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Give lawn attention now Spring. The time when everything bursts forth with color after the drab browns and grays of winter. A time when shrubs pop out with yellow, white and purple and a time when lawns start growing. Many summertime lawn ills can be prevented with some attention now. The secret to a good lawn is to have it in the best condition possible before the stresses of summer begin. The major lawn problem in the Midwest is death of the grass due to diseases, whether caused by fungi, bacteria or weather conditions. Anything to improve the lawn's health now will help it through the hot summer months.
Your grass should be well rooted into the soil, have a minimum of thatch be adequately but not excessively fertilized, and either properly watered or allowed to go dormant in dry weather. Start by digging out a plug of turf and examining it for thatch. This means getting down on your hands and knees like a rabbit and cutting a core with a trowel. Thatch is a brown-to-black layer of old roots and rhizomes above the clay soil. If the layer is more than an inch thick, you'll need to dethatch. You can rent a dethatcher such as a power rake or vertical mower. Buy a tube of Ben-Gay at the same time. Dethatch no more than a half-inch this spring. If you rip too much thatch out, you'll rip out all the grass roots. Then you're stuck with a mud field. You can also core aerify, which will give your yard the appearance that every dog in the country came and left a calling card. Core aerification will make three-inch deep hole every two inches or so throughout the lawn. The holes will penetrate the thatch mat allowing better infiltration of water and nutrients to the grass roots. It will help improve the air-to-water exchange meaning a looser soil — which relates to more roots — which relates to more shoots. Wait a day, mow the plugs and water if you can. If bare areas larger than three square inches exist, dig out the dead grass, thatch and roots, then loosen the soil. Sow the grass seed by April 1 to give it a good opportunity to mature before summer's heat and dryness. Sow a blend of three or four Kentucky bluegrasses and no more than 25 percent perennial ryegrass in these spots. Rake the seed gently into the soil and firm with the back of a shovel or a light roller. Moisten and cover with a light layer of straw. Sodding can be done any time the ground is thawed. It may cost more to sod bare patches, but it may be more practical. Don't apply a complete lawn fertilizer to the entire lawn until mid-May. This goes against the grain of advertising. Everyone says "feed, feed, feed" in the spring. "Feed will make your lawn thick and lush." "Feed your lawn and your neighbors will be as green as your grass." Feeding in April will make your lawn thick and lush, but at the expense of the roots. Once that nitrogen is put on, the roots stop growing. You end up with a thick stand, but the roots may have a difficult time supporting all the shoots come summer. It's better to go for a strong, deep root system. If you wait until Mother's Day weekend to apply your fertilizer, there will still be time for shoots to develop. Plus, you'll have a strong root system to support that growth. If it would take six Arnolds and Sylvesters to hold you down from fertilizing, go ahead and apply the food, but at one-fourth the rate listed on the bag. You'll be providing some nitrogen for greening, but not so much that roots stop growing in the cool soil. Crabgrass preventer should be applied in early April. If you have done any reseeding, be sure to use Tupersan or Siduron crabgrass control, which kills some germinating annual grasses, but won't do much damage to your new grass seedlings. Wait until May or September to apply weed control for broadleaf weeds. It's really the best time. Finally, and most importantly, keep the grass mowed at two to two and one half inches tall and mow often enough to remove only an inch or so at each mowing. This doesn't mean just mowing on Saturdays. It means mowing a couple of times during the week if the grass gets that tall. Taking more than a third of the plant's height puts it under stress, increasing thatch levels and leading to more disease problems.
David Robson, Extension Educator, Horticulture, Springfield Extension Center, University of Illinois Extension. 16 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING APRIL 2000 |
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