtures, the site should be leveled with building level and roll or tamp with the simplest rollers or tamping boards.

The simplest rammer roller can be made from round log by inserting the steel axle.

The process of sowing a lawn is as follows - a mixture of lawn grasses is mixed with a small amount sand is scattered with a fan (like sowers of grain in old paintings) at the rate indicated on the packaging of the lawn mixture. Then loosen the soil a little with a rake to a depth of 1-2 cm.

The simplest clean lawn

English gardeners, who know a lot about real lawns, have a technique that allows you to get shoots without weeds. In order to get such an even and strong lawn, level the area and carefully cover the ground with cardboard.

Pour a three-centimeter layer of soil spilled with boiling water onto cardboard and sow grass seeds in it. From above, cover the ground with agrofibre. This technique allows you to get rid of all the weeds, as they will not break through the layer of cardboard. Well, the cardboard itself, after a while, will rot in the ground, during which time the lawn will just gain strength.

A young lawn must be handled with care - do not walk on it and do not move the watering hose over it. The lawn should be mowed for the first time only in dry weather with a grass height of 10-15 cm, while cutting off 5 centimeters of grass. Cut grass should not be removed from the lawn - it will help retain soil moisture, and then become good fertilizer for the lawn.

When to mow the lawn

The lawn should be systematically cut and watered, then you will always have a beautiful green lawn near your house. The first time you mow the grass, you need to cut 5 cm, while it should grow to a height of 15 cm. This first cut is extremely important, as it sets the mood of the lawn.

Therefore, do not rush with the first mowing. Let the grass grow to 15 cm, then cut back to 5 cm and let it grow back to 15 cm. According to the law, it is necessary to mow the lawn at a grass height of 10-15 cm, while mowing 3-5 cm using lawn mowers or trimmers.

Never cut below zero! I often see men at our dachas who mow the grass literally to the turf. This is by no means the way to do it! Do not grow a lawn like that, just suppress cultivated grasses.

In autumn, when the average air temperature drops below +10, mowing the lawn must be stopped. For five or six years, you can only fertilize the soil of the lawn, and not change it. In some cases, you can extend the lifespan of one lawn by adding fresh seeds to it in the spring.

Aeration

To aerate the soil, you can use a pitchfork (pierce the soil vertically) - this will help you maintain a certain looseness of the soil, which will favorably affect the condition of the lawn. Pay attention to the photo - in Europe, special nozzles for shoes for lawn aeration are sold.

Rolled lawn

Highly convenient way immediately get a ready-made lawn - laying a rolled lawn. In this case, you get a ready-made turf, twisted into a roll. Laying such a lawn has its own characteristics - usually, along with the purchase of rolls, you receive a guide to laying it.

Rolled lawn- definitely a very convenient invention - you do not need to sow grass. In addition, it is convenient to roll out the lawn in rolls on areas with a large slope.

Some summer cottages are used for growing vegetables and fruits, others are just for recreation and entertainment on weekends and holidays.

However, in natural farming it is possible, and even necessary, to combine the yield of beds, shrubs and fruit trees with the beauty of ornamental crops, flowers and green lawn.

Let's take a closer look at how to create a lawn on your site and how to care for it.

The lawn between stationary beds in the garden and under the trees in the garden will not only decorate the space, but also ensure cleanliness between the beds, reduce the growth of weeds, and retain moisture and soil fertility.

A well-groomed and beautiful lawn is a worthy decoration for every modern dacha, and created with your own hands will delight you every day and become a real source of pride.

Lawn types

First, you need to decide for what purpose you will need a lawn. If it will perform only a decorative function, and you do not plan to walk on it, then a parterre lawn is ideal. By and large, it is one of the most attractive of its species, in which the grass is uniform and low, and reaches only one centimeter in height. However, before sowing parterre lawn, you need to carefully level the area, otherwise any unevenness will be very noticeable, which can greatly spoil the appearance of your lawn. For sowing parterre lawn, seeds of plants from the family of narrow-leaved cereals are used, for example, such as fescue, bluegrass and bent grass, each of which has several varieties.
The easiest to care for is an ordinary lawn, which is perfect for a children's area, and can withstand frequent walking on it. It will be almost impossible to spoil the grass on this lawn. Thanks to all your undeniable advantages an ordinary lawn is quite popular among summer residents. As a rule, perennial ryegrass, bluegrass, common comb, meadow timothy grass, clover prevail in an ordinary lawn ...

A lawn in the form of a forest lawn in its appearance is not much different from a wild one. Caring for it can only consist of ordinary watering, and such a lawn does not require mowing. For a forest lawn, you should choose a mixture of cereals and wildflowers.

According to the method of planting the lawn, there are seeded and rolled

The first of them will cost much less, but it will take more time and effort. The rolled lawn does not require time for germination, it simply fits on the site, like a regular carpet. The price of this lawn will be higher than the usual, seeded one, and its transportation will take quite a lot of effort, as well as the laying itself. However, you can immediately see and evaluate the result, without waiting for time for its germination.

It should be noted that one type of lawn grass prefers sunny places, while the other type will feel comfortable in shaded areas. Therefore, for the beds and for the garden, it is necessary to select the appropriate mixtures of grass seeds.

Proper seeding and lawn care

1. Planting the lawn is best done in late summer when the soil is at its softest and there are fewer weeds. Preparation for sowing lawn seeds consists in cutting weeds, loosening the soil, and then leveling it. It is important to make a flat surface so that the seeds lie on the same level. To do this, you can use a flat board nailed to the handle, which is pulled over the surface of the soil, creating a plane. The soil surface should be slightly compacted before sowing the seeds in order to improve the contact of the seeds with the soil. For this purpose, landscape studios use a special barrel filled with water and rolled over the surface of the earth.
2. Sowing seeds should be done densely (from 20 to 50 g per 1 sq.m.), spreading them evenly over the soil surface. For a mixture of turf grass seeds, they should be mixed well so that the lawn is evenly varied. After sowing the seeds, they should be sprinkled with soil or humus with a layer of up to 1 centimeter and watered by sprinkling so that no flaws form in the soil. Watering is best warm water in the evening, - this way moisture will remain in the soil longer and bring more benefits to plants than when watering during the day.
3. The first mowing of the lawn is carried out when the height of the grass reaches 10 - 15 cm, so that it has time to get stronger, and then it is cut once every 2 - 4 weeks. Mowing the lawn should not be carried out if the grass is wet, it is necessary to wait until the grass dries - so the grass will not lean and the surface of the lawn will be perfectly even, and also if you use an electric lawn mower - this will prevent damage to it.
4. Preparing a frost-resistant lawn for winter consists in cleaning it of fallen leaves and various debris, and covering grass subject to frost with a small (up to 5 cm) layer of hay or straw.

By following these simple tips, you will certainly succeed in growing a beautiful lawn. If your site has unsuitable soil, then instead of grass, you can sow creeping wild plants, the carpet of which also looks very impressive.

A well-groomed, lush green lawn near the house is a worthy decoration of any estate, and knowing how to make a lawn in the country with your own hands, everyone can try to translate this idea into reality. According to experienced summer residents, creating a lawn in a summer cottage is a job, albeit painstaking, but at the same time unusually exciting, and the results of the efforts made in the end fully justify all expectations. What would be required to implement such interesting idea how to make a lawn in the country with your own hands and what are the steps of the step-by-step instructions?

Do-it-yourself lawn in the country: where to start?

The complex of works on independent arrangement of the lawn in the country is preceded by a number of mandatory measures, the implementation of which should be approached with the utmost responsibility.

Here we are talking about such important tasks as:

• 1. Choice suitable type lawn, taking into account the peculiarities of the climate of your area;
• 2. Determination of the area, size and shape of the future lawn, calculation required amount lawn mixtures (see the formula below in the publication);
• 3. Assessment of the relief of the site, the degree of its illumination;
• 4. Determining the type of soil, the degree of its drainage (here it is necessary to assess how long the water stagnates in a given place, or, on the contrary, quickly goes into the ground even after heavy rains?);
• 5. Preparation of the tool necessary for work (rake, cultivator, roller or any other compacting / compacting device);
• 6. Preparation of drainage material - pebbles, brick fight, gravel (drainage is necessary for areas where water often stagnates for a long time).

Along with this, it is important to evaluate your own capabilities - incl. and financial. The fact is that the purchase of even inexpensive lawn mixtures based on sowing a large area can result in a tangible expense column - even without taking into account the so-called. "reserve stock".

In addition, having decided to sow a lawn on a plot of too large an area with his own hands, the owner of the dacha must take into account that in the future his brainchild will require care - regular watering, cutting, fertilizing, cleaning from random weeds. Taken together, all this can turn into an impressive investment of time, labor and money.

How to make a lawn in the country with your own hands: preliminary work

Choosing the type of lawn for a summer residence

Depending on the characteristics of its device, the lawn can be:

• - sowing, i.e. created by sowing herbal mixtures;
• - rolled (created by laying special lawn layers);
• - erected on lawn grates.

Most often, in landscaping small backyard areas, summer residents resort to the first, classic type - a sowing lawn, which is considered one of the most economical and least labor-intensive options. If you intend to make a sowing-type lawn at your dacha with your own hands, first find out if the mixture of herbs you like is suitable for your climate. All lawn mixtures are divided into:

• - heat-loving and cold-resistant,
• - suitable for dry sunny and damp shaded areas,
• - drought-resistant and moisture-loving.

These and many other characteristics of grass mixtures should be paid attention to before buying.

We calculate the area of ​​​​the lawn and the rate of consumption of grass mixture

Determining the area and size of the future lawn is necessary to calculate the required amount of grass mixture. Due to the fact that the seeds of different grasses have different sizes, the seeding rates for them may vary. The average rate, which can be taken as a basis, is 25-30 g (which is approximately one handful) per 1 square meter. m - in the event that other consumption rates are not indicated on the packaging with the grass mixture.

If you plan to plant a universal lawn with your own hands in the country, suitable for decorating almost any corner of the backyard territory, then the consumption of grass mixtures will be slightly higher - about 50 g per 1 sq. m. A mixture of herbs to create universal lawn you can make your own from:

• - red fescue and bluegrass meadow in a ratio of 1:1; or
• - team hedgehogs and white clover, taken in a ratio of 8:1.

We evaluate the relief of the site

Along with the calculations made and before, how to make a lawn in the country with your own hands, you will need to assess the terrain. Any, even small irregularities in the future will prevent the flow of water, which will cause wetting of grasses and the formation of moss. Ideally, the lawn should be divided into exclusively flat surfaces So, it will last longer and it will be easier to take care of it.

Assessing the degree of drainage

Separate important point, which should be paid attention to before planting a lawn with your own hands in the country, concerns the assessment of the drainage of the site. If water often and for a long time stagnates on the territory, this indicates a low moisture capacity of the soil and, as a result, the need to arrange drainage for a future green lawn. If there is no drainage litter, then stagnation of water will very quickly make it unusable.

It should be noted that in order to reinsure the drainage litter for the future lawn, many summer residents prefer to equip it regardless of the type of soil on the site. Such forethought is fully justified: practical observations show that over time, moss forms and grass gets wet less often on lawns created on a drainage layer (especially in case of force majeure circumstances such as incessant rains or unforeseen flooding).

However, regardless of this, the issue of organizing drainage on light, well-absorbing soils depends solely on the initiative and enterprise of the dacha owner.

How to make a lawn in the country with your own hands: step by step instructions

So, the type of future lawn in the country house is determined, all the necessary tools and materials are prepared, the features and capabilities of the site are evaluated with maximum accuracy. The next step is the implementation of step-by-step instructions on how to make a lawn in the country with your own hands. It is started after all household communications are equipped on the site, a garden and a vegetable garden are laid, all trees and shrubs are planted.

It is allowed to sow lawn mixtures from spring to autumn, but the most suitable period is early spring(April-May), when the soil has already dried and warmed up. If you plan to plant a lawn in your country house at this particular time with your own hands, then it is advisable to prepare the site since the fall - first of all, level it and dig it up. If this moment was missed in the fall, it does not matter: the most important thing is to sow the seeds in the warm season so that the grass has time to grow up to 10 cm before frost.

Step-by-step instruction

1. Cleaning the site from weeds, stones, rhizomes of perennial weeds.
2. Leveling the surface of the site and arranging the drainage system.
3. Soil preparation.
4. Sowing lawn mixture.
5. Rolling (tamping) of the earth.
6. Care of sprouted plants (watering, mulching, fertilizing, cutting).

Cleaning the site

Before planting a lawn in a summer cottage with your own hands, you will need to completely clear the chosen place of debris, stones, weeds and weed rhizomes (especially perennials). To destroy weeds, the use of herbicides (for example, roundup) is allowed - however, after their application, all planned work will have to be postponed for a couple of weeks. The best, environmentally friendly, but more time-consuming option is the manual destruction of weeds, sampling of rhizomes and root fragments from the soil.

Leveling the site and organizing drainage

It is best to engage in leveling when the soil is compacted, since it will be much more difficult to identify irregularities in a dug up area. All found mounds should be cut off with a sharp flat shovel, and pits and lowlands should be filled up. If there are lowlands in the territory in which water stagnates for a long time, it is impossible to do without arranging drainage. It can be organized in several ways - in particular, one of the following:

• On a site with rare and deep lowlands

Drainage in such areas can be performed locally, having previously noted the locations of the lowlands in which water accumulates. Further, these places are deepened by digging holes in them (90-100 cm deep), which are filled with drainage material in the following sequence: brick battle - coarse gravel - coarse sand.

• On a site with a heterogeneous relief (small lowlands and mounds)

In this case, it is better to pre-level the surface of the earth and fill in the place of the future lawn with a continuous layer of drainage material. To do this, the top layer of soil is removed, the area freed from it is covered with broken silicate brick, coarse gravel and crushed stone with a layer of at least 15 cm.

Next, the backfilled drainage layer is leveled and rolled with a 100-kilogram roller or a barrel filled with heavy load- stones, brick battle, earth. After that, they start processing and preparing the soil (removed top layer of the earth).

Soil preparation and digging

After laying and leveling the drainage, the removed fertile layer of the earth is mixed with a complex mineral fertilizer at the rate of 20-30 g per 1 sq. m. In addition to fertilizers, you can add to the removed earthen layer:

• - sand (10-15 kg per 1 sq. m) - for heavy clay soils;
• - peat (4-5 kg ​​per 1 sq. m) - for light sandy soils.

During the preparation of the soil for backfilling the drainage layer, large earthen clods, remove the remains of debris, stones and weeds. Then the dried, cleaned and fertilized soil is returned to its place, falling asleep on the drainage, after which it is leveled with a rake, smoothed with an even edge of a long board, moving it in two opposite directions. At the end of work, the surface of the earth is compacted and rolled.

The area leveled in this way is covered nonwoven fabric and leave for another 2-4 weeks for the loosened soil to shrink. It is generally accepted that a place designated for a lawn is completely ready for sowing grass mixture when it can be walked on without leaving any traces.

Seeding lawn mixture

Just before, how to sow a lawn in the country with your own hands, the top layer of soil should be slightly loosened to a depth of 1-2 cm. This is necessary to release the capillary inflow of moisture from the lower soil layers to the seeds. Being in loose soil and receiving moisture from the upper and lower layers at the same time, they will germinate much faster than if they are planted immediately on compacted soil.

You can speed up the process of creating a lawn in a summer cottage with your own hands by increasing the recommended seeding rates given at the beginning of this publication. It should be borne in mind that when sowing the edges of the lawn, the seed rate should also be increased. Sowing seeds can be done:

• - manually;
• - using a manual seeder;
• - using a sand sprinkler (see photo).

To achieve an even distribution of seeds over the surface, they are pre-mixed with clean sand (approximate proportions: 1 part of seeds - 2-3 parts of sand).

If you plan to sow the territory not with one type of grass, but with several, do not mix their seeds with each other, but sow them one by one: first large ones (to a depth of 2 cm), then small ones.

During manual sowing, a mixture of seeds and sand should be scattered in two opposite directions - moving along, and then across. It is very important during sowing to move around the site with the utmost care, placing plywood shields under your feet or attaching them to the soles of your shoes (ordinary shoes with a flat, hard sole are also suitable).

A completely sown area is treated with a rake, covering the seeds with earth, and lightly rolled with a light roller or an empty barrel. Very wet soil, capable of forming a crust after drying, is not rolled.

If the seeds were planted in dry soil, after sowing, the rolled lawn is carefully watered using dispersion sprinklers or sprinkler nozzles. To prevent the formation of a crust on the seeded lawn, it is recommended to cover its surface with mulch.

After about 10-14 days (less often after 2.5-3 weeks), the first shoots should appear.

Lawn care

Caring for sprouted lawn grass is simple and involves the implementation of such standard procedures as:

• - watering;
• - haircuts (except for Mauritanian lawns, which are cut only 1 time);
• - top dressing;
• - removal of weeds.

In hot, dry weather, grown lawn grasses must be provided with moisture. The first sign that plants need water is when they wilt, which can cause the grass to turn a slight bluish tint. Watering is carried out by sprinkling, so as not to erode the earth. AT ideal on the large territories it is better to organize an automatic watering system.

The first mowing is usually carried out after the grass reaches a height of 10-12 cm. The cut greens are immediately raked and the trimmed lawn is slightly compacted with a hand tamper. When mowing Moorish lawns greens are left for several days, after which they are removed.

In the first year of vegetation, lawn grasses are fed with nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers. Nitrogen is applied twice per season: in early spring and in the middle of summer (45 g per sq. M.), phosphorus - three times: in spring, summer and autumn (16 g per sq. M.).

Throughout the season, systematic weed control should be carried out. It is best to remove them even at the seedling stage, without waiting for the moment when the plants grow and seed.