Advice on planting and soil preparation
Low-water-use lawns have countless qualities, including the significant savings in irrigation and maintenance they allow. Taking advantage of the ideal times for planting is essential for an excellent garden performance, but choosing the right time alone is not enough. Alternative lawns need particular attention at the time of planting to become resistant and high-performing once the growth and establishment period is complete.
For this reason, we have compiled a list of tips for planting and soil preparation, to make it easier for everyone to work with a new alternative lawn, even for those who are not very familiar with these varieties.
Discover our tips and choose the varieties that best suit your garden!
Planting tips
One of the most important considerations when deciding to plant a new lawn is choosing the right period. The best seasons are those in which the weather is neither too hot nor too harsh, even better if there is abundant rainfall, because this allows you to save on irrigation. Even low-water-use plants, in fact, need a little extra irrigation in their first year of life to grow strong enough to become independent and require very little water once they reach their full growth. For this reason, the best times for planting seedlings are spring and autumn, two generally mild seasons, each with its own benefits: one warmer and sunnier, the other rainier.
Once the right period for planting the new lawn has been identified, choosing the varieties is essential. Low-water-use plants generally all allow for significant savings in terms of irrigation and maintenance. But that does not mean they are all the same. In addition to the aesthetic aspect, which may lead you to prefer the yellow flowers of Achillea tomentosa or the purple flowers of Verbena hybrida, or to admire the green carpets of Zosya tenuifolia or the versatility of Lippia nodiflora, there are other aspects to consider. First of all, the first major factor is composed of the characteristics of the area and the climate in which the garden will grow. For example, it is important to consider the winter temperatures of the area when choosing more or less cold-resistant plants. The possible presence of salt in the soil also makes a difference, because there are plants that can withstand it and others that will not be able to thrive.
In short, you need to take into account the characteristics of the soil, the climate in which the new lawn is placed, the rainfall, and the temperatures, all extremely important variables in choosing the right alternative lawn variety. Only after evaluating these aspects and narrowing down the field to the plants best suited to the area can you also consider the needs of the garden owner and the person who will care for it. The amount of time available to dedicate to the lawn is certainly a deciding factor in choosing varieties that require more or less maintenance. The presence of pets, or the need for a lawn that can be driven on, makes you lean towards varieties that are more resistant to trampling, and any allergies to bee stings may exclude melliferous plants. As you can see, choosing the right lawn depends on many factors, which is why we recommend consulting our Guide, which takes into account all the characteristics of low-water-use plants to help beginners make the right choice.
The last factor, also essential, is biodiversity, which is fundamental. When choosing lawn varieties, you must always keep in mind that a mixed lawn is healthier and more resistant than a lawn composed of a single variety. For this reason, studying the combinations best suited to your needs is essential. However, the characteristics on paper are often not enough on their own to predict the performance of a garden. For this reason, our most important advice is to conduct tests in small areas of the garden with seedlings of different species. Only in this way will it be possible to observe reliable results and choose the right combination of plants.
Soil preparation
The period preceding the arrival of the most suitable seasons for planting is also the time to take care of soil preparation. This way, when the seedlings are ready to be planted throughout the garden, they will find soil suited to their characteristics.
Our tips on soil preparation concern:
- How to work the soil;
- The steps to follow;
- Difficult soils and those that need to be topped up;
- False sowing;
- Actual planting.
Working the soil deeply is extremely important for the performance of a low-water-use lawn. Our alternative lawns, in fact, resist drought very well because they are able to search for water and nutrients deep down. Only by working the soil deeply will it be possible to allow the plants to sink their roots where they can find water reserves. The soil should be prepared to be loose and leveled as if sowing any traditional lawn, tilled and free of weeds. In the case of poor or light-colored clay soil, at least 3 or 4 cm of new soil should be added. The soil we recommend adding should be any soil suitable for lawns, preferably sandy.
False sowing is a technique used to prevent the presence of a large number of weeds, therefore designed to eliminate them before the actual planting of the lawn. It is a natural weeding technique, which consists of tilling and irrigating the soil without actually planting. This preventive operation stimulates the growth of weeds, and allows you to remove them before moving on to the actual working and cultivation of the soil. It is an excellent technique to get rid of weeds without using chemical herbicides, and by treating the soil in the most natural way possible.
Once the soil has been prepared properly, you can proceed with planting. Generally, you choose to use 8 to 15 seedlings per square meter, since groundcovers manage to cover the entire area in less than a year, and if planted in spring, about 4-5 months. Once planted, proceed with a very abundant first irrigation. Subsequent waterings should be infrequent but always abundant, every time the soil is completely dry even below the surface layer. Usually, this condition occurs about every 15 days in the early stages of a new lawn's life. Continue this way until the lawn is fully established, assessing the soil moisture and the condition of the seedlings from time to time before giving more water. Once the lawn has fully established, only a few waterings per year will be necessary, to support the seedlings during periods of heat and drought.
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