Thursday, March 24, 2011

The Easy Way to A Green Lawn

Common issues that can hurt your lawn can be combated easily.  Knowing the right time to treat each problem can make maintaining your lawn simple.  Follow this simple process each year, and you'll have a great lawn.
Early Spring, start with a fertilizer that contains Crabgrass Preventer.  Crabgrass germinates when soil temperatures are consistently 50 degrees and above.  It's therefore best to apply Crabgrass Preventer before the crabgrass starts to grow.
Thereafter, treat with fertilizer regularly.  Many fertilizers also have weed control or are enhanced with iron.  The best fertilizer is one that released nitrogen into the soil only as fast as the grass uses it.  Milorganite is an excellent slow release fertilizer, an organic fertilizer.  This is in contrast to the perhaps more familiar fertilizers that give a sudden burst of nitrogen, triggering rapid growth, and then washes away.  Excessive grass growth leaves grass vulnerable to disease and bug problems.  Milorganite contains mostly non-soluable nitrogen, and because it is an organic fertilizer, you don't have to worry about "burn-out" from too much fertilizer. 

Fertilizer with weed control can be used as needed to keep weeds from getting out of control.  However, with regular fertilizer treatment, you will have a thick lawn that will not allow weed seeds to get sunlight.  Fertilizer with iron will give your lawn a rich, green color.  Chelated iron is readily available to grass and doesn't stain concrete.

Make sure to mow with sharp blades.  Sharp blades will cut the grass rather than tear it, which makes the grass more susceptible to disease. 

If you have trouble growing grass under a pine tree, it is because the soil underneath is too acidic.  To lower the acidity, apply hydrated lime, such as Solucal.  If you have spotty areas, you may have a grub problem.  Do not treat for grubs if you don't have this problem.  This is treated far too often.  Grubs, in small quantities, are good for soil, as they aerate the lawn.  Many fertilizing companies treat for grubs when it's not needed, and then have to manually aerate their lawn to compensate. 

You can also consider in investing in a drought-tolerant, bug resistant, slow growing grass that does not need fertilizer.  Many advances have been made in grass seeds over the years, and it is possible to get a lawn that you can virtually forget about once established, such as a grass called Pearl's Premium.  The grass is expensive to buy, but will save you in the long run.