Lawn Care For Dummies

Introduction 1

Part I: Planning Your Perfect Lawn 7

Chapter 1: Designing Your Perfect Lawn 9

Chapter 2: Cool-Season Grasses: The Grasses of the North 19

Chapter 3: The Warm-Season Grasses 35

Chapter 4: Lawn Climates, Big and Small 51

Part II: Getting Ready to Plant 61

Chapter 5: Preparing to Plant 63

Chapter 6: Increasing Your Soil Sense 77

Chapter 7: Installing an Irrigation System 89

Part III: Planting a Lawn 103

Chapter 8: Planting a Lawn from Seed 105

Chapter 9: Starting a Lawn from Sod 117

Chapter 10: Planting Sprigs, Stolons, and Plugs 131

Part IV: Showing Your Lawn That You Care 137 

Chapter 11: Watering Lawns 139

Chapter 12: Fertilizing Lawns 155

Chapter 13: Lawn Mowing 175

Chapter 14: Dethatching, Aerating, and Renovating 197

Part V: Battling the Lawn Invaders 211

Chapter 15: Weed Wars 213

Chapter 16: Insect Invaders 233

Chapter 17: Disturbing Diseases 245

Chapter 18: Other Lawn Problems 257

Part VI: The Part of Tens 265

Chapter 19: Ten Lawn Alternatives 267

Chapter 20: Ten Top Lawn Trees and How to Care for Them 275

Chapter 21: (Almost) Ten Things to Do or Not to Do with Lawn Clippings 281

Chapter 22: Ten Things to Do with Your Lawn During Drought 287

Chapter 23: Ten Lawn Games 291

Chapter 24: Ten Weird Things You Can Do with Lawns and Lawn Grasses 295

Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Deal with Leaves 299

Part VII: Appendixes 305

Appendix A: Sources for Lawn Care Products 305

Appendix B: Lawn Information Sources 313

Index 321