Caring for Grass: The Basics

If you live in an apartment, you probably don't give much thought to grass. It's just the green backdrop to your on-the-go life. But as soon as you plop down a deposit on your own piece of suburbia, strange thoughts start running through your mind. In the suburban world, grass seems very important, and you're consumed by its mysteries. Why does your neighbor's lawn glow deep green, like a rolling golf course, while yours withers to a brown mess, overrun by weeds? What makes perfect grass perfect? What do you need to do to maintain a beautiful lawn, short of shelling out hundreds of dollars to a professional lawn care service? In this article, we'll find out what grass is, what it needs, and how you can make yours the best on the block. If you don't have your own lawn, or you couldn't care less what it looks like, none of this will seem very important. But if you're up late at night tossing and turning because the grass is greener on the other side of your fence, read on.

What is Grass?
Before we get into the peculiar world of lawn care, let's cover some basics. What exactly is grass? Grass is the common name for the Gramineae family of plants. With more than 9,000 known species, this family is one of the largest on Earth. Grass is extremely important to most people's lives, whether they know it or not. For one thing, grass is a major food source all over the world. Rice, corn and oats come from grass plants, for example, and most livestock animals feed primarily on grasses. In some parts of the world, people use grass plants in construction (bamboo is a grass, for example), and wherever it grows, grass plays a vital role in curbing erosion. Grass is also used to make sugar, liquor, bread and plastics, among many other things. Grasses have a very simple structure, and a very simple way of life. You can better grasp what grass needs when you understand how it actually functions in the world. At the base of the grass plant, roots grow down into the earth. Typically, grass roots are fibrous, or threadlike. They extend into the soil like fingers, collecting nutrients, soaking up water and securing the plant to the ground. Grass stems, called culms, grow up from the base of the plant (the crown). In most grass species, the culms are hollow and rigid, except at the nodes -- joints that join stem segments together. Narrow leaves extend out from the culms, above each node. The leaves alternate in direction. That is, if the first leaf on a culm grows to the right, the second leaf will grow to left and the third leaf will grow to the right and so on. The lower part of the leaf is called the sheath, and the upper part is called the blade. In most grasses, a ligule surrounds the connection between the sheath and the blade. A ligule can take the form of a thin membrane or a fringe of hair-like projections. Like the leaves on a tree, grass leaves serve to collect energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. The photosynthesizing chlorophyll in the leaf gives grass its green color. There are two major methods of reproduction in grasses. Some grasses have additional stems that grow sideways, either below ground or just above it. Stems that creep along the ground are called stolons, and

stems that grow below ground are called rhizomes. Grasses use stolons and rhizomes to reach out and establish new grass culms. The stoleon or rhizome nurtures the new plant until it is strong enough to survive on its own. Grasses also have flowers. The small flowers in most grass species are known as florets. Florets grow together in small groups called spikelets, which collectively form inflorescences. Flowers produce the spores that pollinate other flowers, which produce seeds. With any luck, some of the seeds will grow new healthy grass plants. (This site explains grass reproduction in detail.) In some grasses, such as corn, the stem and the flowering part of the plant are obvious. But in lawn grasses, the long thin leaves overshadow the other elements of the plant. Unless you're up close, all you see is green stalks. So, let's say you want a perfect lawn -- a lawn that looks like a golf course, a nice green carpet surrounding your house. Is this possible? It's not only possible, it's really not that complicated, at least in most parts of the world. None of the advice that follows will help you grow a luscious lawn at the North Pole or in the middle of the Sahara desert, but it should do the trick in more temperate regions. Like most plants, grass needs three things to thrive. It needs: Sunlight Water Nutrients Additionally, it needs be largely free of destructive elements, namely: Weeds Disease Bugs If you have the right variety of grass for your area and you meet all these needs, a beautiful lawn should be a cinch. In the next few sections, we'll run down all the major elements involved in healthy grass and outline a course for proper lawn care.

Soil
No amount of water and sunlight will make your lawn luscious and green if you have poor soil, so this is a good place to start. A grass plant's backbone is its root system. The roots soak up water, collect nutrients, anchor the plant and, in some species, spread out to grow new plants. A plant can only do these things effectively if the soil is right. The soil needs to be loose enough that the grass roots can spread easily, absorbent enough that it will collect water and rich enough that it can provide the plant with nutrients. Roots also need a certain amount of circulating air, which means the soil can't be too compact. Ideally, you want loam -- soil that has roughly equal amounts of silt, sand and clay (a "perfect" loam is about 40 percent silt, 40 percent sand and only 20 percent clay). Loam is fairly loose, but it has enough clay to absorb water effectively. Check out this page for a simple soil content test. The soil's pH rating is also important. This rating tells you the relative acidity and alkalinity of the soil

(this page explains the concept). The ideal pH level is around 6.5 or 7, but levels vary between different grass species and climate conditions. You can find out your soil's pH level with a home test or a professional test. If you need to substantially increase the acid level, add sulfur. If you want to reduce the acid level, add lime (this page will give you the details). To improve your soil, you can amend it with topsoil, compost or fertilizer. Next to soil, the most important factor in lawn care is the grass species itself. In the next section, we'll see what's involved in picking the right grass.