Lawns Hub

I received more questions about dog urine and lawns following the last post, so here goes.

Yes, it is true, dog urine burns lawn grasses all the time. Everyone knows about it, it can be a frustrating experience seeing little burn spots pocking the landscape like bomb damage.  It is indeed an unfortunate event, but knowing why it does this is a probable help in dealing with it. The current urban myth says that female dogs have an innate chemical which is especially detrimental, but it is simply not true.  Male dogs tend to spread their urine out, busily marking shrubs and fire hydrants with all due diligence, thereby spreading their urine for functional effect. Meanwhile, while female dogs also “mark: certain things in a territorial way, they generally just unload their wastes in more decisive amounts, thus the myth of the Female Urine Problem.

The problem is in the nitrogen.  Waste products include high concentrations of nitrogen as byproducts of digestion.  What happens is almost as if you were “overfeeding” with a nitrogen fertilizer.  In many cases, studies have shown that by watering within 8 hours of a dog urinating on your lawn, you can reduce the damage substantially.  While no one is going to sit and hold a hose all day for owners who let their dogs pee in your grass, it is helpful to know that some consistent watering reduces the effects of dog urine enormously.  Indeed, if you own a female dog, or a male, for that matter who trashes some poor shrub daily, just water those sots they most frequent and you might avoid the worst of the damaging effects of all that compressed nitrogen. The burnt out spots always have a ring of intensely green grass around them, which should give us our best clue.  Water liberally if you spot it happening and avoid at least one of the spots  Knowledge is forewarning.  Using some common sense techniques to limiting the passage of dogs on your lots should be first and foremost in any prevention scheme..

Ok, enough of plastic. Even if you’re not happy with your live lawn, here’s some advice on how to fix some problems.

Sometimes stuff happens. A car misses the driveway and scores a nice 6 foot divot in your nice green lawn.  A dog who used your lawn as an outdoor latrine has damaged it to an uncommon extent, making it look like a bombing run. You had a gas spill.  You overfertilized and scorched a huge patch.  What to do?

Generally, the essential rule of thumb is to “treat” any areas with a few essential principles:

Any contaminates, such as gasoline or diesel spills, weed killer accidents, dog urine spots and the like can go in two directions.  The less obnoxious, such as dog urine spots can simply be “leached” by applying a good amount of water to allow the nitrogen to percolate further own into the soil.  Other spots, like the gas or diesel spills may even require the removal of the contaminated soil.  In this, once a certain amount of soil is taken away, I still recommend a leaching process.  Diesel is “clingy”, greasy and has a tendency to stick to the small particles of earth and silt in the soil. It also leaches out slower than, say, gas or alcohol.  Likewise for weed killer combinations. Just the same, some leaching is good.

Once leached and the soil replaced, apply seed in the same manner you would a new lawn.  For small areas, the fact is, not a lot of work is actually required.  Remove a bit of dirt, grab some known clean dirt, pack it in and apply seed.

When replacing lawns grasses which died due to drought or to under watering from a once-defective irrigation system, toss down some rye grass, or Bermuda, depending in your climate, along with some basic structural grass and let it rip.

Plastic turf is an entirely new and actually promising technology, used for many more purposes than for merely erecting a lawn that doesn’t need mowing.  All the current “field turfs” which are all the rage in colleges, high schools and even pro sport stadiums are turning to this new technology with all its built in advantages. Having laid quite a few I can vouch for the fact that it is at least superior to the “:Astroturf” of old, with its unbelievably hard and injurious surface. Getting tackled on Astroturf was no picnic.

This topic in fact is worth an entire article, it has grown so much as an option. Nor are football and soccer fields the only places they can be installed. I installed a golf green for a local university a few years back which they still practice on.  And that was not the only “green” I installed, either.  We did a few for home owners as well.  It’s the same process as field turf which, ironically, is the same process as installing interlocking brick pavers, at least at its bottom.  A good base here is everything, just like all roads and driveways.

The greens plastic grass were sort of fascinating to make.  We would add sand at minute increments to effect the speed of the green.  Add a bit of sand, say an eigth or a quarter inch, suddenly it gets a bit faster.  The utility of such a thing is really effective in Portland, where I live, owing to the rains which are pretty constant during Winter.  Not a problem with the plastic turf!  Just grab a rain suit or an umbrella and putt away.

Anyway, knowing the options, including putting greens is a smart way to go for anyone considering plastic grass.

In case you were wondering why all the latest focus on organic, let’s talk some about lawn care products and the pollution they cause.

Lawn care products pollution includes an unfortunately vast number of things.  I often hesitate to list them owing to the numbers, but what I can do is provide some cautionary tales about being better with what we do use. In many ways, it also depends on where we live as to the effects we have on our fellow man.  Noise pollution, for example, is not an issue out on the farm or in remoter suburban areas.  Since we have now identified just about everything in the world we can think of as to how we contaminate our friends and enemies alike, sigh, I guess it is only fair to list 2 of them, to be fair and to give us things to consider.

The aforementioned “noise pollution” is a prime example.  It occurs in reality when we live packed together as we now do in so many cities and towns. There a few options at the moment that are currently popular for alternatives to lawns in the landscape and, in truth, I would hope that stays the case.  We can, however, mitigate it by choosing the correct times and days for the chore. Weekends, with the kids out playing a human noise fairly rampant, is a great time. Mornings, after allowing a civil wakeup time is good as well.  In the end, we want most to not offend.  This rule as a social construct is a civilized way to approach it all.

Another overlooked method of polluting is with our forced air blowers. These handy items allow us to clean up rapidly and throughly without the hand work of using brooms.  But we overuse them.  Also, there are electric alternatives which mitigate the use of gas powered ones, as well.  These run quieter and sometimes without the unnecessary force of many of the gas powered varieties. One of the most unfortunate byproducts of using blowers, and especially the powerful ones, is in the spread and pulverization of dust.  We blow micro organisms all over the place with these monster power blowers, including allergenic bacteria and unwanted seeds.  A good rule of thumb in using blowers is to use the minimal amount of power as is necessary.

Sorry about keeping you guys waiting with the posts. Busy summer here with lawn care issues…

Soil and soil Ph ratings are hugely vital to be familiar with with any lawn.  The ideal soil Ph reading for grasses is around 6.5.  The grass itself causes an increase in acidity as time goes on, what with the clippings deteriorating and the biological events occurring underneath, including worms and castings.  When the soil reaches 7.5 or above, what happens is things like dandelions, which love the acidity, can flourish and the grass will have a hard time competing. And, in the end, a dense and healthy stand of happy grass is the best possible deterrence for weeds of all kinds. One can effect a good Ph by adding lime when the Ph goes above 7.5, thus reducing the weed growth and promoting the grass growth..

Soil is another issue. When we order or mix in soil, we need to differentiate the difference between “dirt” and soil. Good soil had compost able elements, woods or bit of organic materials that can break down and supply the necessary nutrients for a long-lasting effect. 18 inches or more of composted and highly bacterial soil would be optimal. I have a friend that has soil this deep. While everyone else waters dozens of times or more over the summer, she waters just once or twice. She uses no fertilizer or pesticides. She has thick, dark green, weed-free grass which requires frequent mowing. Her lawn is about as “no-brainer” as you could get. This gives the lunatic fringe view on just what is so vital about soil, seeing as how hers is so ideal. Her grass roots and her choice of seed (Tall Fescue) determine much of this. The deeper-rooted the grass, the fewer times it needs watering.  And even those waterings are infrequent but very deep.

If your soil depth is bad, it can be aided by applications of yet more soil, sometimes even over the top of a lawn.  Granted, it will take a bit of time for the grass to completely thicken, but it is an adequate “lazy man’s method” of dealing with it.  Other great methods include aerating and raking new soil into the holes just produced. A good lawn, given the right ingredients for growth and health can be an utterly “green” lawn in the ecological sense easier than many think.

Here is the thing about dealing with almost all issues relating to lawns: Going “green” is not like we are rediscovering the wheel.  The simple fact is, if you don’t use any fertilizer or pest control or weed control product whatsoever, there are some extremely simple ways of being totally Non Chemical. And some of them stem from very basic lawn care notions.

Perhaps most importantly of all, the height we mow our lawns at may be the single most important point to bear in mind.  Grass is a living plant.  It grows via photosynthesis and thereby needs a blade to convert sunlight into the sugars that feed the plant.  By cutting grass too short, we accomplish a staggering number of mistakes:

1.  We make the grass work harder to hustle back to the point where it can partake of photosynthesis. By this, we also make it use all the nutrition available on merely reestablishing itself to normality instead of investing in root growth.

2.  We allow weeds and broad leaves to compete.  Of all the methods of preventing weed growth in a lawn, this may be the most important.  Grass gets healthier faster with some length to its blades.  Meanwhile, the business end of any weed is at the tip, which gets cut by mowing.

3.  Leaving cuttings in the grass can be an effective fertilization.  We are after bacteria, worms and all sorts of living organisms to help us develop a healthy green lawn.  The salts and chemicals in petroleum fertilizers all act against just exactly this. There are actually organic fertilizers that work as well as a brief search on Google can relate.

4.  Watering.  Watering grass should be focused on the deeper start of roots.  Deep watering implies watering once for a bit of saturation, waiting just a bit, then watering very thoroughly so that the water can travel deeply into the earth, where we develop our most drought-tolerant system:  long, deep roots. Watering a lawn is like dealing with a sponge.  When first watered, some water will actually be repelled by the surface.  A small soaking first, waiting a bit, then we notice how the sponge fills up nicely, as if water is attracted to itself, which it is.

Simple adherence to simple tactics can make all the anal retentive s in the audience need new realms to worry over.  LOL, great lawns do indeed follow some simple tactical plans.

Fescues grasses are divided into two categories:  fine and tall varieties.  Fine Fescues are lawn-specific in almost every case and provide a mic of seed that can endure some of the problems which others cannot.  There are varieties of fine fescues which are the best available choices for that conundrum faced by almost all lawn fanciers with trees: deep shade.  “Chewings  and Creeping Fescues” have been developed as perhaps the most shade-tolerant grasses of all.  There are others which have different general qualities, but I have planted “Chewings” with some great results.

Fescues develop into a thick mat, dense and much more drought and disease-resistant than bluegrasses.  Insects are also much less of a problem for these grasses, research has proven, owing to certain genetic, chemical properties.

Originally developed as a “transitional” grass, this seed is very drought resistant, perhaps as much as any “cool season” grass.  It is pretty universal throughout the American Mid West and into Canada as well.  Red Fescues are almost universally added to Bluegrass mixes to supply a longer-lasting green color once the bluegrasses go dormant.

Almost all the “thin Fescues” are delicate-seeming, with thin blades made for walking on.  The Tall varieties however, are much coarser.  These seeds are often used on athletic fields and in pastures and such owing to their slower rate of growth and their extreme durability.  Drought-tolerance is their other primary feature, as these grasses develop root systems that reach amazingly deeply into the soil beneath them.

I once seeded a front lawn in 100% Tall Fescue and I ended up regretting it.  The coarseness wore my feet out.  But it stayed green far longer than my other neighbor’s lawns and I needed less water to make it work as a lawn, so I kept it.  Mixed in bluegrass, it toughens it and keeps the watering issues more moot.

Time to talk about types of grass for a bit… I’m afraid I don’t have pictures of every type of grass out there, so if you have them, by all means, please use the comment form here to contact me and send me a picture - good pictures will be published here with credit going to the photographer.

So, let’s start with Bermuda Grass…

Bermuda Grass is often referred to in the Unites States as “the Southern grass”. It is a favorite in texture and color for all areas of usage from lawns to highway medians, athletic fields and the like, from about Tennessee, South. It essentially grows in tropical, sub-tropical and the transition zones. There are some cool season varieties being hybridized, but they are not widely accepted yet. In fact, many Northern climates relate to Bermuda Grass as a pestilence, owing to its ambitious and vigorous rhizome habit.

Just the same, Bermuda Grass is one of the most sun loving warm season lawn and pasture grasses. It can very easily be planted from grass seed and provides a great turf grass lawn in Southern areas. Bermuda turf requires a fairly moderate amount of lawn grass care, maintenance and mowing.

Bermuda grass is known as one of the most persistent and aggressive grasses. It’s tough to kill, in fact, after it gets established. It germinates quickly from seed, covers quickly and can grow in a pretty wide variety of soil types. For Floridians and Californians and any people who live near a coast line, Bermuda grass is fairly salt-tolerant. As a tough sort of survivor grass, Bermuda Grass is often used in these climates as a most desirable grass for golf courses, especially since it can be extremely reliable and attractive when regularly maintained and cut. Divots are easily replaceable fairly quickly and, for athletic fields, this also matters.

The bottom line with Bermuda Grass lawns is that they love sun, don’t require an awful lot of super focused maintaining, are quick to establish and keep their color without the constant need to “tone” with fertilizers.