Things I thought I would never say during my life: “It was quite interesting to read fifty-three pages of course material about turf and then attend a class solely focused on the subject.”
I have spent the past two weeks making it clear if I fell asleep in any of my Master Gardener classes, it would be during the class about turf. A lawn to me is prime perennial real estate going to waste. The Lot is quite tiny, a fact I struggle with each time I want to bring a new plant home with me. We don’t have kids; we don’t play golf. The four-footed garden help prefer to imagine themselves as wild jungle cats while stalking among the shrubs and other various plants. Why would we want to waste space with grass?
However, even though it did not persuade me to yank my perennials in favor of a well-manicured lawn, the inner workings of the grass plants and the responsible ways to maintain one were pretty cool to learn about. Here are just a few things I learned.
Don’t Scalp Your Lawn
One of the keys to a great-looking turf is to keep the height of the mower set between 3-4″ high. That’s right…a short lawn can starve, get sick, loose to weeds, and generally stress out. A taller height allows grass plants to photosynthesize more carbs to build stronger root systems. It also creates a plant canopy to shade out the weeds that are trying to germinate. Short blade height also allows the hot sun to burn the grass plant’s crown. Ouch. The instructor had a great suggestion on how to embrace this new approach to mowing height.
Set your mower to the highest height, take it to a local auto shop, and have them weld the mower deck into place.
Buyer Beware
I’ve noticed throughout the Master Gardener classes that the fertilizer and pesticide companies LOVE an un-educated and/or lazy homeowner. There are a lot of resources available to a homeowner for common lawn problems like lack of nutrients in the soil or controlling pests like grubs. For example, when Spring finally arrives in MI, the box stores have huge end-caps advertising grub control products for the lawn. Spring is a horrible time to apply an insecticide to control grubs. The insect is not in the right stage of it’s life-cycle to be sufficiently curbed by pesticides.
Before randomly throwing money at a box store (they will take your $$$ without argument) and spraying the lawn with chemicals, check out a site like MSU Turfgrass Science and get informed. There are some handy lawn care product reviews on the site as well.
Can’t Make Chicken Soup Outta Chicken Sh*t
I know neither chickens nor soup have anything to do with turf here, but I am going somewhere with this. The quality of soil in the yard is the foundation of all things green and beautiful for a homeowner. If the soil is poor, more than likely the lawn will struggle. Before blaming a pest or disease, make sure your soil has what it takes to support the grass. A nutrient deficiency is just a likely to make a lawn look terrible. Most state extensions offices offer a soil test for residents to figure out what exactly is going on with your soil. The MSU Extensions Office provides the service to Michigan dwellers here.
Screw the Joneses
Your lawn does not need to be a golf course. Period. I have friends who live in a wealthier subdivision and they have fully embraced this concept. My chest swells a bit with pride each time I pull up to their home during the summer and observer their naturally dormant lawn. I can’t imagine how much their neighbors must spend in blood-pressure control meds.
It is completely up to the homeowner to what level they maintain the lawn. If you want to imagine yourself on a putting green while walking across the yard, you can do so. Just be smart about the resources expended to accomplish this… Inform Yo-Self. If you do not want to spend the money and resources and rather just make sure the grass plants survive a season (they’ll bounce back in the Fall anyway, right?), that is okay also.