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Fall is the Ideal Time to Repair Lawn Damage.
Maintaining a Beautiful Lawn is Not that Difficult.
If you know a few simple tricks.
Lawn Repair Tips
Summertime is great! By far the best season of the year if you ask me. I have a Jeep Wrangler. Around Memorial Day I take out the canvas windows, pull the top down and take the doors off and leave it that way until October. Just about every evening Pam and I put the little yellow dog in the back seat and we go for a Jeep ride.
I’m going to toss a few of photos of my favorite summer activities into this post. Humor me will ya?
But . . . Summertime is really hard on lawns. Hot sun, dry conditions, Japanese Beetles laying eggs in the lawn, those eggs quickly hatch into grubs that dine on the roots of our lawns.
On cool evenings we all put on a sweat shirt for our Jeep ride, including Ally, the little yellow dog.
By the end of summer my lawn starts to look a little haggard. I water it when it’s really hot and dry, but not every day. But even with water, it drys out along the edges, by the curb, the grass dies, the weeds move in.
Pesky lawn weeds!
This is what my lawn looks like in many areas along the curb by the end of summer. It happens every year because the concrete curb gets so hot it just bakes the moisture out of the soil, kills the grass and along come the weeds. Each fall I get rid of these weeds along the curb and plant new grass.
There are a couple of ways to do this. You can dig out all of weeds, loosen the soil and simply plant grass seed. That works great as long as you get all of the roots. I spray the weeds to kill them with a non selective herbicide because that gets rid of roots and all. After spraying I wait three days, then simply sprinkle the grass seed over the area that I sprayed. Even though the weeds don’t appear to be dead after only 72 hours, they are, and leaving them there actually helps to protect the new grass seed as it germinates.
Mike’s Spot Lawn Repair Video.
A couple of years ago we did a video explaining step by step how I how do this. Take a peek!
“If you want to smack me around for using Roundup or Glyphosate, You Can Do that on this page.” Being the nice guy that I am, I’ve actually created a place for you to do that. I am a professional in this industry. I use products that I know will do the job and products that I believe to be safe after having used them for over 40 years. I don’t believe what I read on the Internet. I believe what my experience has taught me.
Mike McGroarty hugging miniature donkey Finnegan.
Of course for me, donkey hugging is a year round sport.
Thick bladed grass in a lawn.
Regular lawn weed and feed products will not get rid of undesirable thick bladed grasses in a lawn. That’s why they have to be treated differently than most lawn weeds.
Those big white patches are Creeping Bentgrass that snuck into my lawn.
I know somebody is going to ask about the two weeping trees in the photo. The one closest to the camera is a Lavender Twist Weeping Redbud and the one closest to the house is Waterfall Laceleaf Weeping Japanese maple.
Both are difficult to find. Right now I do have some Lavender Twist at my nursery here in Perry, Ohio for only $49.00 each. But when they are gone they are gone, I’m no longer growing trees, just $5.97 plants.
Many people could care less what’s in their lawn as long as it’s green and I get that. I understand it. Not everybody is fussy about their lawn and I used to be like that. But in this house I try and keep the lawn halfway nice.
These patches of creeping bentgrass don’t bother me that much, but in time they choke out the desirable grass, then the patches of bentgrass start to look poorly. Sooner or later I have to deal with them. They are invasive, starting with just a random seed that blows in and if unchecked they just keep spreading and spreading.
I deal with patches like this just like I do the weeds as I show in the above video. I paint an orange circle around them, spray everything inside the circle, then simply sprinkle new grass seed over the area, actually spreading seed outside of the circle just in case a little spray drifted.
A spreading patch of creeping bentgrass.
Yes, after going through this treatment process my lawn looks terrible. But as we approach winter I’m not concerned about that, I want it really nice next spring and summer.
About 7 to 10 days after I spray and reseed, the sprayed areas turn golden brown and flat out look terrible. But as that is happening the new grass seed is germinating and eventually fills in the brown areas completely. The weeds, thick bladed grasses and Creeping Bentgrass, or Creeping Charlie if you have that, are gone.
By doing this in the fall it’s cool at night, damp but warm and sunny during the day. Ideal for growing grass seed. For detailed information on grass seed, my take on hydro seed and sod, see this article.
By spring the lawn looks fabulous once again!
Who puts a hammock in a donkey pen? The donkeys love the idea!
The donkeys have the best shade tree on farm so I hung my hammock in the donkey pen. I actually have to raise it up into the tree when I’m not using it or they’d tear it apart. When I do get into the hammock it’s like a thrill ride! In this photo Fergus has pushed the hammock almost perpendicular to the ground, with me in it! All the while I’m in the hammock they are pushing, pulling, walking under the hammock raising it into the air with me in it. Or trying to steal my pillow!
It’s fun for all of us!
Questions? Comments? Mean things to say? Post them below.
Source: http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2015/09/fall-is-the-ideal-time-to-repair-lawn-damage/
