(NAPSA)—Creating and maintaining a healthy, lush lawn may be easier with a few tips from the experts. Here are the Top 5 Golden Rules from the lawn care experts at The Home Depot: e Water regularly. Lawns need 1 inch of water a week, either from irrigation or rain. Make sure your lawn gets this amount in one form or the other. To keep your waterbills down, water early in the morning, before sunrise, and water deeply and less often rather than shallow and moreoften. Mow high and often. Mowing properly is fundamental to having a beautiful lawn. Mowing produces a thick lawn, as it encourages grass to grow low and spread wide rather than grow tall and sparsely. As a general rule, you should remove less than one-third of a blade of grass to avoid stressingit. This may mean that you need to cut grass every four or five days instead of once a week. To save time, consider invest- ing in a zero-turning-radius mower. Combining zero-turn maneuverability with the comfort and simplicity of a traditional lawn tractor, the new iSeries Zero Turn Tractor from Cub Cadet is available at The Home Depot and can cut lawn maintenance time by as much ashalf. e Fertilize. The best-looking lawnsare fed three to four times a impression, so remember to water, weed and feed your lawn well. year. For best results, fertilize in the morning while the ground is still a little damp. This will leave lines on the grass so you can see which areasstill need fertilizing. Don’t mow the lawn prior to fertilizing. Because all fertilizers and grass are not created equal, check with a sales associate for the program that is right for your area and turftype. e Control weeds. Weeds directly compete with desirable turf grasses for nutrients, light, space and water. In the early spring, apply a pre-emergent herbicide to prevent weed seeds from germinating. e Grow grass only where grass should be grown.Avoid the frustration of trying to grow grass in deep shade, under a maturetree, in high-traffic areas or on steep slopes.
