Control Lawn Weeds

The best thing you can do to control weeds is to not cut your lawn too short.

Weeds love really short grass. When grass is clipped very short, the sun can easily penetrate the soil. Weed seeds will sprout if they receive sunlight. Keep your grass at least three inches high and this will help to prevent weeds from colonizing in your lawn.

Yellow Stripes After Mowing?

If you have yellow stripes in your yard after you have mowed, you are mowing your lawn too short. Scalping a lawn exposes the lowest portion of grass blades to sunlight and it burns them. The grass will first turn yellow, then brown and die. To avoid this problem simply raise your lawn mower blades.

Chinch Bugs and Lawns

Chinch Bugs are tiny (from about the size of a pin head to 1/5 inch for adults) and they are extremely difficult to see in the lawn. Often they ruin a lawn completely before their presence is known. They do their damage by sucking vital plant fluids from the grass.

Chinch bugs become active when temperatures reach the high 70s, and their damage peaks in periods of hot, dry weather. Damage shows up as areas of grass that become yellowish and then turn to a lifeless brown. The damage by Chinch Bugs is often mistaken for drought, but the grass does not recover with watering. Indeed, the damage is a complete kill, and the grass cannot recover.

Chinch bugs can be controlled with a lawn insect control formula.

Drought-Proof Your Lawn

Here are some tips to drought-proof your lawn before summers heat sets in:

*Dethatch your lawn and reduce compaction of the soil.

*Reduce or eliminate nitrogen fertilizers. Try to use potassium based fertilizers instead.

*Water your lawn early in the morning.

*Sharpen your mower blades two to three times per season.

*Cut your lawn no shorter than three inches.

*Leave your clippings on the lawn and stop using pesticides.

Seeding a Lawn

When seeding a lawn, use a spreader to get even coverage. Work in a criss-cross pattern. First, travel back and forth across the lawn. Next, travel up and down the lawn.

You should set the seed spreader at half the recommended application rate to do a more even job.

Grass Clippings: A Natural Fertilizer

Let grass clippings lay where they may when you cut the lawn. Grass is made up largely of water. The moisture from the clippings will quickly evaporate -- leaving behind a natural fertilizer.

Grass clippings decompose at a fairly rapid pace, and they are high in nitrogen. By letting your grass clippings decompose naturally, it may save you from having to apply nitrogen in fertilizer form to your lawn.

Bat Guano Helps a Browning Yard

Bat guano is one of nature's perfect manures. It can be applied to browning patches in the yard easily and it will bring the green back up quickly and safely. Bat guano is also an excellent soil conditioner.

You can also apply sulfur to a browning lawn and it will green it up quickly.

When to Fertilize Your Lawn

You should fertilize your lawn twice a year. You should use a slow release chemical that is made specifically for fertilizing lawn grass.

The first treatment of fertilizer should be applied in the spring. Spring fertilizers should be formulated to promote growth and color. The second treatment of fertilizer should be applied in the fall. Fall fertilizers should promote root growth and health.

Be sure to wear protective gear when you mix chemcials and apply them.

Mowing Patterns

Many people mow in the same direction each time they mow. It is important that you mow your lawn in a different pattern each time you cut your grass. If you do not, the wheels of your mower can compact the ground over time. This will keep the grass from growing properly, as well as make little trenches in your yard where water may pool.

Cutting your grass in different patterns can also help to control the runners of creeping grasses that try to invade your lawn.

Add Lime to Your Yard for Correct pH Balance

The ideal pH range for healthy lawns is between six and seven. If your soil test comes back with a reading of six or lower, adding lime can correct the balance.

Apply 40 pounds of lime per 1,000 square feet if the pH is at six. Add slightly more for levels below this.

If soil testing shows that your lawn/soil has low magnesium levels, adding dolomite lime will supply the magnesium.

Watering Tips to Prevent a Brown Lawn

Too much heat and drought can cause your lawn to turn brown. This is a very common problem in the Southwest areas of the United States.

To help prevent a brown lawn, never water your lawn in the hot afternoon sun which can cause the grass to burn. Water your lawn with sprinklers or soaker hoses in the early morning, and water deeply.

To determine when you have watered enough, simply place an empty container near the sprinkler. When the container has about an inch of water in it, you will know you have watered that area adequately.

You should never water your lawn at night. Watering at night keeps the lawn damp for many hours, which can lead to disease.

Proper Mowing Height

Many people think that it is best to cut lawn grass very short. Granted, it may save you from having to mow, again, real soon. However, it is not good for the health of your grass.

A good height for grass is approximately three inches. If you cut grass too short, there will not be an adequate amount of shade on the grass plants at the soil level. This can cause the plants to sunburn. Also, taller grass will keep weed seeds from sprouting.

Watering Requirements for Lawns

On average, a lawn requires one inch of water per week to stay in optimal condition. One inch of water penetrates into the soil to a depth of one foot in light soils and up to six inches in heavier soils.

If you are receiving a decent amount of rain in your area, you may not have to water your lawn each week. Be mindful of when it rains and monitor your grass. Too much water can cause disease and rot to occur.

Autumn Lawn Care

In the autumn, you should let your lawn start adjusting to its dormant stage. You can do this by slowly cutting back how frequently you water your lawn. You should also reduce mowing to no more than twice a week.

Your lawn is ready to enter its dormant phase when you are only mowing and watering once a week.

Reseeding

To reseed an existing lawn, or fill in bare patches, you need to check your soil first.

If the soil is hard and compacted, use a core aerator to loosen it up. (An aerator pulls up plugs of soil from the ground, which can be crumbled later with a rake or the plugs can be left to decompose.)

If the soil is fairly loose, using a rake to roughen the surface, will create a better medium for the seed.

Keeping Squirrels And Rabbits Out Of Your Garden

To keep squirrels out of your garden plant some lavender or sage around the plants you want to protect. These plants tend to deter the small critters. For rabbits the best thing to do is to put up a chicken wire 18 inch fence. Make sure that you bury the bottom of the fence several inches under the soil so that the animals cannot dig their way into your garden.

Removing Weeds

To make it easier to remove weeds with long roots, water the soil around the weed thoroughly. Completely soak the weed.

Then, insert your trowel vertically into the soil as close as possible to the weed stem. You should then be able to pull the weed out, roots and all.

Another option is to simply spray the weed with a weed killing chemical. Just be certain to not let any over spray land on any surrounding plants or vegetables.

Sod Webworms and Lawns

You will be able to identify damage to your lawn by sod webworm if you see small circles or patches of grass that look as if they have been sheared by a mini-lawnmower. The surrounding grass will start to turn brown. This damage is a result of the sod webworms feeding on your grass.

Sod webworms come from a grey night flying moth who lays eggs on your lawn all summer. When the eggs hatch, the worms feed on the juicy grass blades.

There are many species of sod webworms. It will be hard for you to determine which ones are damaging your lawn. The good news is that all sod webworms can be treated the same way.

Sod webworms can be controlled with Bt., insecticidal soap or beneficial nematodes.

Fusarium Blight and Lawns

This disease is most likely to occur in areas of the lawn that are exposed to long hours of direct sunlight, especially on sloped areas. It does not occur in heavily shaded lawns.

Fusarium Blight first appears as patches of pale green grass (from a few inches to several feet in diameter) that wilt and turn to straw color. Frequently the grass in the center of the patch stays green, surrounded by the area of brown grass, which has given this disease a nickname of "frog-eye." When temperatures remain near 90°F in the day and 70°F at night, Fusarium Blight can quickly spread throughout your lawn.

This disease can be control by using a chemical that controls lawn fungus.