• Do you find yourself green with envy at the sight of your neighbors' healthy lawns? Despite some landscapers' claims that you need to spend a lot of money on hiring lawn care professionals and high-priced lawn fertilizers, proper lawn care need not be expensive and you should be able to do everything yourself.

Nearly everyone takes pride in having a lush, green lawn. Contrary to popular belief, you can have a healthy lawn without spending lots of money on expensive gardening tools and lawn fertilizers. To learn how to care for a lawn on a budget, follow the tips listed in this how to guide.

• Most lawn care experts and professional landscapers will recommend fertilizing your lawn up to five times a year. However, unless your lawn is in a severe state of disrepair, you can usually get away with fertilizing once a year. Although it may seem logical to fertilize early in the year, as soon as snow melts and your grass begins to grow again, studies have shown that fertilizing in spring has little, if any benefit and may actually encourage pests and weed growth. The best time to fertilize is in the fall, a couple of weeks after you have mowed your lawn for the final time. Apply a slow-release, high nitrogen fertilizer, making sure it is evenly spread, and then water your lawn to ensure the fertilizer gets to the roots.

• Although some may insist that watering a lawn every day is important to maintain healthy grass, this is another common misconception. Depending on where you live and the amount of rainfall you get, you may not need to water at all. Most lawns will remain healthy after receiving about one inch of water per week. Place a rain barrel or other container outside to measure how much rainfall you get each week. If, after a week, there is one inch of water in the container, you do not need to water that week. If there is less than an inch of water in the container, measure how much it is and then water as necessary to make up the difference. For example, if there is half an inch of water in the can, ensure that your lawn gets another half inch of water.

To figure out how long you need to leave your sprinkler on, place an empty container on your lawn, within the sprinkler's range, and start a timer. Wait until one inch of water accumulates in the container and then stop your timer. You should now have a good idea as to how long it takes to distribute one inch of water to your lawn.

• The proper timing is also crucial in watering your lawn. The best time to water is in the early morning, between 4:00 and 8:00 a.m. If this is not possible, water in the early evening, but not late at night. Never water during midday, as most of the water will evaporate and any drops that stay on the grass can magnify sunlight, causing grass to burn.

• Unless you have a unusually large lawn, you do not have to spend a great deal of money on a fancy lawn mower. It is however, important to keep your mower blades sharp to prevent grass damage. Although you may be tempted to cut your grass golf course-short, shorter grass requires much more maintenance and is more susceptible to disease and damage. Lawns with longer grass require less frequent watering and are less susceptible to weeds and insects.

To keep your lawn healthy, aim for a grass height of three inches or more. Try to mow about one-third of the grass length at one time. Therefore, if your lawn mower is set at a height of three inches, mow your lawn when the grass is four and a half inches long.

After you mow, leave the grass clippings on the lawn. As these clippings decompose, they will return important nutrients to the soil, reducing the need for fertilizer. The clippings will also help the grass retain water and insulate the soil beneath.