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A beautiful lawn doesn't come without expending some effort. Depending upon the
variety of soil you have, the amount of effort required will vary.
For instance, when raising trees and shrubs, a sandy or gravel based soil is
best. Landscape plants like well drained soil. But your lawn on the other hand is different. Lawn grasses
grow continuously throughout the growing season and they need an ample supply of nutrients and water.
A regular routine of watering and fertilization is required to keep a lawn
looking beautiful.
If you’re lucky enough to have a lawn that was originally planted in good rich topsoil,
your job will be much easier. You won’t have to work nearly as hard as somebody like
me who has a lawn that is planted in sandy gravel. The soil at our house has little nutritional
value or ability to retain moisture. By mid-May my lawn starts drying out. It is very difficult for
me to keep my lawn looking nice.
A little clay in the soil is a good thing for healthy lawns. While standing water isn't good, having soil that has the ability to retain moisture is helpful.
This is something to consider if you happen to be seeding a new lawn. If you have
property that's sandy or gravely, add lots of organic matter before you sow your new lawn.
Because most lawn grasses grow very vigorously, they need extra amounts of nutrients added in order to
remain looking nice. Just use one of the simple step-by-step programs offered by
most fertilizer companies. Most of these programs also include weed control along with the fertilizer. Here in the north we basically have two concerns with weeds in our lawns.
Crabgrass can be a problem (and I do consider crabgrass to be a weed). In order to
best control crabgrass you should use a pre-emergent herbicide that will prevent the crabgrass seeds from
germinating in the first place. In order for this herbicide to be effective you must apply it early in the spring while the soil temperature is still below
45° F.
Broadleaf weeds such as Dandelions are another problem, but they are fairly easy to control with a broadleaf weed control. Most broadleaf herbicides are mixed in with the
fertilizers and should be applied when the grass and weeds are damp. The wet foliage
will cause the herbicide to stick to the weeds, allowing it to be absorbed
over a period of time. Once it is absorbed the herbicide translocates through the weed plant and kills it completely.
These types of herbicides are “selective” since they seem to know the difference between
grass and weeds. They kill the broadleaf weeds only and not the grass.
However, many people have different kinds of thick bladed grass in their lawn such as quack
grass. This stuff is rather ugly and it can really detract from a lawn's
appearance. The problem is it's still in the grass family, and most “selective” herbicides
won't kill it. So what should you do?
In order to get rid of these types of undesirable grasses you must use a “non-selective” herbicide, and “non-selective” herbicides don’t care
what they kill. Well, at least that’s true in the plant kingdom. When you use a “non-selective” herbicide you must understand that everything that you spray is going to die, but it really is the only effective way to rid your lawn of
the thick bladed grasses.
This type of treatment is most effective if you have isolated areas that contain wide bladed grasses. You’ll have to spray all the grass in the area, then
re-seed it with good quality grass seed.
You must be very careful when using a non-selective type of herbicide! Make sure that the spray does not drift onto other plants or lawn areas that you do not want to kill. To keep the spray from drifting, adjust the nozzle so that the spray
pattern is narrow with larger spray droplets. spray nozzles will make this process easier.
You shouldn't use a fine atomized spray if there is danger of spray drift. It also helps to keep the pressure in the sprayer as low as possible. Pump the sprayer a minimum number of times, to keep the pressure low. You want
just enough pressure to deliver the spray exactly where you want it.
Buy a sprayer just for
use with herbicides and mark it as such. You never want to spray plants with a sprayer that has
previously been used for herbicides.
Once you have sprayed the area that you want to kill, wait three days before
you do anything else. After a period of three days the grasses that you sprayed may not look any different, but if
they have been properly treated, they will die. It takes three days for the herbicide to translocate throughout the entire plant,
killing it. So even though the weeds and grass plants look fine, you can start digging and chopping and not worry about them growing back.
If you happen to be seeding a new lawn, make sure you spray all the weeds and thick bladed grasses before you start. Once you have the lawn
seeded you sure don’t want to go through all the trouble of killing areas of your lawn and
re-seeding. If you make sure that all of these undesirables have been killed before you
start you’ll be way ahead of the game.
When selecting grass seed you should always choose a blend that is recommend for your area. Here in the north a popular blend contains fine bladed perennial rye grass, fescue, and blue grass.
Keep in mind that it takes blue grass seeds 28 days to
germinate while most perennial rye grasses germinate in 5 or 6 days, so you never want to plant a lawn that is 100% Kentucky blue grass. Before the blue grass seeds have a chance to germinate, every kind of weed imaginable will already be actively growing in your lawn.
With a blend, the faster germinating grasses come up
quickly and act as a "nurse crop" for the slower germinating seeds. Having a blend also gives you
some protection in case some new pest comes along that attacks certain types of grasses.
People often ask if they have to have their lawn hydro-seeded in order for it to be nice. The answer is no. Hydro-seed is not some kind of magic formula. It is nothing more than a fancy way to apply grass seed. A
hydro-seeder is just a machine that mixes water, grass seed, fertilizer and mulch into a slurry that is sprayed onto your lawn. The ingredients are exactly the same that you would use if you
were to seed by hand (with the exception of the mulch). And contrary to popular belief, hydro mulch is no better than good old fashioned straw.
In my opinion straw is a much better mulch. The primary advantage
of hydro-seeding is that the grass seed is thoroughly soaked before it is applied, which assures
fast germination. That’s a huge advantage if you're seeding in an area where it is not practical to wet the seed after it has been applied. At your
house it really doesn’t matter. Hand seeding works just fine.
With either method, you still have to water just as much once the seeding is done. Many people are lead to believe that hydro-seed doesn’t have to be watered as much as hand seed. This is a huge misconception.
If you fail to water hydro-seed once it is applied, it will still germinate and little tiny grass plants will appear. But just a few hours without water on a hot
day and those little tiny grass plants will wither and die. This is a big problem because once the seed has germinated, it is spent.
All the water in the world will not make that spent seed produce another grass plant. Hydro seed has it’s benefits,
but for a residential lawn it’s not all that important.
Why do I claim that straw is a better mulch than the popular hydro-mulch? Think about how the hydro-mulch is applied. It is mixed with the seed, fertilizer and water as a slurry, and sprayed on the lawn. The mulch has not been applied over top of the seed which is how mulch is supposed to be
applied. Rather it is all mixed together.
Some of the seeds are under the mulch, and some of the seeds are on top of the mulch. Mulch can’t do much good when the seeds are resting up on top of it. They might as well be sun bathing!
Now think about the process of hand seeding. The seed is spread on the soil, then you should take a push broom and drag it backwards over top of the seeded area. This applies a very thin layer of soil over most of the seeds. Then you spread the straw over top of the soil. The pieces of straw are scattered in all directions, with many of them
criss-crossing each other.
Remember the movie, “Honey I shrunk the Kids”? This is what it’s like to be a grass seed under a mulch of straw. As the sun works it’s way across the sky the grass seeds actually receive filtered sunlight. Enough sun to warm the seeds so they grow, but also enough shade to protect the tender young grass plants. As the grass plants grow, they also raise the mulch with them to a degree, providing additional shade for the seeds that haven’t germinated yet. The shade that straw mulch provides also helps to retain the
moisture around the seeds.
Another trait of hydro-seed is that as the slurry dries, it becomes a blanket over the lawn. In the event of a heavy rainfall, running water tends to get under this blanket and carry it away, leaving
large areas with no seed at all.
With hand seeding, each seed is independent, and they fall between the nicks and crannies of the soil. In the event of heavy rain, the running water must be severe enough to wash the soil away before the seeds can be moved.
I’ve seeded hundreds of lawns using both techniques. For the difference in cost I’ll take the hand seeded lawn any
day!
Article courtesy of
Mike McGroarty.
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