2 quick fixes for your lawn

Follow the simple instructions to remedy these two common lawn problems and enjoy a greener, happier space.

• In an effort to control weeds, many gardeners put a layer of black plastic sheeting down before installing mulch or wood chips in their garden beds.
• Over time, the wood chips slide off the slick plastic and expose it.
• Since the plastic also blocks air and moisture to the soil underneath, the soil becomes unhealthy. And because weeds do grow in the debris that settles on top of the plastic, and mulches do degrade — every two to three years — the whole bed needs to be restored.
• Replace the old plastic sheeting with a medium-weight permeable landscape fabric that blocks weeds but lets air and water into the soil.
• This woven landscape fabric is available at home and garden centres and comes in various widths.
  Easy steps:
• Start by removing the mulch and putting it on a tarp to reuse later or haul away.
• Pull up the old plastic sheeting, take it off the garden bed, and loosen the garden soil with a rake or hoe.
• Lay out courses of the landscape fabric over the garden bed and cut slits in the fabric where there are plants growing.
• Then pull the fabric back and trim it around the plantings.
• Using metal or plastic anchors, pin the fabric down and tuck the edges neatly along the house foundation and the garden border.
• Apply an even, 7.5 metres (25 feet) of shredded wood mulch to the garden bed, thinning it slightly near plant stems and trunks.
• Avoid having new cover material spill out of the garden bed by placing edging around the bed or sloping the mulch cover gradually deeper away from the border.

• To resod a damaged spot in your lawn, use a sharp, straight-edged spade to remove all the affected grass and soil to a depth of five centimetres (two inches).
• Scratch and loosen the soil surface with a hand cultivator.
• Fill the area with 3.5 centimetres (1.5 inches) of bagged topsoil mixed four-to-one with peat moss, and lay healthy sod over it.
• Use a utility knife to cut the sod to fit the area.
• Water the patched spot daily for three weeks and avoid walking on it until the patch is firmly established.