Goals For My Lawn & Landscape
What do I want my lawn and landscape to look like this year? Do I want green, thick grass growing with no weeds, insects or disease outbreaks? What can I do to achieve these goals? The secrets to any attractive lawn are timely fertilizer, water management, mowing and weed/insect/disease management.
First, you should be planning at least four fertilizer applications this year for a green and thick turfgrass. Good guideline dates to use are April 20, June 10, Sept. 1 and Oct. 15. Each application should be around one pound of Nitrogen per 1000 square feet. For a minimum maintenance lawn you can reduce the applications to one spring and one fall application with 1.5 pounds of nitrogen per 1000 square feet.
Secondly, water is the other dynamic force behind thick grass. You should be applying about one inch per week in the spring and fall and two inches per week during the hot summer. I like to compare growing a good turfgrass crop to other farm grass crops like corn and wheat. Tables show that to get your first bushel of grain for corn you need eleven inches of moisture and for wheat you need ten inches. For each inch of water added you will get 13.3 bushels more per acre for corn, and 4.6 bushels of wheat for each additional inch of moisture. Therefore, use the same principle for grass in getting more production off of your lawn.
If we get water restrictions, you can let the turf go dormant. Irrigate only if sustained drought occurs ... that is if three weeks pass without any rain so you can keep the crowns alive. Remember to watch your watering practices. If you let turf go into the evening wet without drying it can lead to many diseases.
Your third objective is to mow tall. By mowing taller your grass roots will be longer leading to less drought stress. The tall lawn grass will assist in shading or crowding out weeds. It also gives more grass for you and the insects both.
Finally, controlling weeds, insects and diseases can be done on a timely fashion. If you had an outbreak of white grubs last year add an application of Grub-ex or Merit during June. If crabgrass was a problem last fall, add a crabgrass pre-emergent herbicide the last week of April or the first week of May. For disease control watch how you water. Don’t let the grass be wet at night, this brings in an opportunity for diseases to develop.
If you follow these basic steps you will enjoy a thick green lawn that is enjoyable to look at and play on.
Chris Carlson, Extension Educator, March 2003
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