Magic Wand

Wow, who asked for a hot humid summer? I love this weather, but the lawns are telling me another story. Taking care of lawns comes easy to me. After 30 years, I have loads of tricks up my sleeves to get the lawn you want, but what I don’t have, is a magic wand.

When a lawn care company showed up to apply a liquid herbicide, the majority of consumers thought that one application would do the job at hand; thus the magic wand. On the contrary, the application results could only be as good as what the conditions could provide.

I consider myself a great turf manager. I know what it takes to get what you want, but do you have the budget and/or the patience? I want to ask you four questions, each worth twenty five percent. The closer you are to one hundred, the greater your lawn looks.

1) Do you believe that your lawn care company is providing you the best products, applied and performed correctly?

2) Have you been watering to provide the best outcome for your lawn?

3) Have you been cutting your lawn taller than 3 inches?

4) Has the weather been the best for growing lawns?

If you are my customer, the first question is a yes. Chalk up 25%. I have found that the last three questions have been a failure on majority of lawns. Your lawn is then averaging a 25% efficiency and really not doing that well.

Who has: crabgrass, dandelions, brown lawns, dead patches, streaks of brown throughout, dry conditions, animals digging, moths flying, rust, red thread, increasing water rates, and the list can go on. Most of the problems on your lawn can be cured with the following steps

1) Cut high. A higher cut provides more shade to the soil area which in turns does not allow for weeds seed to germinate, or for quicker soil evaporation. Did you know that evaporation is a cooling process?

2) Water. Dependent upon your soil type, the number of trees, the amount of sun or shade, your turf type and cutting height is all dependent upon how much you water. There is no straight answer here. I do recommend one hour per week and in the event of drought conditions, more.

3) Top dress. Did you know that by applying one percent of organic matter can increase your soils ability to hold moisture by 50%? We use a pelletized composted material to topless. The results are visible for all to see.

4) Aeration. Aerate once if not twice a year. Aeration will reduce compaction as well as total depth of thatch. Water, nutrients and air will be exchange at ease now. A healthier plant/lawn.

5) Power slit seed. Introducing strong varieties of turf will provide a high quality turf, with excellent density, disease resistance and has excellent cool temperature growth; as well as for heat and drought tolerance in the blend.

Each weed ID’s certain conditions lacking in the soil area. Most of our lawns require lime, topdressing, aeration and seeding. You’ll see the weeds dwindle over time due to a healthy more competitive lawn. If you think this is a onetime deal, think again. You need do to these yearly.

What may be required is a different program for you rather than the typical 6 application base program. You may need to start this fall with topdressing, aeration and seeding to get a head start for next year. Come spring, aerate, top dress and liquid lime. Follow this with our liquid weed managers to the fall and start over. Not your typical program that you are used to, but this is what your lawn requires.

This program does not address the cutting and watering habits. Do your best with them to achieve your best results possible. I can install an irrigation system that uses less water than the typical system. It will water more evenly and in the end, be far more efficient than what you are doing now.

All this is great, but what about my budget? Your lawn can work on a budget, but the results require more patience. The magic wand never existed. You can achieve great results, but they are all dependent upon variables that can establish the lawn you are looking for.