Turf Wars 2: The Homeowner Strikes Back

Take Your Lawn From:

FAIL!

To:

FABULOUS!

I know that many of you fight your lawns--I am no exception in this case. In fact, I'll bet that most of my neighbors wonder when there are going to be toilets full of flowers in front of my house.

Bridger Valley Lawn Care Basics:

You'll recall from the piece I did on trees; we have little or no soil, the soil we do have is very alkaline, there is occasional windiness, and our season is brief to say the least. These conditions present their own unique challenges, but they are not insurmountable. There are beautiful lawns all over the valley, and if you are willing to put the time and effort in, yours will be too. Here is your chronological checklist:

1. Late April early May: Time to fertilize and aerate.

You want a a spring fertilizer that is not too high in nitrogen preferably a 25-0-3 (I use IFA's brand), you also need to add Ironite. This combo along with the late spring snow/rain showers will green your lawn up rather quickly. A week or two after your initial fertilization, hit it again with an organic fertilizer like Milorganite and more Ironite. Milorganite is available at the Evanston Nursery, or just about any other reputable garden center (like J&J in Salt Lake). Continue this regiment until it starts to warm up for good, usually around the second week of June.

• I'm a huge fan of IFA's products, and their co-op business model is commendable: http://ifa-coop.com/country-stores Scott's is a national brand, there is nothing wrong with it, and you can get it at Benedict's. If you are already traveling to Utah for other things though, IFA Country Stores are a lot of fun to shop at (even for kids), and the products are specially designed for our region.

Grow Your Own Tip: 25-0-3 is the N-P-K or Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potasium content of a fertilizer. As a Wyomingite, you will be most interested in the Nitrogen content of fertilizer. Phosphorous is naturally occurring in most of our soils and adding a lot more is not really a good idea. Potassium is not a huge consideration either. Ironite, as the name suggests is Iron, and it helps to counteract the alkalinity of your soil. It will green your lawn without burning it, but it can discolor any concrete it comes in contact with.

2. Late April early May: Weed and pest management.

Unless you have a huge expanse of lawn with no trees, shrubs, perennials, or bulbs; I strongly urge you not to buy fertilizer that is a weed control also. All of the afore mentioned plants can be seriously harmed or killed by using it. Young trees especially suffer, and it will kill more tender plants. If you absolutely must use it because you are being held at gunpoint, stay well away of the drip lines of your trees. The drip line is from the trunk to the furthest branches of your trees.

My preference is spraying for weeds with 2-4D commonly called Weed-B-Gone. This targets anything that is a dicot (plants with two leaves at germination opposed to a monocot which only has one), which in Plain English means that it won't kill your grass. Generally this is an early morning activity, you want to do it when there is little to no wind and rain/snow is not expected for 2 or more hours. If you have a bounteous dandelion harvest like I do, you will want to do this 1-2 times per week. That is if you aren't going to be eating the dandelions--they're quite tasty, but that's for another day.

Pest management is a little bit easier, in that you can spread it all over the lawn without worrying about hurting other plants. First identify if you need a pesticide, it's not a good thing to kill every bug living in your yard. Next, try to find a pesticide that targets the specific pest you are trying to kill; really, you don't want to wipe out everything. Finally, apply it as directed by the manufacturer. If you have questions about this ask, and send me pictures. Or better yet go to the UW Cooperative Extension Service website and get the full scoop. http://www.uwyo.edu/ces/

Mid May through End of July: Discontinue the use of Ironite on your lawn, it needs Nitrogen now, but no so much it burns your lawn. 28-0-0 would be best if you can find it; but if you can't, just get close that is good enough. Continue to alternate every two weeks between the 28-0-0 and Milorganite.

August through the first week of October: Step up your nitrogen a little and add some Potassium to strengthen your lawn for winter, try a 32-0-12. Continue two week rotation with Milorganite.

After the first week of October: call it a year for the ol' lawn. Continuing to fertilize at this point will encourage new growth and can harm your lawn as temperatures drop.

Watering and Mowing, A Vicious Cycle

Improper watering of lawns is a huge problem. I won't get on my water conservation soap box today, so here are a few tips to keep your lawn green and your water usage responsible.

1. Take a shovel and dig up a small piece of your turf. You are inspecting the the root system. What you are looking for is yellowish-white, healthy looking roots that go down 7-12 inches. If yours are much shorter than this, you are watering too often and not long enough.

Grow Your Own Tip: Soil that is easily made into a ball and wants to clump together is usually clay based. Soil that is crumbly and will only hold together if wet is usually sand based. If you have something happily in between, consider yourself lucky because you have a nice loamy soil that will retain moisture well and get plenty of oxygen to your plants roots.

2. Determine how long you need to water. If you happen to have sandy or loamy soil, 15-20 minutes of watering is usually sufficient. If you have a clay soil it could be anywhere from 30-45 minutes. When you dig up your grass you should be able to determine your soil type. Step two of this process is to take a long metal instrument, like a really long screw driver, and stick it in your lawn as far as it will go and then pull it out. Ideally, it should be muddy for around 10-12 inches. Less than that means you need to water longer; more, you should cut back. Use 5 minute increments to adjust your watering length. This tool and measurement will be very important to you, so keep it handy.

3. Determine how often you need to water. Get out your lawn watering measurement tool, and stick it in the ground when you think your lawn needs to be watered. If it comes out moist or muddy, your lawn needs to wait another day. If it is harder to push in or comes out a little on the dry side, it's time to water. If it won't go in at all, perhaps you should consider concrete or a rock garden :) Most people only need to be watering 2-3 times per week, and during the hottest part of summer 3-5. Most people are watering every other day no matter what. This creates lawns that have poor root systems, which means they go brown quicker during a drought and they are using way more than their fair share of water.

4. Cutting your grass. Believe it or not, letting it grow a little bit longer is ideal. Depending on the type of grass you have planted 2-5 inches is perfect. Longer grass will stay greener longer, retain moisture better, and be more comfortable to walk on bare foot.  Not to mention it is more resistant to doggy damage.  If you have a healthy lawn you are going to be mowing quite often. Get yourself a nice mower that is easy to use. If you are really ambitious get a push mower and get your cardio in with your lawn mowing. If neither of those appeal to you, there are lawn cutting services available in The Valley. I prefer to cut my own, but then again, my lawn is smaller than most people's houses.

Some closing thoughts on lawn care:

• If you are going to go to the trouble to have a lawn in your yard, keep it nice. Everybody has "treasures" that build up over time, try to keep them respectable and neighbor friendly. Unless you live out of town by yourself, miles from others--then let your freak flag fly.
• DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT feed your lawn clippings to horses. It can clog up in their stomachs and kill them, and it's a very long, very painful way for them to die. I've seen a horse die of colic, and it was horrifying. The best thing to do is get a good mulching mower that cuts the clippings into very small pieces that can be left on the lawn. This creates organic matter that helps your lawn to grow better. However, I know that most people that have a lawn are really into how it looks and are going to collect the clippings. If you can, start a compost pile with them. Compost is organic gold.

The Container Gardening Workshop will be held Wednesday May 4th, in the Mountain View Library from 6pm until 7:30pm.  There will be garden fresh goodies and snacks, and I will be giving away several prizes.  I'm not selling anything, this is purely for fun and to share information.  So grab a friend and come.

Also, I know there are more than 8 people following this blog.  Make sure you are getting counted, and sent updates by entering your email address in the top part of the page and hitting enter.  I will be giving away a pair of Atlas Gardening Gloves to the 20th follower.  Spread the word and tell your friends, and as always, please send in your questions and stories.  Until next week, have fun gardening :)