Lawn is an important part of a home garden. It is a place for relaxation, and holding parties and family functions. A lawn can be created both in outdoors and indoors. In indoor gardening, lawn is normally created on roofs or terraces as a part of terrace garden and normally, lawn mats are used for creating indoor lawns.

Plants Suitable For Making Lawns

Plants that may be used for making lawns are Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), Korean grass (Zoysia japonica), Manila grass (Zoysia matrella) and Korean velvet grass (Zoysia tenuifolia). Among these, Bermuda grass is the most popular lawn grass among gardeners.

Preparation of Soil for Lawn Planting

Fertile, well-drained with good water holding capacity soils are best suitable for planting a lawn. Ideal pH is 5.5 – 7.0. Soil should be prepared during summer months by exposing the soil to the scorching sun. This is done because scorching heat will destroy harmful soil microbes present in the soil. Then top soil is mixed with well-rotten farm yard manure or garden compost or any other locally available organic manure @ 5-10 metric tonnes per acre. This is done to enrich the soil texture and fertility. The prepared soil is left as such until the onset of monsoon as the soil will naturally settle down during the rains. After the rains, preparation of lawn bed may be started with making raised beds with an adequate slope of 2-3 cm slope for drainage.

Methods of Lawn Planting

Dibbling of Roots: It is a slow method, but cheapest one. Grass pieces with roots are planted at 10-15 cm X 10-15 cm distance. Light watering is done until grasses get established.

Seeding: It is not very popular because of the long time involved in lawn establishment. Seed rate recommended for this method is 10-12 Kg seeds per acre. Since seeds are small, mix them with sand before directly sowing on the land prepared for lawn. Watering is done using a sprinkler.

Turfing: A turf is a piece of lawn grass grown on a mat. In this method of lawn establishment, turfs are taken and spread on the lawn site. Watering is done liberally after planting. It is the easiest, popular and quickest method of lawn creation with high success rate.

Bricking: A brick is a piece of lawn available in the shape of a brick. Many such bricks are taken and planted closely together to cover the entire lawn site. Watering is done liberally after planting.

Lawn Mats: Lawn grasses are grown on thick polyethylene sheets. PE of 800 guage thickness is used for this method. Polyethylene sheets of appropriate sizes are taken and then an ideal soil mixture is spread on these sheets up to 3-4 cm in thickness. Lawn grasses are planted and grown on these sheets under great care. These lawn mats are used for creating temporary lawns or ready-made lawns.

Managing Lawn: Mowing and rolling, irrigation, weeding and hoeing etc should be done at regular intervals. The lawn may be applied with a foliar application of urea solution (30 grams in 10 litre water) for its healthy appearance.

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