Turf Maintenance
Aeration :
Aeration is the process of removing plugs of soil from your lawn. This creates spaces for air, water and nutrients to penetrate into the soil and promotes the growth of beneficial microorganisms. It also increases water absorption and reduces surface runoff.
Aeration is essential for compacted soil. Signs of compacted soil are: bare patches standing water after rain decreased grass vitality. Aeration is also essential to reduce thatch problems. Thatch is that tough layer of dead organic matter between the lawn and the soil. When thatch becomes too thick, it blocks water and nutrients from getting to the soil.
Power Raking :
One of the first things you can do for a lawn in the spring is de-thatching. Thinning out the thatch in the spring clears out old, dead grass and other organic matter that has built up over time but has not broken down.De-thatching will open up the lawn surface allowing for improved nutrient and water uptake as well as severing up stolons and rhizomes which encourages new growth. The renewed growth and warming temperatures of spring provide the ideal setting to perform this procedure.
Lime & Fertilizer :
Lawn fertilizer and lime work together to help you obtain the healthy, green lawn. By raising the pH of your soil, lime makes lawn fertilizer and existing nutrients available to the grass plants in your landscape. Lime may be applied for an existing or new lawn care at any time of the year. Fertilizing is an important lawn care practice, as it influences grass color, ability to recover from stress, and helps prevent weed invasions and disease.Moss Control :
Moss is perhaps the most common weed of neglected turf. Moss has a tremendous capacity for reproduction. It produces immense numbers of spores, each of which gives rise to a new moss plant if provided with a suitable healthy growing environment. It is only when the grass is weakened by unfavorable growing conditions that moss becomes established and takes over. Conditions which contribute to a problem with moss include poor aeration, poor drainage, low fertility, high acidity and heavy shade. These are all conditions which reduce grass vigour but encourage growth and development of mosses. To control moss the approach must include chemical treatment to eliminate the moss already established and cultural treatments to prevent re colonization. Chemical treatment is only temporarily effective if growing conditions for grass are not improved.Weed Control :
Herbicides are often the easiest, especially with high weed populations. These areas need to be controlled since they will shade and eventually crowd out much of the grass seedlings.Tips on newly seeded/sodded lawn maintenance
Lightly water newly-seeded or sprigged areas at frequent intervals. Keep the seed or sprigs moist, not saturated, during this initial growth period. This may well mean that it is necessary to water as many as four or five times during hot, windy days. The first 10 days to 2 weeks are especially critical. If young plants are allowed to dry out, they may die. With regular watering seeded lawns will germinate within 7-10 days. Temperature must be between 8 and 20 degrees for a seed to germinate, if temperatures are not ideal germination may take longer. After about 2 weeks, root system development should be well under way. Watering frequency should be slowly reduced for about 1 month after seeding or sprigging. Then treat as an established turf.
Sodded Lawn
After the sod is applied, soak it with enough water to ensure that the soil under the sod is wetted to a depth of 2 or 3 inches. Each time the sod begins to dry out, soak it again. Roots develop fairly rapidly, and within 2 weeks or so it should be treated like an established turf.
* Temperature must be above 8 degrees for a seed to germinate and preferably not above 20 degrees. If temperatures are not ideal germination may take longer.
Established Turf
When a turf needs to be watered, apply enough so that the soil is wetted to a depth of 4 to 6 inches. The type of soil has a great deal to do with how much water is needed to wet soil to the desired depth. For soils high in clay, an inch of water is usually necessary to wet the soil to the desired depth. If water application rates are too light or too frequent, the turf may become weak and shallow-rooted, which, in turn, could make it more susceptible to stress injury.
* Ask about installation, maintenance and management of in ground sprinkler systems. For clients with smaller properties or container gardens ask about money saving above ground sprinkler systems which work much like an in ground system.
Factors to Consider:
Soil type :
Water penetrates a sandy soil much faster than a clay soil. So turf grown on a sandy soil requires more frequent watering than turf grown on a soil high in clay. Because water moves fairly slowly into a clay soil, it should be applied as slowly as possible. Turf requires a minimum depth of 6 inches of base soil for the root system to develop. If you do not have this more frequent watering may be required.
Slope :
Lawns with a high degree of slope present a particular problem. It is easy for water to run down the slope without penetrating the soil. Apply water at very slow rates from sprinklers near the top of the slope. Sprinklers on the slope or near the bottom of the slope may prove ineffective.
Fertilizer :
The faster the turf grows, the more water it requires. Slow release fertilizers that contain materials like sulfur-coated urea or ureaformaldehyde as nitrogen sources do not produce high growth rates. Avoid heavy applications of fertilizers high in soluble nitrogen.