Keeping a lawn alive and well can be a frustrating experience -- even for a determined yard owner.

It always seems to need something: water, sunshine, mowing, thatching, debugging, fertilizing. Why bother with a lawn? you may ask. Because, despite the attention it needs, it does several things very well--like provide a soft, comfortable area for play or relaxation, and, on the practical side, reduce dust and help prevent soil erosion.

There's no other plant quite like grass, says turf grass expert Michael Henry, environmental horticulture adviser for Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties with the UC Cooperative Extension. "It's hard to match the color, texture and density of lawns with any other kind of plant material. Aesthetically, lawns also provide a nice contrast to ground cover, shrubs, trees and flower beds in the garden."

Despite how common lawns are, they are probably the most misunderstood and poorly treated of plants, says Steve Hollister, a California-certified nurseryman and manager of Armstrong Garden Center in Irvine. By keeping grass short and growing it close together, people force it to grow against its nature.

"Most people wouldn't recognize their lawns if they saw them growing naturally in an unmowed state," says Hollister. "It's like growing a rosebush and not letting it get more than six inches high."

If your more immediate concern is keeping the lawn alive this summer, don't despair. Armed with the right information and a willingness to give your lawn the attention it wants, you too can have a healthy crop of grass.

Here are some tactics for keeping your lawn at its best:

WATERING

Experts say that most people fail their lawns when it comes to watering. "Typically people water lawns too often with an insufficient amount of water," says Hollister. When you water once a day for just a few minutes at a time, water doesn't penetrate the ground more than two to three inches. Such shallow watering prevents grass from developing a deep, healthy root system, which makes it vulnerable on hot summer days. Because they've been watering every day, though, many people don't know that water stress is the problem.

Stress from lack of water is often hard to detect until the lawn begins to yellow, and by that time things are really bad. "When a lawn undergoes drought stress, it doesn't immediately turn yellow but from a distance will look a dark, dull green, as opposed to vibrant, shiny and healthy," says Hollister.