When sowing grass seed timing is everything. The right grass planted at the right time works wonders for a lawn, but the reverse can be true as well. Here in Tennessee we live in an a rather ambiguous area for growing grasses. The cool season grasses do great – that is until it gets hot and they turn all brown. The warm season grass like Bermuda do great too – only they turn brown in the cool fall temperatures and pretty much stay a lovely, drab carpet of brown until things warm up again. So here in Tennessee we just have to accept the fact that lawn grasses are limited and we have to work around that.

Each fall I take a few steps to ensure a nice lawn in the spring. OK really I take one step I – overseed. I would like to say I do everything I’m supposed to do for my lawn but I tend to dedicate my time in other areas. I should aerate the soil with a plugger but I never get to that. I used a spiker aerater once before but it really didn’t do the best job in the world. I don’t use winterizers in my lawn. I have an aversion to using chemicals in the landscape in general. The chemicals have to go somewhere and more and more studies are finding trace elements of junk in our water systems from fertilizers to medicines. I’ll do what I can to avoid adding to the problem because well, I really do like to drink water…

My solution to adding extra nitrogen to the soil is planting a cover crop alongside my normal fall grass seeding. After I broadcast spread the Kentucky 31 today I went back over it with good old annual Rye grass I bought from my local Coop. Annual Rye grass can add somewhere between 30-90 lbs. of nitrogen per acre back to the soil after its growth cycle is complete. The other cool thing about Rye grass that I read in a Rye Grass Management Guide on the Oregon Grown Ryegrass Covercrop Webpage (yes there is a such thing – there seems to be a website for everything these days!) is that Rye grass does great job of breaking up the soil with its roots. Its root systems can grow three to four feet into the soil. When the roots dye back it leaves behind tiny holes and pathways called macropores. Plants that follow the ryegrass can send their roots down deep through those macropores and get easy access to moisture deep in the soil. With our heavy clay Tennessee soil anything that breaks it up is beneficial!

To sum things up here’s what I do for my lawn:
Overseed fescue in the fallAlternate different varieties of fescue each fall. Plant Ryegrass in the fallCut the grass high (helps the roots grow deeper, and prevents weed seeds from getting the light they need to germinate.)
What I don’t do for my Lawn:
Fertilize with inorganic fertilizers – it does get grass clippings (and recently lots of bunny droppings!). Grass clippings put back up to 4 percent nitrogen. According to this grass clippings can provide 25% of the nitrogen the lawn needs. I have been tempted to add corn gluten in spring which also has the added benefit of being a pre-emergent weed suppressant as well as a nitrogen fertilizer. My fertilizing habits have been minimal and my lawn seems to do good enough for me. Granted it’s not a golf course – but I don’t play golf and trust me – you don’t want to see me try! Chemical fertilizer also contain salts that can over time make your soil less fertile. I don’t use herbicides on the lawn.  I like the clover which also adds nitrogen and is food for pollinators like bees. Keep the clover. It’s a good plant – really – it is! I heard on the radio a while back that many years ago clover wasn’t considered a weed and it wasn’t until broadleaf herbicides were developed that it began to get a bad rap. Companies began marketing those herbicides and started calling clover a weed because the herbicide happened to kill it too. Makes sense right? Change perception to make your product more acceptable. Clover gradually became considered a weed when it really ought to be enjoyed for its benefits. I can’t verify that radio information but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true. I actually over seeded some areas with red clover this year – yep I like clover. You should too!I don’t aerate but probably should every now and then.I don’t plant Bermuda grass. It’s the worst thing for creeping into garden beds you can imagine. OK maybe not there are a few things I could list that are worse – much worse- but you gotta admit Bermuda in a garden isn’t a good thing!
That’s the basics of lawncare in my world. You don’t have to chemicalize your garden. I don’t go all out and honestly I’m happy with less!

View the original article here

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The natural  lawn grass plays a vital role in the decoration of the lawn. The importance of the lawn grass is growing tremendously so as to maintain the beauty of the lawn. The secret of a well kept lawn is behind the type of lawn grass used to enhance the charm of the house. The lawn grass used is different on the basis of climatic conditions and environment.

Lawn grass plays an important part of the lawn and therefore proper care needs to be taken. Proper research is must before selecting the right type of the grass. Bahiya grass is used mostly in the warm season and also survives easily in the period of drought. It also involves the mowing and moderate maintenance along with the easy prone to less insect problem and insect problems. Another type of the grass that is used in the warm season usually is Bermuda grass. It easily cater the needs of the turf grass.

Another types of grass used in the warm season are carpet grass and centipede grass as they are equipped with the features such as damp, shaddy and moist areas. Some of the lawn grass is also designed for the cool season type of the lawn grass. Bent grass is considered as the most beautiful grass wing with its texture and is deep green in color, thick in density and the habit of low growing. This type of the grass can be easily thrives in the cool climates. The main benefits of using the bent grass are velvet, creeping and colonial in growing habit and matches perfectly with the environment and climate of the lawn.

The accurate and reliable yard grass easily turf of your lawn and also helps in maintaining the healthy look of the lawn. It also refreshes the mind of the user of the lawn. The right type of lawn grass always offer complete coverage to lawn at least for year and also helps in lawn weed control. Use of proper lawn grass helps in transforming the lawn and their plants. The lawn grass is used according to the climate and environment can be easily mowed for obtaining green type look.

green tips
natural yard, yard
9 January 2010 comment TrackBack-URI

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Yet a garden whose area is 90% grass, is as unviable as it is unsustainable in dry and semi arid regions such as the Mediterranean, much of the American west, Australia, South Africa, and the Middle East. The only way forward is to rethink the garden’s design concept, by moving away from large open spaces, to smaller, more intimate ones. Here are some means by which the problem can be approached.

Enlarging the Shrubberies

The width of the shrub and bush border can be enlarged at the expense of the lawn. The usual habit of planting shrubs in a thin line at the lawn’s edge, results in a lack of proportion between the two spaces. A wider border on the other hand, creates more depth and perspective. Most shrubs can be grown consuming at least a quarter of the water required by grass, and some plants such as Junipers, Leucophylum, or Pistachio, on a lot less. Think of the saving when the 50cm strip at the lawn’s edge is replaced with a bold space some 2 meters wide.

Designing with Ground Cover Plants

Water conserving plants of prostrate habit can form a transition area between the lawn and the shrub border. These can create a satisfying link to the trees and shrubs, especially if their leaf texture is similar to that of the tall plants. For example, Asparagus densiflorus “Sprengerii”, associates beautifully with Junipers, Melaleucas, and other thin-leaved bushes. Low-growing species of Cotoneaster combine well with roses and other shrubs and trees from the rose family, such as apple, plum, hawthorn, and pyrocantha. Transition areas of ground covers could reduce lawn space by over 20%.

Adding Seating Areas

Adding a seating area of decorative paving stones or wood decking brings different parts of the garden together, and makes for a more interesting and usable space, than the patio, lawn, border formula of the common suburban plot. A seating or paved area is of course a space that consumes no water.

What about Artificial Grass?

Simply replacing the lawn with fake grass, however convincing the new products are in visual terms, is not likely to achieve satisfying results in the long term, mainly because plastic cannot replace either the smell or touch of grass. However, artificial turf could be a satisfactory medium in a highly stylized, contemporary, garden design, which is minimalistic, austere, and angular in character.

My name is Jonathan Ya’akobi.

I’ve been gardening in a professional capacity for 25 years.

I am the former head gardener of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden, but now concentrate on building beautiful gardens for private homeowners.

My job is to help you get the very best from your garden, so visit me at http://www.dryclimategardening.com

Take the opportunity and download FOR FREE, the first chapter of my book How to Garden in a Dry Climate

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

See you there

Jonathan

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Price: $10.99

Click here to buy from Amazon

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When sowing grass seed timing is everything. The right grass planted at the right time works wonders for a lawn, but the reverse can be true as well. Here in Tennessee we live in an a rather ambiguous area for growing grasses. The cool season grasses do great – that is until it gets hot and they turn all brown. The warm season grass like Bermuda do great too – only they turn brown in the cool fall temperatures and pretty much stay a lovely, drab carpet of brown until things warm up again. So here in Tennessee we just have to accept the fact that lawn grasses are limited and we have to work around that.

Each fall I take a few steps to ensure a nice lawn in the spring. OK really I take one step I – overseed. I would like to say I do everything I’m supposed to do for my lawn but I tend to dedicate my time in other areas. I should aerate the soil with a plugger but I never get to that. I used a spiker aerater once before but it really didn’t do the best job in the world. I don’t use winterizers in my lawn. I have an aversion to using chemicals in the landscape in general. The chemicals have to go somewhere and more and more studies are finding trace elements of junk in our water systems from fertilizers to medicines. I’ll do what I can to avoid adding to the problem because well, I really do like to drink water…

My solution to adding extra nitrogen to the soil is planting a cover crop alongside my normal fall grass seeding. After I broadcast spread the Kentucky 31 today I went back over it with good old annual Rye grass I bought from my local Coop. Annual Rye grass can add somewhere between 30-90 lbs. of nitrogen per acre back to the soil after its growth cycle is complete. The other cool thing about Rye grass that I read in a Rye Grass Management Guide on the Oregon Grown Ryegrass Covercrop Webpage (yes there is a such thing – there seems to be a website for everything these days!) is that Rye grass does great job of breaking up the soil with its roots. Its root systems can grow three to four feet into the soil. When the roots dye back it leaves behind tiny holes and pathways called macropores. Plants that follow the ryegrass can send their roots down deep through those macropores and get easy access to moisture deep in the soil. With our heavy clay Tennessee soil anything that breaks it up is beneficial!

To sum things up here’s what I do for my lawn:
Overseed fescue in the fallAlternate different varieties of fescue each fall. Plant Ryegrass in the fallCut the grass high (helps the roots grow deeper, and prevents weed seeds from getting the light they need to germinate.)
What I don’t do for my Lawn:
Fertilize with inorganic fertilizers – it does get grass clippings (and recently lots of bunny droppings!). Grass clippings put back up to 4 percent nitrogen. According to this grass clippings can provide 25% of the nitrogen the lawn needs. I have been tempted to add corn gluten in spring which also has the added benefit of being a pre-emergent weed suppressant as well as a nitrogen fertilizer. My fertilizing habits have been minimal and my lawn seems to do good enough for me. Granted it’s not a golf course – but I don’t play golf and trust me – you don’t want to see me try! Chemical fertilizer also contain salts that can over time make your soil less fertile. I don’t use herbicides on the lawn.  I like the clover which also adds nitrogen and is food for pollinators like bees. Keep the clover. It’s a good plant – really – it is! I heard on the radio a while back that many years ago clover wasn’t considered a weed and it wasn’t until broadleaf herbicides were developed that it began to get a bad rap. Companies began marketing those herbicides and started calling clover a weed because the herbicide happened to kill it too. Makes sense right? Change perception to make your product more acceptable. Clover gradually became considered a weed when it really ought to be enjoyed for its benefits. I can’t verify that radio information but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true. I actually over seeded some areas with red clover this year – yep I like clover. You should too!I don’t aerate but probably should every now and then.I don’t plant Bermuda grass. It’s the worst thing for creeping into garden beds you can imagine. OK maybe not there are a few things I could list that are worse – much worse- but you gotta admit Bermuda in a garden isn’t a good thing!
That’s the basics of lawncare in my world. You don’t have to chemicalize your garden. I don’t go all out and honestly I’m happy with less!

View the original article here

Tweet This Post

Yet a garden whose area is 90% grass, is as unviable as it is unsustainable in dry and semi arid regions such as the Mediterranean, much of the American west, Australia, South Africa, and the Middle East. The only way forward is to rethink the garden’s design concept, by moving away from large open spaces, to smaller, more intimate ones. Here are some means by which the problem can be approached.

Enlarging the Shrubberies

The width of the shrub and bush border can be enlarged at the expense of the lawn. The usual habit of planting shrubs in a thin line at the lawn’s edge, results in a lack of proportion between the two spaces. A wider border on the other hand, creates more depth and perspective. Most shrubs can be grown consuming at least a quarter of the water required by grass, and some plants such as Junipers, Leucophylum, or Pistachio, on a lot less. Think of the saving when the 50cm strip at the lawn’s edge is replaced with a bold space some 2 meters wide.

Designing with Ground Cover Plants

Water conserving plants of prostrate habit can form a transition area between the lawn and the shrub border. These can create a satisfying link to the trees and shrubs, especially if their leaf texture is similar to that of the tall plants. For example, Asparagus densiflorus “Sprengerii”, associates beautifully with Junipers, Melaleucas, and other thin-leaved bushes. Low-growing species of Cotoneaster combine well with roses and other shrubs and trees from the rose family, such as apple, plum, hawthorn, and pyrocantha. Transition areas of ground covers could reduce lawn space by over 20%.

Adding Seating Areas

Adding a seating area of decorative paving stones or wood decking brings different parts of the garden together, and makes for a more interesting and usable space, than the patio, lawn, border formula of the common suburban plot. A seating or paved area is of course a space that consumes no water.

What about Artificial Grass?

Simply replacing the lawn with fake grass, however convincing the new products are in visual terms, is not likely to achieve satisfying results in the long term, mainly because plastic cannot replace either the smell or touch of grass. However, artificial turf could be a satisfactory medium in a highly stylized, contemporary, garden design, which is minimalistic, austere, and angular in character.

My name is Jonathan Ya’akobi.

I’ve been gardening in a professional capacity for 25 years.

I am the former head gardener of the Jerusalem Botanical Garden, but now concentrate on building beautiful gardens for private homeowners.

My job is to help you get the very best from your garden, so visit me at http://www.dryclimategardening.com

Take the opportunity and download FOR FREE, the first chapter of my book How to Garden in a Dry Climate

Go to http://www.dryclimategardening.com/Products/tabid/55/Default.aspx

See you there

Jonathan

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However, I just read from the governement and a from a lawn fertilizer company saying that crab grass is a weed.

http://www.vigoro.ca/crabgrass.php

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crop…

But, my wife said I got it wrong because I should call several local lawn care companies to see if their annual lawn care contract with “weed control” includes get rid of crab grass as well. In her view, that is the “industry standard” whether “weed control” should or should not cover crab grass, and I am wrong to go after the definition of weed.

Is my wife right, or am I right, in a court of law?

Do I have a case to discuss further with my lawn company?

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