Fall Blooming Flowers for Dry Shade
Planting and Care
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September
15, 2005
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Garden Club Frequently Asked
Questions Question: I was planning on renting a slit seeder and overseeding my entire lawn. But some things have come up and I can't possibly undertake a project of that scope this fall. I could do some lawn renovation. Is there anyway to short cut the project and do a partial job? Answer: You could spot seed just the worst areas. I suggest you cut the grass really short, rent a thatching machine (power rake) and run it back and forth, like an upright vacuum cleaner, over the worst spots until you have torn off at least 80% of the tops. Rake out the thatch leaving as much soil as possible and seed into the loosened soil. Rake the grass seed into the soil so it is covered by a 1/4" of soil. Where the latter is not possible, cover the grass seed with top soil or compost, such as LeafGro, Compro or Chesapeake Green. Go ahead and follow your fall fertilizer program as you normally would.Question: I have a lawn service and yet my lawn still has a lot of crab grass. I have a Black Beauty lawn that has really been super, best in the neighborhood, until this crab grass problem. They say they sprayed a crab grass preventor in the spring. But it seems like it didn't work. They say the only way to get rid of the crab grass now is to Round-up my lawn and start over. Is this good advice?Answer: Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. For some climatic reason, some crab grass has escaped the crab grass preventor this year, especially on lawns that had a single treatment. Next year we are recommending 2 applications of Dimension Crabgrass Preventer, one around the middle of March and the second around the middle of May.I disagree strongly with your lawn service. The crabgrass will die with the first hard frost. I believe that most of the Black Beauty is alive under the crabgrass. If it were my lawn, I would not allow the lawn service to kill off the Black Beauty, which would mean you would have to start over as if you were planting a new lawn. I suggest you thatch the lawn, which will remove most of the tops of the crab grass, fertilize it and if necessary, overseed with Black Beauty. After thatching the tops off the crab grass, they will not have time to do much re-growing before the frost kills them. In the thatching process you are going to tear off a lot of tops of the Black Beauty, but almost all of the Black Beauty will re-grow from the root. So even if you don't overseed, most of the Black Beauty will come back in late fall and early spring. In my opinion, doing nothing except fertilizing would be a better alternative than Rounding-up your whole lawn. Question: Would you settle a family dispute? We have been very dry and the grass is turning brown everywhere. We have some weeds and some quick growing grass and after a week our lawn looks a little uneven and raggedy. Should we continue cutting every week or should we wait until the rains come and the lawn turns green? Answer: Definitely do not cut the grass every week. In fact, do not cut at all unless the lawn becomes unbearably raggedy looking. Under drought conditions nobody's lawn is going to look good. Whether it's brown and raggedy or brown and even doesn't make much difference to me and certainly running the lawn mower over a lawn stressed from the drought is not good for it. Question: I rented a sod stripper and have stripped away my entire lawn. I was planning on top dressing with top soil and re-seeding and fertilizing. Should I put the fertilizer under the new top soil or on top of it? Answer: Hold on a minute. If you stripped away your lawn with a sod stripper, at least some of the grasses and weeds will come back from the roots - unless you killed the entire lawn with a total vegetation killer. If the soil underneath the top soil is compacted and poor, the new grass probably will not root down into that soil and the roots will remain in the new top soil. Thus the lawn will be very much subject to drought stress, even in periods when the rain is only modestly sub-normal. Unless your soil is quite good in terms of organic matter and not too compacted, I suggest you forget about a top dress of top soil and instead put your money into compost, such as Leafgro, Compro or Chesapeake Green which must be roto-tilled in. This procedure is more work and will probably cost more, but the result will be vastly superior.When you roto-till to prepare a new lawn, you should fertilize at double the recommend rate and till the fertilizer into the soil. Because lime translocates into the soil very slowly when it is applied on the surface, if a soil test shows you need lime, till it in at the same time. If you are determined to top dress with less than 3/4 inch of soil, apply the fertilizer under the soil; more than 3/4 inch apply the fertilizer on top of the soil. Before or after you seed, it doesn't matter. Question: We are operating on a very limited budget this year. Our lawn looks okay, but we usually overseed and fertilize every fall. If it comes down to one or the other, what do you recommend? Answer: Fertilizer is more important and much cheaper than seeding. Don't use a cheap fertilizer and follow your normal fertilization program. Forget about re-seeding for this year. |
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