Archive for the ‘General Lawn Care’ Category
To keep a healthy and attractive lawn it is important to water properly. To maintain active growth and a nice green color, lawns should receive about 3/4″ to 1″ of water each week. This is merely a rule of thumb. I don’t think your lawn will die if it doesn’t get an inch per week. There a number of things that can determine how much water your lawn needs. The weather and soil type will have a lot to do with this as well as the type of grass you have.
Do not over water your lawn. If your lawn needs water it will look dull green and the blades may roll or fold. If you walk on your lawn and you can see footprints your lawn needs watering. During the heat of summer you may want to let your lawn slow down.
The best time to water your lawn is in the morning. When the temperatures are cooler and the winds are calm, you will have less evaporation of the water. If you water in the afternoon or evening you may encourage disease because the lawn will remain wet all night. Fungus diseases, affecting grasses, thrive on water and high humidity to sporulate and thus infecting the grass. Some people find it more convenient to water during midday. This won’t harm the lawn but more water will be lost to evaporation.
When you water, do so thoroughly to allow the water to soak down to the roots. Do not water as thoroughly if you have a newly seeded lawn where you are trying to keep the surface wet. This rule of thumb also applies to newly sodded lawns because the roots of the sod have not made full contact with the soil. In general, avoid watering frequently, which causes shallow root systems.
Usually the use of sprinklers is the best way to water lawns. Because sprinklers vary in their pattern of distribution, the spray from each should overlap. The sprinklers spray pattern should overlap 80-100%. Your sprinkler system should provide even distribution of water to all areas. You can place straight sided cans, such as tuna cans, around your lawn area to check the evenness of your water distribution. Avoid missing some spots or flooding others. Don’t waste water by watering sidewalks, streets or your driveway.
If the water you are using is not coming from a municipal water system, test the quality of the water before using it on your lawn. This test can tell you if the quality of the water is good, borderline, or unsuitable for this purpose. The test will show if the water is too high in salts, calcium, sodium, pH, or magnesium.
Do not over water. This can cause excessive growth, fungal disease, and makes the grass more prone to insects and pests. The more you water your lawn, the faster it will grow and the more you will be mowing.
Remember, infrequent and deep watering promotes a good and healthy root system. It also reduces weed growth. Watering early in the morning is best to cut down on evaporation. Keep your grass at the right height in the summer. Longer grass increases the the root system depth, helps drougth tolerance, and shades the soil.
I don’t know who invented lawns, I believe it was someone in Europe. In any event, we seem to have bought into the idea of, what to some folks, seems to be an obsession. Attempting to maintain a superb lawn, even to those of us who are not as obsessed, can be time consuming as well as costly.
In most areas of the country, you can’t just not take care of your lawn. Homeowners associations, cities, and townships demand that you maintain your lawn. Not taking care of you lawn may invoke the wrath of your neighbors and make it difficult to find your mail box.
Having said that, if you are, in fact, going to do the “right thing”, you just might as well do it correctly. By correctly, I mean organically. When I was young, pesticides were thought of as safe and easy. We cast insecticides and fungicides over our lawns as if they were completely harmless. Now that I have discovered the error of my ways, I have found organics.
The most important aspect of an organic lawn care system would be the soil. You have a number of allies to help you keep your lawn healthy. I am talking about beneficial bugs and microorganisms. These two helpers, among others, nourish and protect your lawn from microbes that can cause disease. All you need to do is to introduce these beneficial microbes and allow them to do their job.
You may wonder how does one go about introducing these beneficial microorganisms into their soil. One answer is finished compost. Finished compost contains beneficial bacteria and fungi. I would suggest you include finished compost in the soil prior to laying seed or sod. I would mix the compost into the top 4 or 5 inches of the topsoil. This will put the microbes in to the area where the roots will be as the grass grows. If your grass is already up and growing, you can apply compost as a thin layer over the top.
Now that we have applied compost, what about fertilizer? Of course we are going to use organic fertilizers. You don’t want to use chemical fertilizers because the food they provide is pretty much useless. You have heard of empty calories. This is the same thing. Microbes from organic fertilizers combine carbon and nitrogen to prevent loss of nutrients and promote plant growth. It will also clean chemical residues.
Many organic, dry, fertilizers are protein based. These fertilizers include grains such as ground corn, cotton seed, soy and others. Most beans or ground seed make good organic fertilizers.You can use coffee grounds as well. I would apply grain fertilizers at a rate of about 15-20 lbs per 1,000 square feet with no fear of harming your lawn. It doesn’t matter what time of day you apply organic fertilizer. You can find organic fertilizers at feed stores. I don’t use the stuff at the big box stores.
Lets stop using chemicals. A thin layer of finished compost will bring back the microbes that your lawn needs. Use the protein based fertilizers that we talked about. Check the cost at your local feed supply store and see what is inexpensive. This is, of course, just a small part of organic lawn care but it covers the basic procedures. Good luck and happy lawns to all
