Green's Lawn Care

Fertilizing

   Fertilizing the grass does more than just make it green. Of course it will make it grow too, but lot's of things happen when you fertilize. Going back to our establishment, fertilizer makes the seed germinate faster, and get started out of the ground. After the grass has a good start fertilizer will make the grass get thicker send off Rhizomes, Stolons or Tillers all making the grass thicker and healthier. What most people want to know is how much and when. Simply put, most grasses will benefit from four applications of fertilizer per year. Spread out 60 days apart starting in early spring approximately 30 days before the growing season starts in your area, continuing through the growing season until fall. Spring fertilizing gets the grass off to a fast start giving you that rich green color everyone wants. A word of warning though, don't use too much fertilizer, follow the listed guidelines on the bag, or these generic instructions. Too much fertilizer will cause excess growth, lead to Fungus growth and weaken the grass.

Cut the grass higher

Many people like to think of their lawn as their own personal putting green. But close-cropped putting greens are among the most intensively managed—watered, fertilized, and chemically sprayed—patches of land in the world. Your grass will be much happier (and healthier and greener) if you loosen your stranglehold on it, and you'll be able to spend more time relaxing instead of working on your lawn.

The first step to this new paradigm is to raise the height of your mower. If you live in southern states, you'll want something around 2-1/2 inches high; in shadier northern states, 3-1/2 inches is recommended.

Taller grass has multiple benefits:

• The larger mass of grass blades makes the grass look greener overall, and problem spots will look less obvious than they did when you were mowing at putting-green heights.

• The extra green on top delivers more nutrients to the grass' roots and helps them grow deep, giving the grass better access to water and making it more drought-tolerant. Deeper roots also mean better access to soil nutrients.

• The thicker root mass and the taller green parts work to crowd out weeds by keeping weed seeds from germinating and crowding out any unwanted plant pests that do manage to germinate.

• Taller grass leaves help keep the sun off the soil, helping to preserve its water content.

• Your longer-cut lawn will require less mowing. (Cutting the grass short stimulates the plants to try to grow faster to make up for their lost greenery.)

Fall Lawn Care Strategy

Now that September is fast leaving us (can you believe that?) and October is about to blow in, it’s time to consider our fall lawn care strategy. Now it does not matter if you have been reading this lawn care blog for a long time, or if you just started, this advice will apply to you. It also applies to those of you who have already forked over the $7 to buy a step by step instructions of what to put down on your grass and when to put it down.

The reason this all applies to all of you is that I know for a fact that the majority of you have NOT been caring for your lawns like you should; and that’s ok. I understand that summer gets hectic and your lawn care maintenance practices can take a back seat. But now that fall time is almost here, you can make up time and catch up to where you need to be fairly easily. With that in mind, here are some very basic tips on turning your lawn around this fall.

Chemicle

Chemicals give superficial results...

It's amazing (especially in such a eco-conscious environment we are beginning to live in) how many people overlook the disastrous amount of toxic chemicals being applied to their lawns. Whats more, the most amazing thing may actually be the lack of benefit chemical treatments provide your lawn. Chemical lawn care companies treat the blade of grass, not the root system. While this MIGHT give you a pretty green lawn for a season it does nothing for the health and sustainability of your lawn. It's like spray-painting a lawn green. Organic-based lawn care, on the other hand nurtures a root system and generates a healthy lawn... which, ehemm, NATURALLY resists weeds and requires significantly less water to maintain. Imagine that? Long and short of it, organic-based lawn care might take from 1-3 seasons to give you the golf course front yard you're looking for, but once it does it reduces the amount of watering you need to do, naturally resists weeds and it's safer for both you and the environment.

Lawn Care Tip Concerning Lawn Mowing:

Adjusting lawn mower height for fall mowing is not an issue with cool season grasses. Just set the height as you normally would, right up until the time when growth stops and you stop mowing. But an adjustment should be made to lawn mower height in the fall for warm season turf grasses: increase the height by 1/2 inch.

So at exactly what height should you set lawn mowers, in general? According to Robert E. Kozlowski at the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, mowing your lawn with a lawn mower set at a proper height can save you from having to rake or bag your lawn clippings. His rule of thumb is, "Mow when your grass is dry and 3 to 3-1/2 inches tall. Never cut it shorter then [sic] 2 to 2-1/2 inches or remove more than one third of the leaf surface at any one mowing."

Kozlowski's premise is that the valuable nutrients in the grass clippings can do your lawn some good, left right where they lie after mowing -- as long as their bulk is kept at a minimum. By following his rule of thumb and cutting only about an inch off the top of your grass at any one time, the bulk of the grass clippings is kept low.

Employing Kozlowski's lawn care tip will entail more frequent mowing, to be sure. But the result will be a healthier lawn, fed by nutrients that you would otherwise be hauling away. Think of it this way: with Kozlowski's approach, you're essentially mowing and fertilizing at the same time. Taking care of two lawn maintenance tasks at once -- that's for me!

 

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