If you live near the ocean and you are wondering why your lawn just won’t stay green, there is a very good reason for it.  If you are a landscaper and you work for lots of clients in this kind of area, it’s worth finding out more about this problem.  It is likely you will be encountering it fairly often.

Let’s take a look first of all at why lawns can suffer from being in a saltwater area.  Put simply it is just because they have too much salt.  Most lawns can handle a bit of salt because it would be impossible to have none at all.  But in gardens which are right near the ocean or close to a saltwater lake for example, the amount of salt which comes down on the lawn is much higher.  And over time this will effectively poison the grass.

When this happens you can see it in action.  Instead of having a nice green lawn you’ll notice the tips of the grass will start to go brown.  But even if you meet a client whose lawn is looking exactly like this right now, you can do a lot to ensure you help them regain a nice green lawn.

The big secret – such as it is – lies in compost.  Compost contains nutrition from the various items that have rotted down in it.  Think about this for a moment and you will see the logic in it.  If you have new plants you want to put out in your garden, you won’t use old compost or soil from just anywhere.  You’ll buy a bag of compost or take some you’ve made yourself from your garden composter.  This helps give the new plant all the nutrition it needs to grow.

The same applies to any lawn in a saltwater area.  If you sprinkle some compost onto the lawn every now and then, you are adding extra nutrition to the grass.  This will counteract the effects of the saltwater and you will find that the grass starts to do better over time.

Of course you should always monitor the situation.  If you are being hired by the home owner to take care of their lawn on a regular basis this should be easy to do.  And because you are using your expert skills to tend to their lawn you will find that you can soon see the grass turning into a healthier green color again.

You can also add some fresh grass seed to the lawn over time, to encourage additional growth and to strengthen the lawn as a whole.  If any grass dies as a result of being damaged by saltwater, the extra seed will grow and replace it.

There is one other bonus to treating lawns like this too.  You might end up with lots of additional clients who live close to the client you are already working for.  They’ll all want to know how their lawn was saved!

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