Expert Guide To Lawn Care

February 20, 2025

Your lawn is a crucial part of your landscape’s aesthetic appeal. It’s just a patch of green grass, and most of the time, people won’t notice it very much–that is until it starts to look unsightly.

Lawns are one of those things where people take for granted that they should look great all the time, so when they don’t, they really stand out.

Unfortunately, lawn care isn’t as simple as just lawn mowing. Lawn mowing does make up a large part of lawn maintenance, but without other maintenance, your lawn is soon going to fall apart.

So if you’re looking to learn how to keep your lawn in tip-top condition all the time, let’s begin. Alternatively, feel free to contact Louisville Landcape Pros for a hassle-free, hands-off solution.

1. Mowing

Since mowing is going to make up the largest part of your lawn maintenance routine, let’s start with that first.

Your Grass Type

You may or may not know this depending on how involved you are with your lawn, but there are two main grass types for lawns–cool season and warm season grasses.

Cool-season grasses are used for regions where winters are colder and summers are milder.

Warm-season grasses are best for regions where winters are milder and the summers are hotter.

Warm-season and cool-season grasses have different active growth seasons, mowing requirements, water requirements, and so on, so you need to know your lawn grass type to be able to tailor your maintenance.

Frequency

Cool-season grasses grow the most in spring and fall, but even warm-season grasses still grow steadily during these seasons, so weekly mowing is recommended, whether it’s warm or cool-season grasses you have.

Nailing your lawn care schedule for Louisville is an important part of success, so you need to time your lawn care carefully.

In summer, this is when warm-season grasses grow the most actively, so you’ll need to mow once every 5-7 days, and possibly even more if you see them growing extremely quickly.

For cool-season grasses, their growth slows down in the summer, so you should only need to mow once every 7-10 days.

In the winter, even the growth of cool-season grasses will slow down a lot, so whether it’s cool or warm-season grasses, you should only need to mow once every few weeks, or even none at all if your grass is in dormancy.

So those are general guidelines for each season. However, there can be exceptions. You may need to mow more or less often depending on your grass species.

You’ll know it’s time to mow when the grass blades are getting long or bending over, or if you see uneven patches.

How To Mow

A Louisville homeowner mowing his lawn using an electric lawn mower

Each grass will have an ideal height, so your goal should always be to maintain it at that height. However, there’s really no one height that fits all grasses, so you’ll need to read up and research your grass type’s ideal height.

Never cut more than a third of your grass height in a single mow, as if you cut too much, your grass may not have enough leaf surface area to photosynthesize and get enough food.

This also means that you shouldn’t let your grass exceed 1.5 times of its recommended height, or you’ll have to mow more than a third of it to get it back to its ideal height.

When mowing, make sure the blades are sharp so that they cut cleanly rather than pull at the grass, which can damage them and make them less healthy.

2. Watering

Now for the watering, you want to water deeply each time to encourage deeper root growth and overall better plant health.

Aim for 1-1.5 inches of water per week, and split it into 2 or 3 sessions per week. Don’t try to water less and more frequently, as that will lead to more shallow roots and weaker plants.

You want to water deeply and you want the water to stay in your soil, so 5-10 am is usually a good time to water as that’s when the sun isn’t up yet, so minimal water will be lost to evaporation.

These are good rules of thumb and should work for most lawns, but there can be exceptions.

Look out for water pools or mushy ground, as that means you’re overwatering. If instead, you see your grass blades start to wither and curl up, that means you’re not watering enough.

3. Fertilization

For fertilization, here’s when you should be applying fertilizer and how much for warm and cool-season grasses.

Spring

At this point, cool-season grasses are beginning to start actively growing, so you need to help their growth, starting with light fertilization, and then moderate fertilization in late spring.

Even though they’re actively growing, we don’t want to cause fertilizer burn, so it’s best not to do heavy fertilization as they will be coming out of dormancy.

For warm-season grasses, they’ll only begin actively growing in the summer, so not much fertilization will be needed.

Since you’ll want the fertilizer to start taking effect in the summer, you can begin light fertilizing in late spring. No fertilization whatsoever will be needed in early spring.

Summer

In the summer, this is the best season for warm-season grasses to grow super actively, so you want to heavily fertilize your warm-season grasses.

For cool-season grasses, their growth will slow down a lot, so just light fertilization will suffice.

Fall

When fall comes, it’s time for cool-season grasses to take the limelight. Fall is usually cooler than spring, which is why cool-season grasses grow the most actively in this season.

Of course, you should be heavily fertilizing cool-season grasses in this season to support their growth.

On the other hand, as you’d expect, warm-season grasses slow down their growth in this season, so just light fertilization is necessary.

Winter

Finally, during the winter, neither cool-season nor warm-season grasses are growing very much, and cool-season grasses tend to go into dormancy, so there’s no need to fertilize either grass type.

4. Aeration

Soil health isn’t often the first thing people think of when it comes to maintenance, but it’s an important component nonetheless. Without healthy soil, no matter how perfectly you water your lawn or how much fertilizer you give it, your grass isn’t going to grow very well.

Over time, even if your soil is initially healthy, it can become compacted, which means fewer gaps for water, nutrients, and even oxygen to reach the roots.

To test if your soil is compacted, try to drive a screwdriver into the soil. If it’s unusually hard to insert, chances are, your soil is compacted.

When this happens, you need to aerate your soil.

However, while it may seem logical to address the issue immediately, it’s actually better to wait till your grass is more actively growing.

This is because aeration, while beneficial in the long run, actually cuts away some of your grasses’ roots in the process, so in the short term, they need some time to recover.

This can be hard if they’re in slower growing seasons, especially when sunlight is scarce. As such, you’ll want to perform the aeration in the seasons where they’re actively growing so that they can regrow these roots and recover more quickly.

For cool-season grasses, this will be in the fall, while for warm-season grasses, this will be in late spring.

The reason why it’s better to aerate warm-season grasses in the spring rather than summer is that if you aerate them in the summer, even though that’s their peak growth season, the heat still adds additional stress.

As such, ideally, you want them to be able to use the period in late spring when they’re ramping up for summer growth to recover from the aeration.

5. Weed Control

Landscaper from Louisville Landscape Pros pulling out weeds by hand for a client

A lush, healthy lawn will naturally suppress the growth of weeds by competing with it for resources like water and sunlight.

But if that isn’t enough, you can either employ herbicides or opt for natural remedies like a vinegar solution. Natural remedies will do for less serious weed invasions, but for more severe cases, you’ll likely need to use herbicides.

6. Pest Control

Similar to weeds, more severe situations will warrant the use of chemical pesticides or insecticides. But for milder cases, chemical-free solutions will do. These include:

Traps
Diatomaceous Earth
Encouraging pest predators
Neem oil spray

Conclusion

Alright, we’ve covered all the important parts of lawn maintenance, so you should be well-equipped to keep your lawn in peak condition in all seasons.

Before we end off, one final tip is to keep an eye on your soil health. Like we explained earlier, you can do everything right and still not have a healthy lawn if your soil isn’t healthy.

As such, even if your lawn is healthy, it’s good to do a soil test every two years or so just to make sure that it’s still healthy, because you don’t want to wait till your lawn starts to show signs of distress to remedy it. Prevention is better than cure.

And if neccessary, of course, amend the soil as needed. As long as you’re doing your soil tests and the rest of your maintenance tasks, you’ll have a lush, green lawn all year-round (except winter of course).

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A rain garden in Louisville, KY, during heavy rain

Rain Garden Landscaping Guide For Louisville

July 23, 2025

In Louisville, rain doesn’t just fall- It pours. And usually in buckets. Sometimes it rains in long, lazy stretches; at other times, it’s in sudden, theatrical bursts that leave sidewalks steaming and gutters overwhelmed. But regardless of what style the buckets come in, the result of the buckets for homeowners is essentially constant soggy yards, flooded corners, and annoying runoff. Put short, the rain is a real problem for Louisville homeowners. Enter the rain garden: a low-key, low-maintenance landscape feature that nullifies these issues. A rain garden quietly intercepts stormwater, and elegantly too. It filters out pollutants and turns all that Kentucky rain into something beautiful and functional. It’s not a brand-new idea. But in a city where clay-heavy soil, dense development, and chaotic weather all collide, it’s a sharp one. More and more Louisville homeowners are catching on, especially as sustainable landscaping shifts from eco-trendy to good ol’ common sense. If you’re looking to manage water, erosion, and pollinator support and still enjoy a gorgeous yard that doesn’t feel like a retirement project, a rain garden might be exactly the answer to your problems. Let’s dig in! What Is A Rain Garden? A rain garden is a shallow, bowl-shaped depression in your yard, designed (in both structure and soil) to temporarily hold and slowly absorb stormwater. Think of it as a spongey basin, albeit one dressed in native plants. It’s engineered to catch runoff from your roof, driveway, or lawn before it runs into the storm drains. Unlike a standard garden bed, a rain garden is built to soak. Beneath the surface, it’s a mix of drainage-friendly soils. But above? It’s a layered combo of deep-rooted grasses and perennials that slow, filter, and drink up the water. But remember! It’s not a pond. Not even close: ponds hold water, and mosquitoes, and bayou vibes. A well-built rain garden drains fully within 24 to 48 hours. No standing water or creepy crawlies. Just a kitchen sink plug for your garden. Why Louisville Yards Are Prime Real Estate For Rain Gardens Louisville isn’t just bourbon and baseball bats. It’s a city shaped by water, and also one equally challenged by it. Sitting in a climate transition zone between humid subtropical and humid continental, we get long growing seasons here — and plenty of rain. Louisville sees over 45 inches of rain a year, in fact, with spring and summer bringing the kind of downpours that can soak a lawn in seconds. Then there’s the soil. Much of Louisville is built on dense, clay-heavy earth that clings to water like it’s hoarding for winter. That means slow drainage, compacted lawns, and yards that can turn into a full mud bath, even with modest rainfall. Pile on Louisville’s urban development, infill housing, paved-over yards, and impervious surfaces galore, and you’ve got a city with some serious runoff problems. Rain gardens are custom-built for this exact chaos. They: Slow and absorb runoff before it overwhelms the city’s stormwater system Prevent erosion in sloped or frequently saturated spots Filter out oils, chemicals, and sediments before they reach Beargrass Creek or the Ohio River And help recharge groundwater in areas that desperately need better water management So basically, they’re a net positive. Rain gardens are good for your yard, your foundation, your neighborhood… And your conscience. :) But Don’t I Need A Big Yard?

Lawn in Louisville, KY, mowed with a riding lawn mower

The Best Lawn Care Schedule for Louisville’s Climate

July 16, 2025

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Low-maintenance rental property landscape with an artificial turf and native plants

Rental Properties Landscaping Guide

March 26, 2025

Landscaping can bring up the value of your rental property and help you fetch a higher price on the market. However, while tenants may appreciate the landscaping, your tenants likely aren't going to place a huge focus on it since it's not their place and they won't be staying there permanently. As such, it doesn't make sense for you as a landlord to invest heavily in landscaping . You still want the landscaping to bring up the value of your home though. So the key is to find a balance of enhancing your aesthetics to boost curb appeal while not overdoing it to the point where tenants wouldn't be willing to pay more for a nicer outdoor space. This means you should be focusing on cost-effective landscaping projects that can help you get a better price for your rental home and that don't require too much maintenance. Here are the best landscape projects for rental properties as well as some additional considerations when landscaping your rental property. Important Considerations When you landscape your rental property, you don't want to create an outdoor space that requires lots of maintenance. Otherwise, you'll either have to be the one doing the maintenance work or have to hire a professional landscaper to do it, which is extra cost. The point of landscaping is to allow you to earn more from your property, so it doesn't make sense if you're going to end up earning less from your property than you would if you didn't have to perform the landscape maintenance in the first place. Still, no landscape in the world can require zero maintenance. The key is to make this maintenance minimal so that you can easily do it yourself and the maintenance work will only need to be done ideally only once per month or even quarterly. The watering of plants is usually a key concern though as it needs to be done daily. Landlords will need to make it clear whether the tenant is expected to water the plants. If you want to make your property more attractive to your tenants, it's worth investing in irrigation systems that can automate the watering as well as reduce the maintenance burden on you if you're the one doing the maintenance. Finally, make sure not to have any particularly expensive features and elements, whether it's for your outdoor area or in your own home. Your tenant’s stay should be comfortable, so bigger investments like a good temperature control system that enhances their living experience are fine and will fetch you a higher price. However, expensive elements, especially those that don't add much or any practical value, should be avoided. First of all, while we don't want to question their integrity, expensive items create the temptation for theft. More importantly though, you can't assume that your tenants will take good care of your place like you do. After all, it's not their place. You should have taken two months’ deposit or so from them and set it aside to cover any necessary repairs, but even so, it's simply not worth investing in unnecessarily expensive items that won't help you get a higher price. An affordable resin-wicker outdoor sofa will do the same job as an expensive leather one. And both would likely get you the same price for your home. The point is, don't invest in unnecessarily expensive elements that won't serve much practical purpose. Now that you know what to keep in mind when landscaping your rental property, let's go over the best projects to fetch you a better price. 1. Outdoor Living Spaces