Ideal Lawn for the Dacha: Instructions + Tips

A lawn is an expensive pleasure: you need to invest a lot of time, effort, and money to grow a beautiful lawn, and then constantly take care of it. That's why the area of lawns on dacha plots is often reduced in favor of flower beds, vegetable patches, and fruit trees. This looks more attractive and is easier to maintain.

However, a well-maintained beautiful lawn is a trend that never goes out of style. Let's take a look together with our experts at how to avoid mistakes and create the ideal lawn on your dacha plot.

Irina Lukyanova, Landscape Designer, Thinks that every garden is a separate story

Lubov Kvasnina, Art Director, DEREVO PARK Studio

Preparation

Preparing the soil is a very important step in creating a lawn. If there are weeds on the plot, it should be treated with herbicides like "Roundup," "Tornado," or "Hurricane" to completely eliminate vegetation.

Plan the slope of the lawn so that water drains in spring and doesn't pool on the area.

At least 15–20 cm of compacted soil will be needed under the lawn. Often it is advised to leave only 10 cm, but that won't last long: nutrients in the soil will quickly run out and the lawn will start dying. In addition, a thin layer of soil will not retain moisture well, and the lawn will have to be watered constantly.

What Soil to Choose?

Good field soil is required for a lawn, which retains surface moisture.

Mainly, peat-sandy mix and drainage in the form of a sand layer are used to prevent water from pooling and the lawn from becoming waterlogged.

After distributing the soil across the plot, it is compacted with a special roller to make it firm and free of holes. Then the soil needs to be loosened to avoid clumps or lumps. If it's a seeded lawn, the soil layer after compaction should be 1–2 cm lower than the level of walkways.

The highest germination rate occurs when you follow this method: roller, seeding, top-dressing seeds with loose soil by hand. Unlike mixing the soil with the seeds.

You Will Need:

Garden and lawn soil, 50 liters

Universal soil "Simple", 50 liters

Universal soil, 5200 liters

Geolia "Universal" soil, 50 liters

Is Geotextile Needed Under the Lawn?

Geotextile is needed under a layer of sand on peat or clay soil to prevent layers from mixing. However, it is not necessary to lay it under the soil.

It's also a misconception that weeds won't grow thanks to geotextile. Weeds arrive with the wind or from imported soil and sprout easily in the lawn.

The main function of geotextile is to help drainage. If you have clay soil — lay the geotextile first, then a layer of coarse sand, and finally a layer of fertile soil.

Sowing

What is your plot like — sunny, shaded, dry, or wet? You should choose grass seeds strictly according to the conditions.

Depending on the purpose of the lawn, different percentages of grasses are used in the mix — this affects how it will grow. For example, if there are pine trees on the plot, choose a lawn with clover added. It will create a denser layer and eliminate bare spots on the lawn.

Before sowing, the soil is raked with fan-shaped rakes. Seeds are distributed on the surface of the soil using a seeder or by hand. The amount of seeds usually varies from 30 to 50 grams per square meter. Then the seeds are covered with fan-shaped rakes. If the soil is very loose, you can pass over it once more with a roller, but only in dry weather.

It's important to make an even layer of soil — if the soil is clumpy, the lawn mower will cut unevenly.

You Will Need:

Dacha lawn Geolia, 3 kg

Manual lawn roller, 50 liters

Landscape geotextile, 50 m

Green manure fertilizer "Vika-Rye", 0.5 kg

Watering

The optimal solution is to install an automatic irrigation system on the plot before sowing the lawn.

Watering the lawn is important in the morning and evening, preferably from walkways to avoid walking on the seedlings. The watering should be even, strictly at 6 AM and 11 PM when evaporation from the ground is minimal. To avoid strong water jets from the hose, use a spray attachment.

The watering rate is 300 liters per hundred square meters to thoroughly soak. If the plot is small, you can cover the seedlings with protective material like lutrasil on top. This will protect the lawn from drying out. A special microclimate forms under the protective material, which promotes faster germination. It also protects from birds that may peck at some seeds.

On average, the lawn takes about two weeks to germinate.

You Will Need:

Garden pump Sterwins

Watering hose Geolia Classic, 25 m

Watering pistol Cellfast Economic

Impulse sprinkler on a stand Gardena Premium

Lawn Mowing

As soon as you forget about mowing, the lawn will begin to deteriorate.

Once the lawn has fully germinated and grown to 9–10 cm, it should be mowed. Subsequently, mowing must be done regularly — never let the lawn grow too tall. The frequency of mowing depends on weather and the growth rate of the sown grasses. Usually, this is once or twice a week.

The mowing height should not be below 4 cm. No more than 3–4 cm of grass should be cut at once. If the plot is heavily overgrown, mowing should be done several times with a few-day intervals to gradually reach the desired height. Cutting more than that can cause the lawn to yellow and take a long time to recover and regain its rich green color.

Recommendations:

• Mow the lawn when the soil and grass are dry;
• Before mowing, lift up flattened grass with a rake;
• Subsequent mowing should be done across the previous cut or diagonally — to avoid uneven compaction of the soil.

Lawn mowers with mulching function are better to buy — when the cut grass is evenly distributed over the lawn and doesn't need to be collected manually with rakes.

In autumn, all fallen leaves must also be removed from the lawn so that pests don't accumulate in them and the lawn is green in spring.

You Will Need:

Electric lawn mower AL-KO Comfort 40E

Sandals for lawn aeration

Aerator Greenworks, 32 cm

Electric lawn scarifier 1300 W, 32 cm

Seasonal Activities

In spring, this involves raking and aeration using special mechanical or electric rollers, as well as devices that are worn on the feet and puncture the soil. On larger plots, for aeration and collecting yellowed grass on the lawn, verticillators and scarifiers are used.

In autumn — collecting fallen leaves and fertilizing with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, in summer — weeding. To achieve an ideal lawn, herbicides with selective action (Lontrel or Linuron) are necessary, which eliminate weeds. This product does not affect lawn grasses but kills only weeds, unlike broad-spectrum herbicides mentioned above.

It's better to use granular fertilizers that should be broadcast by hand or using a seeder over the surface of the soil, then watered. Liquid fertilizers should be diluted in water and applied strictly only to the lawn. This is inconvenient because watering with a hose will take a lot of time.

The first feeding should be done with complex fertilizers containing phosphorus and potassium just after the snow melts, and then until mid-summer, nitrogen fertilizers are sufficient. Bright green color of the grass and absence of moss on the lawn are ensured by treating with copper sulfate.

Rolled Lawn

A big advantage of such a lawn is that it doesn't need to be tilled and waited for the grass to gain strength and a good appearance.

Rolled lawn is sold as ready-made dense sod of a certain width, length, and thickness that has been mowed multiple times.

It is laid on a previously prepared and compacted surface. The only difference from seeded lawns is in the thickness of the soil layer. Compared to walkways, the soil should be formed 4–5 cm lower so that the lawn itself has a thickness of 3–4 cm.

It is very important to thoroughly water the rolled lawn immediately after laying. Unlike seeded lawns, the volume of water should be greater to keep the soil under the lawn root system moist. Heavy watering is necessary for a month so that the roots grow.

Rolled lawn should not be stored on the plot; it is laid out on the same day it arrives. Therefore, you need to calculate your strength and buy only as much lawn as you can lay in one day.

You Will Need:

Rolled lawn "Universal Classic", 0.8 m²

Plastic lawn grid for creating parking on the lawn

Akku scissors for lawns Gardena Classic Cut

Herbicide "BIS-300" for weed control