In home lawns, crabgrass is a primary problem. It is tenacious weed. It can be classified into large crabgrass, smooth crabgrass and southern crabgrass. Crab grass is a warm-season, yearly grass. It doesn’t matter how much crabgrass plants appeared the previous year as they all perish. New grass reappears only from developing seeds. Crabgrass start...
Apt mowing is the basis to have a healthy lawn. Absence of mowing causes a lawn to look like a prairie. The height and frequency of mowing decide how attractive the lawn looks. A high quality is obtained with cylinder mowers with many blades. The blades must be sharpened for good quality. The dew must be brushed before mowing. Rotary and hover mowe...
Lawn renovation describes corrective procedures to restore beauty to an old lawn without removing all of the grass. It can be as simple as over seeding a thin turf area or can include power raking and core ventilation if thatch is greater than 1/2 inch or the soil is compacted. A total renovation would occupy killing the undesirable grasses with a ...
Lawn clippings are mainly grass leaves along with some stems that are cut by the lawn mower. Earlier clippings were bagged using rotary mowers. It was thought that they might aid thatch development. But this assumption is now disproved.
The Present
In summer period, 20-30% of residential wastes are made up of grass clippings. These en...
New seeding is in need of intensive irrigation for getting established properly. Light and frequent watering is desirable so that the seed and surface are perpetually moist. They must be kept moist for 30 days after plantation. In summer, watering must be done 4 times in a day. During germination if soil dries out seedling may perish. Wherever sodd...
There are six types of moles in USA. Some of them are the Eastern Mole, Hairy-tailed Mole, and Star-nosed Mole. The first one is prevalent in Ohio. Moles are 6-8 inches long and three to six ounces in weight. Each female gives birth to two to six moles in a year. These can be expected in April or May. Their only use is that they consume insects. Ev...
People drink water when they are thirsty and it goes same with the plants as well. Too many variables can enter the picture like light, wind, rain, temperature, humidity and the type of plants installed. Keep the plants moist for two weeks, water everyday if it does not rain at least a half-inch. For the next two weeks water minimum three times per...
A thatch is a natural component of an actively grown turf grass. Thatches comprises of tightly intermingled layers of dead and living stems, leaves and roots that accumulates in between the growing grasses and the soil underneath. Until the thickness of the thatches does not exceed the normal levels, which is ¼ to ½ inches it has the potential to c...
A collection of blades of grass cut many times, bits of leaves and branches, roots and rhizomes that are decaying on the lawn are called a Thatch. This cut grass is left on the lawn as it provides nutrients to the soil, reduces water evaporation and shields from ice damage. But if the decomposition is very slow the thatch becomes a large layer. Thi...
Soil texture means the quantity (in percent) of sand, silt and clay in the soil. Texture affects moisture holding capability, aeration, drainage, condition of tilled soil, ability of getting compacted and nutrient retaining capacity of the soil. The perfect soil texture is loam and silt loam. The finest soil texture for a lawn is a sandy loam, havi...