Below are a few tips for that bright green, vibrant lawn you have always wanted. Now you can be the envy of the neighborhood!

1. Leaf it be. We used to spend backbreaking hours raking leaves and grass, piling them into bags and carrying them off. The latest advice from the University of Minnesota is to use your lawn mower to mulch both leaves and grass clippings into the lawn. Try it! It may take a couple more passes with the lawn mower to make the leaves disappear, but eventually they will be cut up into small nutritious pieces that will feed your grass. Grass clippings less than one inch in length filter down to the soil surface and decompose relatively quickly. Clippings also shade the soil surface and reduce moisture loss due to evaporation.

While leaving clippings on the lawn is recommended whenever possible, there are a few instances when this is not recommended.

• Where the lawn is heavily diseased, removing clippings can decrease the population level of disease organisms.

• If the lawn must be mowed when wet, clippings will mat together. The lawn may be damaged under clumps of clippings.

• If the grass has become too tall (more than one-third to one-half of the vertical height is removed by mowing).

If your mower is unsafe to operate without a bagging attachment.

Your trees will love you. It is not only the lawn that will benefit from not raking. The trees from which the leaves fell will also be grateful. After all, that is the natural cycle: leaves fall, worms and other creatures pull the fallen leaf underground, the nutrients stored in the leaf are returned to the earth and then to the tree.

2. The myth about thatch. You may also have been bagging grass clippings on the understanding that doing this will avoid “thatch” buildup. Thatch is a layer of un-decomposed or partially decomposed organic matter that builds up between the soil surface and the actively growing green vegetation. A thatch layer will develop if organic matter is produced faster than it is decomposed by micro-organisms. Thatch buildup comes mostly from the interlinking grass roots of the living plant. This happens most often with lawns growing in acidic conditions, or where grass has been overwatered and overfed, causing it to grow too quickly. Grass clippings decompose rapidly and contribute very little to thatch accumulation, unless you have been mowing very long grass on a regular basis.

If you have an irrigation system, you may have more cause for concern about thatch build up. Don’t let thatch get beyond a half-inch thick, because this can deprive the grass of light, repel rain or even, in wet years, keep the ground too soggy resulting in root rot and fungal disease. If true thatch does build up in your lawn, get the lawn aerated.

Thatch is not all bad. A little thatch can even be good as it serves as mulch, keeping moisture in and roots cool. Grass seed will grow in it, too, and it gives you a nice springy lawn.

3. Nitrogen from grass. If you leave grass clippings on the lawn, and even better, mulch them with your mower, you will be adding nitrogen from a natural source (grass clippings will return about one kilogram of nitrogen to every 100 square meters). This will keep the lawn that bright green color; if it turns yellow, that’s a good clue that it needs fertilizing from an additional source. In fall, keep the nitrogen level low, while providing the grass with some phosphorus and potassium and even iron. Leave your lawn clippings at any time!

4. Fertilizer. Late summer and fall are the most important times to fertilize lawns. Early spring fertilization, especially with high rates of nitrogen, results in a flush of green growth and rapid clipping production (this may necessitate collecting clippings until growth slows). Though the lawn may look beautiful for a while, the plants’ energy reserves are depleted by this rapid shoot growth. Consequently, the lawn is less able to tolerate summer stresses.

Spring fertilizer application can be important if the lawn has not been fertilized since the last spring, or if “winter-kill” has been severe. Then it is best to wait until after the spring flush in growth (mid to late May) to fertilize.

Fall fertilization allows nitrogen to be absorbed by the grass while vertical growth is slow. This promotes green-up in the spring without stimulating excessive shoot growth and the need to collect clippings.

5. The moss grows on the north side. Moss will grow where the conditions permit and if your lawn is soggy, acidic and shady, then moss can become a nuisance. Usually moss will disappear as conditions change, but if not, you can rip it away physically and then apply a moss killer, best applied in spring or early fall.

6. Scalping your lawn. Don’t! Even if you are super busy and want to reduce mowing time, resist the temptation to cut the grass too short, which can result in actually scalping in some areas where the ground may be a bit uneven. Cutting the grass too short can also cause the lawn to need more watering, make it susceptible to diseases and promote the growth of weeds. What is the best mowing height? 2.5 to three inches. If grass gets too long, mow it even higher up; wait a few days, then mow again. It is important to mow often enough so that no more than one-third of the vertical grass height is removed with each cutting. Note: increasing the mowing height by 1/2 inch during the summer can improve the lawn’s ability to tolerate stress.

7. Watering. In addition to rainfall, some watering is required in most years to maintain a green lawn. One inch or less of water per week is generally sufficient in cool or warm weather, with 1-2 inches per week needed during hot or windy weather. Most lawn sprinklers apply about one-fourth to three-eighths inch of water per hour. You can easily check your sprinkler output by placing a straight sided can on the lawn and measuring the depth of water after one hour. Excessive watering leads to disease and other undesirable conditions, and can weaken the lawn and diminish the benefit of applied fertilizers.

8. Grass in the shade. Yes, you can have a green lawn under trees and in shady places. There are great new mixtures of fescue that thrive in shade. These plants are also drought resistant and grow slowly, reducing mowing times.