A lawn in your yard is an attractive piece of landscaping and can be beneficial to the environment, but you need to keep it maintained and healthy for it to look great and grow well. Here are some recommendations to improve the condition and appearance of your lawn and better your yard's overall landscaping.

Improve Your Lawn Drainage

The drainage in your lawn is an important element because your lawn needs to be able to absorb moisture into its roots within the soil to stay healthy. But when the soil is too hard, too compact, or contains too much clay, this can affect your lawn's health and even promote the growth of lawn-damaging moss. 

Improve the condition of your soil by aerating it in the spring or fall. This will ease soil compaction so you can apply a fertilizer to strengthen your lawn's health. You can also top dress your lawn with a layer of loose soil. Choose a soil that is rich with mulch or manure and is sandy to help improve your poorly-draining soil. 

Manage Bare Spots

You may notice areas of your lawn that have become thin of lawn growth or have died off so that you need to repair the lawn into the area. This can happen due to heat stress, disease, insect damage, and other various reasons that put extra stress on areas of your lawn. When you are dealing with an area that has died and you have fixed the problem causing the dead spot, you can replant new lawn seed in the area. 

Use a lawn rake to loosen up the soil in the area and remove any dead sections of lawn to expose and prepare the soil. Apply a layer of lawn seed that matches or blends in with your existing lawn and water it to keep the area moist. Apply a layer of peat moss or mixture of top dressing soil to help the lawn seeds stay in place while they germinate. The soil also protects them from birds and wind removing them. Water the area well each day to keep it wet for seed germination, then continue watering regularly until the lawn thickens in.

If your lawn seeds don't grow in a patch of soil, it may be due to some foreign material under the soil, such as concrete or landscaping fabric. Dig down into the soil to locate the barrier and remove it, and then replace the soil. Apply lawn seed over the corrected area and cover with peat moss or other mulch material and water it regularly.

To learn more, contact a lawn maintenance contractor.