A lawn is so much more than just a patch of grass; it’s the soft spot in your yard where you play with your kids, entertain friends and family, spread out the picnic blanket, and settle in for an evening of stargazing. For many of us, a well-kept lawn is a thing of beauty, a bright and healthy expanse that creates a welcoming stage for our homes and gardens.

Choosing an irrigation system is about convenience, efficiency, and water conservation. Deciding on portable sprinklers or an in-ground irrigation system basically comes down to cost versus time and convenience.Portable sprinklers aren’t necessarily the most efficient system to use to water your grass. You know — hooking up the oscillating or impulse sprinklers, dragging the hose all over the lawn, watching the clock, and trying to remember when you should move the sprinkler to a different part of the lawn.

How to mow a lawn or grass the right way is one of the most important practices in keeping your lawn healthy. Grasses are like most plants — if you clip off the growing points (for grass, it's in the crown, where the new leaves develop), the plants branch out and become denser, which in this case, turns thousands of individual grass plants into a tightly woven turf or a lawn.

Tool sheds and garages can harbor some of the least green garden products on the market. In addition to chemicals for killing weeds and pests, you’re likely to find fossil-fuel-burning gas-powered lawn mowers and electric tools. Cut down the energy you use in the garden by replacing your power tools with manual alternatives: Replace an electric or gas lawn mower with a push reel mower, also known as a hand mower.

Laying sod is a gratifying experience—you get a new, green lawn in no time! The time to lay sod is early morning before it gets too hot. The soil in the planting area should be moist, not soggy or dry. Water thoroughly one or two days before the sod is delivered so that the top several inches of soil are wetted.

The basic components of your lawn irrigation system are control valves, pipes, pipe fittings, risers, sprinkler heads, and controllers. You need to know these components and what each does, whether you’re installing the system yourself or hiring a professional: Control valves: Control valves regulate the flow of water from the main source through the pipes and on to the sprinkler heads.

Connecting your lawn irrigation system to the plumbing system in your house is one of the final steps of installation. The water for your lawn irrigation system has to come from somewhere, so you need to hook your system to the house water supply. Tapping into the water supply is one part of the installation that you should really get help on from a professional installer or plumber.

A broadcast spreader is more difficult to calibrate than a drop spreader is because you can’t catch the fertilizer as it’s being thrown out. Broadcast spreaders throw fertilizer over a wide area of your lawn and are particularly useful for large lawns. To use a broadcast spreader properly, you need to know how wide a band the spreader covers.