LATE SUMMER 2010 LAWN DEPOT NEWSLETTER
As I write this LATE SUMMER Newsletter, I’ve just come in from working in the yard and, to tell the truth, it’s a real train wreck. The lawn that was so lovely this spring is now badly pocked with large dead spots from the incredible heat and drought conditions that have plagued us since late May; many shallow-rooted shrubs have been seriously damaged; I’ve been struggling to keep 2 small trees that we planted this spring alive; and both the perennials and annuals in our beds have not thrived as they should despite regular watering (handheld hose-end sprayer, as suggested by Buckingham Township, where we live) and spring fertilization. Today is Saturday, July 31, and the reason I’ve been out working on the yard is because I’ve got a lot of work to do this fall, and I want to get started as soon as possible with all the prep work. Similarly, I’m writing this Newsletter about 2 weeks earlier than normal because I want it in your collective hands by the middle of the month so you, too, can all get to work on repairing the damage to all of your lawns and landscaped areas.
The summer of 2010 began to go south in late May, with significantly less than normal rainfall; and with the coming of June (and ever since) we’ve not only continued with less-than-normal rainfall (about 1/3 of the normal rainfall for June and July), but we’ve added to the problem greatly with several stretches of mid 90s to low 100s for daytime high temperatures and nighttime low temperatures no lower than the high 70s-low 80s. I guess we’re lucky that our problems are only with our landscapes and lawns; many farmers have totally lost their crops this year. Still, we want to warn all of you: There will be lots of work to do this fall to repair the damage to lawns and landscapes from this summer. The sooner all of us start, the sooner we’ll be able to overcome the damage and get things back to normal,
There is no reason to feel that the fall season will be any different than normal for Southeastern PA, lovely warm days, cool nights, and regular rainfall. The fall growing (gardening) season starts as soon after August 15, or so, as we get some meaningful rainfall, and usually lasts well into November or beyond. So we’ll expect 3 ½ months of the best growing weather anywhere just ahead. We encourage you all to take seriously the job ahead; get started as soon as possible, do all that is required to repair damaged lawns and landscapes, make sure that during the fall repair/growing season that you feed and water all plants heavily and regularly, and continue working up to around Thanksgiving or beyond, making sure that everything you care about is healthy again and well fed and watered before the onset of winter dormancy.
We fully expect that many of you will have lots of questions as to not only what to do, but what the sequence of your jobs should be in order to achieve the best results. We’re ready for you. We’ve been down this road before and we’ve always been able to recover. So shall we all this year. The Lawn Depot will still be on summer store schedule through Saturday August 28 (Monday through Saturday 9-5, closed Sunday). Starting Sunday August 29, we’ll resume normal fall store hours, Monday-Friday 8-6, Saturday 8-5, Sunday 9-3. Please feel free to stop in during store hours to discuss your own situation with our friendly and talented staff, or call (215-348-5553) if you can’t get in.
The Lawn Depot Turf Management division has begun with their fall special and regular applications, including fertilization, weed controls, core aeration, seeding, and more, as the weather permits. They’ve got a lot of work to do and can only schedule jobs based on weather and soil conditions. We’ve got upwards of 4,000 lawns to manage, and each one is important to us. We’ve got the best Turf Management Service in the business, with talented operators, the best equipment available, and the knowledge of how to make and keep lawns healthy on an ongoing basis, no matter what Mother Nature throws our way. We’re fully confident that before the snow flies this winter, we’ll have all of our lawns fully treated and ready for bed. If you are already a Turf Management customer and want to add a special extra treatment, give us a call during store hours. And if you’re not already a Turf Management customer but would like to employ the “best in the business”, give us a call.
We look forward to having many conversations with all of you over the next several months. As I said earlier, we’ve been down this road before, and we know how to get things back where they should be.
Bob Button
LAWNS IN THE EARLY FALL
Whether your lawn is primarily bluegrass, ryegrass, tall fescue, or some combination of the 3 most popular cool weather grass cultivars in this growing area, you have very probably incurred some significant amount of heat and/or drought damage this summer. In most cases, that which is all brown now is probably dead. There are brown areas of lawns out there that have some green, however damage is still substantial. The combination of exceedingly high temperatures and very little rainfall led to an extended period of wilt that caused root dieback. Our heavy soils do not retain moisture and grass roots cannot survive in hot, arid soil very long. Our objective here is to help you all understand that, not only will most of you who care about your lawns have to do some significant reseeding this fall, but prior to any reseeding, you’ll have to prepare the dead areas to receive the seed (scarify bare dirt, loosen compact soil). New seed must be in contact with soil in order to germinate properly and establish its roots in soil, not thatch, In addition, any weed control that you plan to do this fall (strongly recommended, whole lawn application) must be done before the seed is sown. Seed germination may take as long as 3-4 weeks (depending on rainfall and type of seed used); seed establishment will take another month after germination, before herbicide application will be safe with the new seedlings. So, either control the weeds before you seed or not at all this fall. And be fully aware that if you don’t control the weeds this fall (clover, dandelions, plantain, etc.), you WILL have weeds in your lawns next spring.
Preparing for Repair of Drought Damage – As indicated above, seed germinates best when there is good seed-soil contact. The goal is to expose enough soil to establish a dense stand as quickly as possible. It is not necessary to get back to bare dirt, in fact leaving dead grass in place will ultimately benefit by holding soil in place and acting as mulch to aid in germination. We recommend that raking with a dethatching rake, a t-rake or a bow rake is best for smaller, more widely scattered areas. For larger areas, use a slit-seeder or a power dethacther (available at most equipment rental places) to expose the soil. Make it easier on yourself by mowing the areas needing repair a notch or 2 lower (collecting the clippings if you can) to reduce the amount of plant material brought up to the surface. Excessive plant material should be raked up and removed prior to applying any seed. Core aerating areas will help loosen hard packed soils for improved establishment of young grass as well as helping to break down thatch left behind in your prep work. After seeding, I usually lightly rake the surface with a leaf rake, followed by a thorough watering just to get the seed down to the soil.
Seeding – The seed mixes sold at The Lawn Depot are prepared for us to our specifications, mixed in the Western U.S. where it is grown, and shipped in truckload quantities to us. We sell and use a great deal of seed, and the seed mixes that we buy are the newest and best cultivars available (based on test plot results at Rutgers, Penn State, and other Universities with our growing conditions). Our most popular seed mixes are EVERGREEN MIX (a blend of 3 hybrid perennial ryegrasses, SURVIVOR MIX (a mix of tall fescue, perennial ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass), SHADE MIX (good for lawns that get less than 4-6 hours of sunlight daily), and, to a significantly lesser degree, SUNTURF MIX (a bluegrass, hybrid perennial ryegrass blend). We must say, in all honesty, we are not bluegrass fans; we try to steer most people away from the bluegrass mixes. Bluegrass is slow to germinate, requires much more fertilizer to thrive, must be dethatched regularly to thrive, and is both insect- and disease-susceptible.
Seeding rates with EVERGREEN MIX and SURVIVOR MIX are recommended at 5-8 pounds/1,000 sq. ft; SUNTURF MIX and SHADE MIX recommended rates are 3-5 pounds/1,000 sq. ft. When seeding to repair damaged lawns as we are this year, we urge you to seed at the higher rates.
When seeding in the early fall, it is imperative that you get the seed down as soon as possible after the 15th of August. This is particularly true this year because the soil is so dry. Seed will be slower to germinate in arid soils. And although the grass will continue to grow well into November, seed will germinate more slowly as the soil cools down, so slower germination is to be expected with seed sown in October, for instance, than the same seed sown in August or September. This last thought is particularly true with mixes containing either tall fescue or fine fescue (SURVIVOR MIX, SHADE MIX) or bluegrass (SUNTURF MIX). As we go later into the fall, we recommend EVERGREEN MIX more consistently (It’s always been my personal favorite…for over 25 years.) because you’ll get better results faster.
Mowing – We have urged you all summer to mow lawns at 3 ½ - 4”. We want this to continue at least until the nighttime temperatures regularly drop into the low-mid 50s, regardless of rainfall. After seeding, continue to mow as usual, and continue to collect, mulch, or just mow, as you normally do. Mowing will in no way damage seed; nor will you suck the seed up by mowing over areas you’ve recently seeded. (The air direction beneath the blades is actually blowing down, not sucking up.) When the new grass begins to germinate, be very careful to only mow the lawn when it is totally dry. Wet grass makes wet wheels on mowers which will pull out shallow-rooted new grass.
Fertilizing – Lawns should be fertilized 4 times a year: early and late spring and early and late fall. The turf fertilizers of choice in warm weather (late spring and early fall) should be slower released nitrogen fertilizers. The last feeding of the year, applied AFTER we’ve had a killing frost (overnight temperatures drop below freezing, but before the ground freezes solid). This feeding is the LAWN DEPOT WINTERFEAST turf food. It is the highest nutrient fertilizer of the year.
Fertilizing in the early fall can be done without regard to whether or when you’ve seeded. Slow release nitrogen will not harm new or just germinated seed at all, and it’ll help the new seedlings to establish faster and better.
Broadleaf Weed Control with TRIMEC – For as long as we’ve been in business (36+ years and counting) we’ve stressed the importance of whole-lawn weed control application in the fall. For virtually all of the most annoying broadleaf weeds (dandelions, clover, plantain, more) the early fall is the end of their active growing season. As temperatures fall these pests go dormant until next spring. You cannot kill a dormant weed, yet these weeds are not dead. They’ll be back to plague you next spring unless you eliminate them this fall. Liquid TRIMEC herbicide is the best broad spectrum herbicide we’ve seen. It gets most of the weeds in our lawns with a single application. If you kill your lawn weeds in September (or late August, if you’re seeding this fall), you will enjoy a weed free lawn next spring.
Liquid TRIMEC herbicide can be applied with a hose-end sprayer, a tank sprayer, or you can rent one of our Lawn Depot liquid applicators ($5/hour, $10/overnight). All lawns should be treated every fall. Herbicide applications should not be made when rain is in the forecast (minimum of 10-12 hours), and lawns should not be mowed for 24 hours after application.
Core Aeration – We all need to aerate our lawns once or twice a year to reduce the soil density and allow grass roots, soil moisture, and fertilizers to penetrate deeper into the soil. The one critical stipulation is that aeration should only be attempted when the soil is soft enough to receive the hollow tines to a depth of at least 2-3”. Unfortunately, this will not happen until we get several all-day gentle, penetrating rains. Do not attempt aeration unless you can stick a screw driver at least 2” into the lawn without hammering it.
If you plan to do significant seeding this fall, the core aerator can be an invaluable tool. Make multiple passes over the areas most heavily damaged to loosen the soil as much as possible for the best results. If the soil is too hard and dry when seeding is completed, we do not recommend core aerating the lawn for at least 2 months after the seed is up and being cut. We just don’t want to risk damaging the establishing turf.
Any of you who agree about the value of regular core aeration of lawns but either can’t or prefer not to do it yourselves, feel free to call our Turf Management division (215-348-5553 anytime) and schedule us to do the job right for you. We’ll do it with the best equipment available, and only at the proper time.
LANDSCAPES IN THE EARLY FALL
Tree and Shrub Damage from the Heat and/or Drought – There has been significant damage to trees and shrubs this summer, more to recently planted and/or shallow-rooted plants than well established ones. Heat seems to have greatly increased the drought damage this summer. Foliage, in particular, seems to have incurred greater damage than in a normal dry summer; deciduous shrubs have shed leaves early and have large sun spots on remaining leaves. Deciduous trees (maples, dogwoods) have either dropped leaves early or have the significant appearance of drought stress (leaves drooping) on leaves that remain on the trees. One important note: If trees prematurely drop leaves, or if the leaves are drooping but are still green, the trees are usually okay. If the leaves remain on the tree but turn brown and shrivel, the tree is probably not going to make it. It is entirely appropriate to water drought stressed trees and shrubs (twice a week with a hose laid at the base and water barely trickling for 15 minutes). Another devise that I love to use for drought stressed trees is the TREE GATOR, which you attach around the base of a tree, and fill (5 gallons, I think) with water. The water seeps gradually into the root zone of the tree.
Drought Damage to Perennials – Most perennials, even well-established ones, have performed miserably this spring-summer because of the heat/drought. All of my day lilies, daisies, clematis (vine), perennial salvia and hardy geraniums, coneflowers, etc. have all performed poorly and turned brown early. They’re not dead, but they are significantly weaker due to the foliage shriveling prematurely. I have pulled off the brown leaves (don’t have to, but I hate looking at them in the middle of the growing season) and will make sure that I include all our perennials, ground covers, and vines in my daily watering chores until Mother Nature decides to take over for me. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE TO FEED THESE STRUGGLING PLANTS HEAVILY THIS FALL (starting in October); their leaves and roots have not been able to do their jobs well and they need help.
We hope you’ve all had a great summer thus far, but that you are all ready to face the music that Mother Nature has wrought in all of our yards. Start early, stay focused, and pay attention to what your lawns and landscapes are telling you. And above all, if you have questions, call or come in to The Lawn Depot. We look forward to seeing you.
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