Too Late to Start Watering?

I feel like I've done this before, oh right, it was just last year when we went through a severe drought. Since early July/2013, rain in central Iowa has been scarce, however the one difference is we've had a fairly mild summer. Now, as I type this we're supposed to get back-to-back days of triple digit temperatures (late August) and each day in our 7-day is going to be above 95.

While we're in a drought currently, we're not in as bad of shape as we were last year. Right now we're in a "severe" drought, as you can see in a post of mine from January where about 1/3 of the state was in severe drought status

With the mild temps and cooler overnights, we were still mowing non-irrigated lawns somewhat regularly. However, the complete lack of rain over the past couple weeks combined with the minimal amount we've received over the past two months, it is really taking it's toll on the lawns here in the metro area.

The question comes up, is it too late to start watering? If you haven't been watering regularly at this point, then yes it's too late to start. In fact watering now not only won't really help, it will in fact assist crabgrass and broadleaf weeds to take over.

Another question that comes up, is my lawn dead? Most likely, no, but you won't know for sure until we get sufficient moisture (or possibly next spring). Grass will go dormant in instances of drought to conserve moisture, that does not equate to a dead lawn and in most cases it will recover. That does not mean, however, that there won't be dead patches. In fact there is a good chance that this will happen.

In central Iowa there is a lot of bluegrass, and if that is your lawn, you're concerned about the crown on the blade of grass. In order for the crown to survive it needs about 1/4 of an inch/week or 1/2 inch every two weeks.

Things to avoid during drought conditions:

1. High traffic - If your lawn is dormant and is crunchy, try to stay off of your lawn as much as possible during a drought. Heavy traffic will damage the crown and increase the liklihood of killing your grass.

2. Fertilizer - It's an exercise in futility. With limited water resources, you will get very little effect from fertilizer so don't do it.

3. Watering too much: You want to simulate actual rainfall for your lawn, so you don't want to do this every day. Deep and infrequent is the motto to follow. This would be every 3 days or so. You want to the roots to work and go deeper. If you water too frequently, your root system is going to be too shallow and while it may be green, it may not be the healthiest.

Things you should do:

While there is no quick fix, the best guard against a drought is to establish a healthy living condition for your grass.

If you have compacted soil, clay or sand, your grass will go dormant much quicker. Aerating your lawn annually to improve water and nutrient circulation while breaking up thatch will help. Applying gypsum on clay soil bases will improve the pH balance. Over-seed to improve the density of your lawn and this will help avoid thinning in your lawn by replacing grass that will eventually die or thin out. Thick lawns are also the #1 weed prevention.

Now, by doing this, when the next drought comes it does not mean your lawn will be green and lush without water, but it will increase the tolerance and improve the chances of recovery.

I want a drought resistant lawn, what seed should I use?

I get this quite a bit because so many lawns are bluegrass lawns here. However, there are different types of bluegrass and each one reacts differently to drought conditions. Since here in Iowa we see all weather conditions, I recommend a combination of turf types in your lawn. I prefer majority of it being Kentucky Bluegrass as I think it looks the best, but I also have some turf-type tall fescue mixed in.

Below is a guide to drought tolerance for you to follow when choosing grass seed, however don't let that be the #1 driving factor when selecting grass seed. There are other maintenance requirements for particular types of seed. Some require more maintenance, some less. This is strictly in regards to drought tolerance.

Zoysiagrass - Excellent
Bermudagrass - Excellent
Turf-type Tall Fescue - Very good
Kentucky Bluegrass - good-very good
Fineleaf fescue - good
Perrenial ryegrass - poor-good
Annual bluegrass - poor
Annual ryegrass - poor


Good luck with your lawn and let's hope for some rain soon.

Got Grubs?

I was building a patio this summer at my house and I was removing the sod and digging trenches I came across a few of these.

What is that, you ask? It's a Japanese Beetle. It seems like I have seen a lot more of these than usual this summer in the state of Iowa. I was unable to locate any data to support this other than just an observation.


Have you seen any of these in your lawn or plants? If you have, don't ignore them because what they can leave behind in your lawn can be very damaging to your lawn, and could wreak havoc on your pocket book.
 
You see, these Japanese beetles lay eggs in your lawn and when the life cycle of the larvae begins they look like "C" shaped white bugs, better know as grubs (right picture).

They do most of their feeding in the late summer and source of food is your lawns root system. And the problem is you usually don't notice the results of the damage until in the winter or next spring. If you're soil pulls up too easy, there is a good chance you have an issue with grubs.

In addition, if you water your lawn frequently this may mask the warning signs until it's too late. Irrigation promotes a healthy environment for grubs to survive, in addition it also allows your lawn to stay green giving the appearance of a healthy lawn and that there is no issue below the surface. So, like many other things I always talk about when it comes to lawn care, be proactive instead of reactive. Meaning, set your annual lawn treatment schedule with grub control to prevent this from happening:

If you see the Japanese beetle lift up a couple random spots of your sod to see if any larvae has hatched in your lawn. All you need to do is lift up a few square foot samples. If you have less than 5 larvae per square foot, the damage will be pretty minimal, if any at all. If it is more than 10, you definitely need to get this treated. If it's between 5 and 10 it all depends on the health of your lawn. I'd personally error on the side of caution and get your lawn treated.

The best time to treat your lawn for grubs in Iowa is in July-August. As for my lawn, I dug up a couple areas and fortunately I didn't find too many more beetles in the samples and thankfully didn't see any larvae either. So, it appears my annual treatment for grubs has been effective.

Are You Committed to Your Lawn?

Over the past month or so I have had many discussions with current and potential clients about the status of their lawn. I've heard anything from just basic lawn care requests to "my lawn has major problems". If you're one of the homeowners that is on the side with issues or major problems with your lawn, then I ask you one simple question. Are you committed to your lawn?

I've heard from people that say, "I don't want to water my lawn", "I don't want to spend money on fertilizer", or "isn't over-seeding a waste?".  If you fall into any of those pitfalls, then you reap what you sow.  The over-whelming issues that come up with lawns are due to a lack of preventitive measures and while there are things we don't have any control over, such as drought, there are steps we can take to minimize the damage.

It's essentially the same philosophy as, "I want to lose weight, but I don't want to exercise and I want to eat whatever I want to". You won't see any positive results.

Which of these lawns would you prefer?

The lawn on the right is my lawn. My wife will attest that I will try to pinch pennies whenever possible, but our lawn is part of our property and it is an investment. I believe firmly that if you want to see positive returns you have to put in the proper resources in order to accomplish whatever it is that you set out to do.

 I don't spend every waking hour on my lawn, but I do pay attention to what it's telling me. If it's drying out, I give it a drink. I religiously follow a 6-step lawn treatment regimend every year. I don't shave the lawn in order to reduce the number of times that I have to mow. I aerate and over-seed annually. I apply gypsum because our soil has too much clay, and I take care of weeds early before it becomes a bigger headache.


Lawns require maintenance other than just mowing and the timing of these steps improve your chances of achieving a great looking lawn.  If you don't see a lush, dark green lawn in a month or two, be patient and stick the plan. It may take a couple cycles (years), but if you're patient, you will get there.

Here are a few tips:

First having a thick lawn turf is one of the best defenses to weed managment. A thick lawn chokes out weeds and doesn't allow much room for weeds to take root.

Second, get on at least a 5-step application program which consists of pre-emergent in the spring (prevents things like crabgrass) and then weed-n-feed to help against broadleaf weeds. Then you'll have an additional 3 applications of fertilizer. Your grass needs to have food to flourish and fertilizer will help accomplish this.

The 6th step I would recommend is to add grub control in July, this would fight against those pesky pests that can chew at your lawns root system and wreak havock on your lawn. If these pests get into your lawn and aren't properly treated this could mean re-sodding/seeding your lawn which isn't cheap and will set you back in getting your lawn established.

Properly water your lawn. This is one of the more costly items on the list, plus it can be time consuming if you don't have an irrigation system. I had one installed this spring because of the time and by shopping around and some good references, I found one that was reasonably priced. You don't want to over-water, if you do, your root system is going to be more shallow and more reliant on water, but if we go through an extended period of time without rain and your grass is showing signs of stress, then by all means water it. This will save you time when it comes to repairing damage to heat and lack of water.

Lastly, in the fall aerate and over-seed your lawn to replenish any thinning or dying grass.

You don't have to break the bank, but there is some cost involved, whether you do it on your own or have a lawncare professional do it for you.

What you want in your lawn is up to you, but if you want a great looking lawn without investing in it, I'm sorry to tell you, it doesn't happen. Instead think of your lawn as part of your house and treat it as an investment. It will improve your curb appeal and you can soon become the envy of your neighborhood.

Repairing dead patches this Spring? Here's how

Here are a couple pictures of a couple different properties that I visited in the past month. As I've mentioned in previous posts, we here in Iowa were hit hard by a drought last summer and here are some of the effects:

 As you can see, there is some work to do.  If your lawn resembles these pictures, you have two approaches to consider. If there are large areas like this and a lot of it, I'd recommend core aeration followed by over-seeding. If you have a couple patches like this, you can do patch seeding where you rake up the dirt and apply the seed. If not protected by shade you want to apply a thin layer of dirt to protect the seed from direct sunlight (which will dry out the seed quicker, making your over-seeding efforts useless).

As far as the large areas you can choose either a rotary or drop spreader. Another option which in which you may achieve better results is by using a slit seeder, this cuts a line in the ground and drops seed into those "slits" and puts seed in direct contact with the soil.

(NOTE: If you're going to seed this in the spring avoid putting down pre-emergent or wait at least 3 weeks after pre-emergent was applied. Also, the longer you wait, the warmer the days get and more water will be needed to establish seed growth)

 
 1. Seed selection: Proper seed selection is crucial, don't just grab a bag of seed and call it good. Different seeds grow better in different environments.  -

Kentucky Bluegrass - This is most common grass used in Iowa, but does not perform well in shaded areas. Bluegrass is not a drought tolerant grass, so it does need watering. You want the soil to be moist, not soggy, but it does require water maintenance. Mowing Bluegrass can be done at 2-3 inches, never cut more than a 1/3 of the blade at a time. 

Fine Fescue - (creeping red fescue, chewing fescue & hard fescues) For shady areas in Iowa you want a fine-leaf fescue or at least a blend that has at least 50% fine-leaf fescue. Fine fescue is more drought tolerant so it doesn't require as much watering, only when severe water deprivation. Over-watering, especially in humid regions can lead to disease. Fertilizing will green up the lawn, but do not fertilize in the summer months and watering is needed when the soil dry.

 2. Rake up the soil to remove dead grass (or core aerate in larger areas). The seed needs to make contact with the soil in order to grow. If the areas is exposed to direct sunlight, then you want to cover with a thin layer of topsoil.

3. Apply a starter fertilizer, this will assist in kick-starting the growth of your seed.

4. You want to water 2-3 times a day for 2-3 weeks. When grass seed is growing you can cut back on the watering, but you will want to continue to water until the seed is established.

After a few watering's your seed shouldn't be floating anymore, so it will be safe to mow. You want to mow frequently and shorter 1 1/2-2 inches so the seedlings aren't fighting for water. Once your new grass reaches 1 1/2-2 inches you can increase your mowing height to 2 1/2-3 inches. Do not bag clippings, you want to have a self-mulching mower blade and the grass clipping provides good nutrients for your lawn.

As far as fertilization, 6 weeks after germination you can resume your fertilizer treatments (as long as those 6 weeks doing bring you into Mid/Late July or August).

Spring Over-Seeding vs Fall

I've always suggested to over-seed in the fall as soil temps are ideal and the daytime temps begin to cool. You get the germination process to begin in the fall and then the lawn goes dormant for the winter.  Then spring comes and your lawn is ready to go.

This past summer (2012) we went through a severe drought and there are a lot of lawns hurting right now, especially if they didn't get over-seeded in the fall. So, do you over-seed in the spring?  You can, but it's not ideal and currently we going through a stretch of below normal temperatures. The average for right now is about 61 degrees, but for the past two weeks we've been at least 10 degrees below average.

For seed to start to germinate the ideal daytime temps need to be in the 60-70 degree range and right now we're just not getting it.

Then those of us in the lawn mowing business we're now past mid-April and in the state of Iowa not many (if any) have started mowing yet. Why is that?  Well for root growth we need temps to get into the 50-65 F degree range and for shoot growth temps need to be in the 60-75 F range and we're well below that.

Right now our soil temperatures in Central Iowa are in the low-mid 40's.

So, as much as we need our rain, which I'm very thankful for, we also need temps to warm up. Is that going to happen?  Here is our 7-day forecast (thanks to WHO-13).

There's some hope at the end of the week, hopefully that is the start of some consistent weather. If we get that coupled with the rain amounts we've received so far this Spring, the lawns will take off and if you over-seeded in the spring you should soon see positive results.  But, for future reference, plan ahead and try to have the lawn aerated and over-seeded in the Fall.

Drought Update

Latest reports came out and the state of Iowa is making progress on its drought conditions, but where do we stand? I wrote a blog in January after some significant snowfalls to see where we stood after the drought of 2012. At that point we were 12 inches of rain short.  Since then we have received some additional snow, but not enough to get the Des Moines area out of a "severe drought".  Here is the comparison between then and now:

January/2013-

And now, April/2013

As you can see, the SE part of Iowa is normal, Central and NW Iowa are still in a severe drought or worse. Thanks to Ed Wilson, from WHO-TV13, he provided me with a link to see where we are supposed to be precipitation-wise, it looks like we haven't made much progress here in the Des Moines metro area.

The positive is that since January/2013 we're almost right where we need to be for this year, but we're still close to a 1/2" short.  The negative is we haven't made progress on the drought of 2012. 

How Much Fertilizer?

Have you gone to the local garden center and grabbed a bag of fertilizer and when you bring it home, you get your spreader out fill it up. Then, you need to set your spreader to the right setting.  Most bags have spreader settings for a select few types of spreader, but you don't have the exact type that they have listed on the bag. So what do you do?  Guess? Please don't, too much fertilizer can burn your lawn. Regardless if they have your spreader or not, you will want to calibrate your fertilizer spreader to get an accurate application.

Well, to get the correct amount of fertilizer applied to your lawn there are essentially 3 things to take into consideration:

Take notes for each step that you do, so that you don't have to repeat it every time.

1. Swath: There are a couple ways to do this, but in the most simplistic form, put a little fertilizer in your spreader and go about 10 feet at a steady pace.  Measure the effective width.  You will take the width and then determine what distance you need to walk in order to get 200 sq ft. If you have a width of 10 feet, you have to walk 20 ft. If the width is 8 ft, you have to walk 25 ft.

2. How much fertilizer do I apply?  On each bag there are 3 numbers such as 24-10-10, the first number is the Nitrogen.  To determine how much fertilizer should be applied per 1,000 square ft, take 100 divided by the percentage of nitrogen.  Say your bag says 24 percent nitrogen you should apply 4.17 lbs/1,000 sq ft.  Since you're doing a 200 sq ft test area, that is 1/5 of 1,000 you want to take 1/5 of the weight.  So, you would place 0.83 (4.17 divided by 5) pounds in your spreader for the test.

3. Calibrate your rotary spreader:  I have an Earthway rotary spreader and I would start out by referring to the owners manual to get the suggested settings because that should at least get me in the ballpark of the application rate per 1,000 sq ft. However, it depends on how old your spreader is and how well you maintain/clean it. Do the test, if there is fertilizer in your spreader, you need to increase your setting.  If it was empty before the end of your distance, then reduce the setting. It's a little trial and error until you have the right amount, but it's definitely worth it as you want to make sure you get the appropriate amount of fertilizer on your lawn.

So that you don't have to do this test again, make sure you record your findings and the setting.