What do you think? Is it easier to prevent lawn disease or treat it? Maintaining a healthy lawn is not always easy. However, adding one more lawn treatment product to your shopping cart and to-do list isn’t always necessary. Focus on the following tasks and you could help save yourself some time and money.

Prevent Lawn Disease

We do what we can to help prevent illness in our own bodies, thus saving us the time and money for treating issues. However, some illnesses are beyond our control. Same goes for lawn and plant care. As long as we continue to feed, water, and properly maintain our yard and garden it’s less likely we’ll have to treat disease and pest problems (but not guaranteed).

Some of the best ways to prevent lawn disease is to regularly maintain your yard by:

1. Mowing. You’ll know when your grass is too high, but do you know when it’s too short? Most grasses should be cut using the three to four-inch height setting on the mower. Cutting it too short can leave it stressed and open to disease. Not cutting it at all can invite pests and fungi into the tall blades.
2. Feeding. Apply fertilizer in the spring and/or fall to help strengthen grass. Strong grass is better equipped to fight off disease.
3. Watering. The only time you really need to water is when you’re reseeding your lawn. Fully established grass—when mowed and fed properly—shouldn’t require regular waterings. If you do want to water your lawn, make the most of it by watering in the morning so the blades have time to dry. Also be careful not to overwater. This can also attract fungal disease. If your grass looks dry in the summer, it may just be dormant and should bounce back in the fall. You also want to be careful during drought conditions when conserving water is more important that a lush green lawn.

Treating Disease

If you do what you can to maintain your yard and still discover it’s hit with disease, there are certain fungicides that could help depending on the issue. If you’ve had problems with disease in the past, there are also products you can treat your lawn with to prevent specific issues. This preventative method could still be easier than treating and then reseeding your entire lawn.

The easiest way to help maintain and/or treat your lawn is to contact a professional lawn care company. After a complete evaluation of your yard, you’ll get a schedule of important lawn tasks to complete throughout the year. If you’re not up for the required maintenance, a pro can also handle that for you. Contact Cardinal Lawns for more information on the right maintenance schedule or disease prevention methods tailored to your yard.