When people talk about healthy and thriving lawns, they almost always talk about what they see above ground…things like color, vigor, and thickness.
But what’s truly important to a healthy lawn is what’s going on at the sub-surface level. The healthiest lawns are comprised of deep-rooted grass that extends far into the ground.
Your lawn should have an extensive network of roots growing beneath the surface. It is this root system that will help support your lawn’s long-term health. The roots help supply nutrients and water to the individual grass plants.
For that reason, you might be wondering how to get roots to grow deep.
There’s a whole science behind this that we’ll help explain in this article. This is important because when you understand how to make grass have deep roots, you’ll understand what it takes to have a healthy lawn.
Before we explain how to get roots to grow deep, let’s talk about why grass rooting is so critical to the health of your lawn.
When grass roots grow deep into the soil, you’re giving your lawn better access to water and nutrient reservoirs. Deep-rooted grass also has better access to microbial life which is important to the health of your soil (and in turn, the health of your grass).
Homeowners often fail to recognize that bad soil h
ealth is the “root” of many problems their lawn faces.
Unfortunately, when a lawn grows shallow roots, the overall health and vigor of the grass can be questionable. This might affect the overall resilience and also appearance of your lawn.
Unfortunately, many lawns do not have deep roots.
Some reasons why you might be struggling with deep-rooted grass include poor drainage (compacted soil- which is common in our region), extreme conditions (like drought, which is also common here in North Texas), and overall poor-quality soil.
Fortunately, there are some steps that you can take to change these factors. While you obviously can’t control the weather, you can help improve the overall condition of your soil, which should help improve your shallow-rooted grass.
There are a few things that you can do to grow deeper roots in your lawn. These lawn care practices are vital to your lawn’s success.
One of the best things that you can do for the health of your lawn is to water it properly.
There are quite a bit of nuances to watering here in North Texas and you want to make sure you get it right. Since we live in a drought-prone area, it’s important that your lawn is getting enough water.
That being said, overwatering can actually drown your grassroots, so you want to be careful that you’re not overdoing it. Overwatering can also lead to problems with lawn fungus so there’s a fine line.
The best way to ensure that watering is done properly is with an irrigation system. This can take the guesswork out of proper watering. Deep-root growth can be triggered by a deep soaking that encourages roots to grow down deep into the soil.
Another way to encourage deep-rooted grass is with proper lawn fertilization. The nutrients from lawn fertilization get down into the soil and help promote deep roots.
Keep in mind that not all fertilization is created equally. One of the biggest differences has to do with the products that they utilize. Some homeowners mistakenly assume that all fertilizer products are the same but this simply isn’t the case. You want to make sure that your lawn care company is investing in high-quality products.
You’re going to get better results from better products.
The same is true for optimal timing. You want to make sure that fertilization is applied at the proper times in order to get the most out of this service.
One factor that people don’t always consider when thinking about deep-rooted grass is that weed roots are also in competition with your grass plant roots. They’re trying to access the same water, oxygen, and nutrients.
That’s why weed control is also important when it comes to how to get roots to grow deep.
Weeds are actually growing beneath the surface level before you even see them. And they’re trying to crowd out your grass. You want to make sure you’re using a proactive weed control program that is addressing weeds swiftly and also preventing many of them in the first place.
The last thing that you want is for your healthy grass to have lots of weedy competition.
Believe it or not, the way in which you are cutting grass at the surface level is also having an impact at the root level. When you cut your grass too short, you put a tremendous amount of stress on the grass. In turn, this puts a lot of stress on the roots.
It’s quite critical that you follow the proper mowing recommendations for your lawn. Unfortunately, it’s common for homeowners to overlook how important proper mowing is to the overall health of their turf.
Another critical step to helping grow deep-rooted grass is to practice lawn aeration.
Lawn aeration in Texas is so important due to our sandy loam soil type, which is prone to compaction. This can make it difficult for oxygen, water, and nutrients to get to where they are needed. A compacted lawn can end up with shallow grass roots since they can’t grow down deep into the soil.
However, aeration can help correct this by breaking up the soil, creating a more favorable environment for the root system.
Aeration can also assist with thatch build-up which is common in Texas Zoysia grass, one of the prevalent grass types in our area. This naturally-occurring, dead organic material that can build atop your soil—is a common problem in our region.
Thatch build-up of over ½” can prevent oxygen, water, and nutrients from penetrating the soil to reach the root zone.
We know that growing deep-rooted grass can feel like a lot of work. But when you choose a professional lawn care partner to help with the maintenance of your lawn, you don’t have to worry about all of this on your own.
In fact, at Grassperson, we can help with all aspects of the lawn care services involved in growing better grassroots. That includes irrigation, fertilization, weed control, mowing, and lawn aeration.
When these services are performed properly, a pro can help you grow a lawn with deep roots that is the healthiest it can be.
Even if your lawn is in bad shape right now, a professional can likely help.
At Grassperson, we have worked on plenty of lawns where the homeowners thought it was unfixable. But by getting to the root of the problem, we were able to get solutions in place and help them achieve the best-looking lawn on the block.
Ready to get the results that you desire for your lawn in the Flower Mound, Highland Village, or Lewisville, TX area? Get a free quote and then enjoy the best lawn with no worries!
