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Lawn Tips
Maintaining a beautiful, green lawn is every homeowner’s
dream, but it is rarely easy. A quality lawn treatment company can make
the job much easier. A professional lawn treatment company is to your lawn
what a dentist is to your teeth. Just as two trips to the dentist per year
do not eliminate the need to brush and floss daily, 6 professional lawn
treatments a year do not eliminate the need to regularly care for your
lawn.
Watering
Watering your lawn is very important, especially during extremely hot
or dry weather. Experts recommend giving your lawn an inch of water per
week during the growing season (March to September), and more during the
hot and dry spells. Additionally, watering is necessary during especially
warm or dry winters. A good test of whether you have watered your lawn
adequately: Push the blade of a screwdriver into the ground. You should be
able to easily sink 3 to 4 inches of the screwdriver immediately after
watering the lawn.
The best time to water your lawn is between 4 and 6 AM. Because a wet
lawn is more susceptible to disease, you should take care to limit the
lawn’s “wet period.” The wet period is the time from when dew first forms
on the lawn until the lawn is dry. If you water in the evening before dew
forms, you will extend the wet period and encourage disease. Additionally,
because of rapid evaporation and wind, you should not water the lawn in
the middle of the day.
Aerating
Core aerating is the process of removing vertical cores from the lawn;
it should be done once a year. Aerating allows air into the soil, creates
a proper thatch layer, and also helps develop a topsoil layer underneath
the grass. Aerating is usually accomplished with a self-propelled aerating
machine that a professional walks around the yard. The cores that are
removed should be left in the yard. The lawn mower will break them up;
this will help the lawn. Bermuda, Zoysia, and Centipede are aerated in the
spring after green-up. To facilitate seeding, Fescue is aerated in the
fall.
Mowing
Improper mowing can severely damage or even kill a lawn. When mowing,
never remove more than a third of the height of the grass plant. Removing
more than a third will severely impair the grass plant’s ability to
produce food through photosynthesis. For example, if your lawn is three
inches high when you start mowing, do not take off more than one inch.
All lawn mowers are either reel mowers or rotary mowers. Professionals
favor the reel mower for Bermuda and Zoysia because it acts like a pair of
scissors and actually cuts each blade of grass cleanly with minimal
damage. The rotary mower spins around at high speeds and machetes the
grass off. Rotary mowers in general create more damage to each blade of
grass; rotary mowers with dull blades are even worse. Unfortunately, due
to cost and maintenance considerations, rotary mowers are common.
Sanding
Sanding is the process of putting sand on the lawn in low areas to get
rid of valleys/depressions. The type and amount of sand to distribute is
highly dependent on the type of grass. Inexpensive red/mud colored river
sand is acceptable for Bermuda, but should not be used on other types of
lawns, because it often contains Bermuda seed. Once you have common
Bermuda in your lawn, it is very difficult to kill. On other types of
lawns, use sterile sand. Sterile sand is usually more costly but is free
of weeds.
Diseases
Because diseases are much easier to prevent than to cure, treatments
for diseases should be done before the disease appears. The most common
disease is Brown Patch Disease. As its name suggests, the symptom of Brown
Patch Disease is brown pie-sized patches of grass. Brown Patch Disease is
common in Fescue and Zoysia. Professionally curing Brown Patch is
expensive because it requires weekly treatments. To limit the cost, you
may want to do the treatments yourself.
Weeds
The two main groups of weeds in Georgia are the broadleaf weeds, such
as dandelion and chickweed, and the grassy weeds, such as crabgrass and
goose grass. The best way to prevent weeds is to have a thick healthy
lawn. A thick Zoysia, Bermuda, or Fescue lawn prevents weeds by starving
them of both nutrients and sunlight. However, it is often difficult to
cultivate enough thickness for an adequate defense. Professional lawn care
companies can either take a proactive or reactive treatment strategy to
weed control. The best lawn treatment companies follow the more expensive,
proactive weed prevention strategy. To prevent weeds, they blanket treat
the lawn for grassy weeds with a pre-emergent and also blanket treat with
a broadleaf herbicide to stop broadleaf weeds. The less expensive,
reactive strategy, which some companies follow, calls for simply waiting
for the weeds to appear, and then treating the specific weed trouble spots
with a hand sprayer. While the reactive strategy limits the cost for the
lawn treatment company, the weeds must grow large enough to be noticed
before they are attacked.
Lawn treatment companies
Because the quality of lawn treatment companies varies greatly, you
should not pick a company on price alone. Different types of lawns require
different types of products; the wrong type of herbicide can kill a lawn.
Additionally, some companies try to save money by taking a reactive
stance, failing to apply the needed products, applying inexpensive, poor
quality, alternative products, or applying too little product to do the
job correctly. If you care about the quality of your lawn, hire a
professional and reputable lawn treatment company.
Brought to you by Steve Wilusz - 3/2005
Article Courtesy of
www.homereports.com
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