Since the lawn is such an important part of the landscape, it often causes the most problems. Although many gardeners threaten to substitute with artificial turf, you can’t beat the real thing. If you want a good lawn, you have to have a good foundation underneath. When you build your own, you can be sure of what goes into the construction of it. If you inherit an established one, you can only hope that the builder was conscientious and did a good job.
Unfortunately, many people feel that a little scratching of the soil, with the addition of a little fertilizer and seed is all there is to it. If you are extremely lucky, you might get away with it. Most people don’t. Even well-constructed lawns that have been trouble-free for years can develop problem areas. Sometimes unintentional neglect results in a lawn that desperately needs fertilizer, lime, detaching or some other cultural aid. Weather conditions, hard use or other adversities can weaken the grass plants to a point where disease or insects can cause real problems. How often I hear people say, “My lawn has always been beautiful and all of a sudden it looks terrible.
Most problems don’t happen overnight. Usually there has been a gradual decline that wasn’t apparent unless you were very observant. Little by little, a few of the hundreds of thousands of individual plants died. Since nature abhors a vacuum, a plant of some sort filled in the hole. All of a sudden you realize that your lawn is full of weeds. Since some of the more aggressive weeds will not only fill in but crowd out grasses, your lawn is in trouble. So you purchase one of several good weedkillers on the market and kill the invaders. But this doesn’t solve the problem. Unless you can correct the basic reason of why the weeds appeared in the first place, the dead weeds are going to be eventually replaced by even more weeds.
The most expensive of grass seeds can’t cope with a lack of sufficient topsoil, a soil that may be too acid, too dry, too wet or completely unsuitable for growing grass. Whatever the reason, it will probably take a little detective work on your part. A lack of sufficient top soil is probably the most serious problem to solve. You need at least four inches of good topsoil and six or more would be ideal. It’s difficult to obtain good topsoil and if you can locate it, they want an arm and a leg for it.
So if you have one of those impossible situations where you have a thin veneer of topsoil. don’t waste your money on expensive seed and lawn supplements. Buy the cheapest seed you can get. Sow enough to provide an annual lawn each year and you’ll be money ahead with a lot less trouble.
Even the best of lawns can be subject to insect and disease injury. The weather has a lot to do with these problems. The recent dry spell weakened many home lawns and – unless water was available – killed many grass plants. Weakened plants are always more susceptible to injury, so it would be a good idea to give your lawn a little extra attention this fall. Grasses will thrive once the weather turns cooler and it becomes a little wetter than it has been this summer.
If you haven’t limed your lawn in two or three years, do so this fall. A soil test can tell if you are in real trouble. In most cases you will probably need at least 50 pounds of ground, agricultural limestone per 1,000 square feet of lawn area. Until you get the soil in the right condition, you are probably wasting fertilizer. And, by the way, did you know that turf experts find that fall is the best time to fertilize grass? Apply it according to direction, not later than the middle of September. A little extra effort on your part this year, should produce a nice rich carpet of grass next spring.
Mac Perry’s Florida Lawn and Garden Care, by Mac Perry.
