Posts Tagged ‘pre-emergent’
Eight Tips for a Lush, Thick, Healthy Lawn
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
If you love your lawn, top dressing with compost will make your lawn love you back.
New England turf lawns actively grow in the spring and in the fall; in summer they are dormant, so now is the time is for “Black Gold” to do its magic. It takes patience to adopt this organic approach, but with top dressing, your lawn will be green earlier and stronger throughout the summer.
Here’s how it works.
Cut your lawn extremely low; use the lowest setting on your mower as possible.
Aerate the lawn. Aeration is the process of using a mechanical or manual lawn aerator to make holes in the surface of your lawn. Making holes in the surface of your lawn allows deeper root growth and reduces soil compaction. When you aerate your lawn, you allow air, water, and nutrients direct access to the root system.
Spread (also called “broadcasting”) using a shovel, ¼ “layer of compost on the lawn.
Comb the compost into the lawn with a level rake.
Spread fertilizer, lime and seed.
Drag rake across the lawn to till in these items.
Sprinkle a bit more compost, adding peat moss to cover and retain moisture.
Water in and keep seed moist for 3 weeks; try to water twice a day.
This approach is very beneficial to your lawn, and when coupled with proper cultural process, i.e. mowing high in the summer heat, and watering deeply and infrequently, (watering in short intervals does not create a sustainable lawn) your lawn will love you!
If you have any questions, or want to learn more about top dressing, stop by the nursery at 270 Hillside Street Milton MA or give us a call at 617-698-2005.
Why Should I Start My Lawn on a 4 Step Program?
Sunday, April 18th, 2010
The key to creating a weed free lawn is having healthy soil. Healthy soil creates a healthy plant and a healthy plant resists weeds. Having poor gardening practices create an opportunity for weeds to become established. For example, lawns that are weed infested are usually thin with not enough grass plants per square foot and which are not very well fed. Cutting the lawn too short also allows weed seeds to germinate. If you feed the lawn properly, sow grass seed to thicken it up, cut the plants high enough to shade out the soil, your lawn will naturally resist weeds all by itself with only a little help from you.
But if you have been battling crabgrass in previous years, spring is the time to control it. A pre-emergent should be applied on lawns between March 15th and April 30th. Crabgrass starts to germinate when the soil temperature reaches about 55 degrees. A good indicator of when to apply the preventer is when the forsythia is in bloom.
Corn gluten is an all natural product, a by-product of corn milling that researches discovered that when applied to soils, it stopped the newly-emerged root from orienting & establishing itself. So, the seed tries to grow but can’t.
Spread corn gluten evenly, at a rate of twenty pounds per 1,000 square feet of lawn. Water it lightly into the soil in order to activate it. The corn gluten should remain effective for five to six weeks each time you apply it. A second application should be done in the fall.
On a lawn, it could take up to 4 years or so to get control of weeds. Remember that it doesn’t kill existing weeds; it only stops the new ones, so you have to remove the established weeds. Think of it as an incremental type of control – year one it will control a few – year two there will be fewer survivors and by year 4 or 5, you should have good control.
The only possible downsides to corn gluten is if it rains a lot in the first two weeks after application, it will be dissolved and it will be less effective. It also will stop grass seed from germinating so you can not seed and apply corn gluten at the same time.
We recommend using Organica Lawn Booster. Not only does it contain corn gluten for crabgrass control but it is a great spring fertilizer. It is slow release for continuous greening that feeds both the soil and the grass plant. It helps the grass plants absorb nutrients as well as strengthens your grass so it withstands foot traffic.
planting for the future.
-By Maggie Oldfield Thayer Nursery
•Home•