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With watering restrictions in place from the beginning of the growing season, all of us have concerns on what this means for our lawns. First off, I’d like to applaud the efforts that customers, cities, and businesses are making to conserve our precious resource.

Holding off on turning on the secondary water until mid-May was a wise decision. Roots grow in moist soil, therefore with infrequent moisture entering the soil from above, the roots must follow the water being pulled downward. This results in a deeper root system, which is crucial to success in the summer months. The best time for allowing our lawns to dry out is while temperatures, especially at night, are cooler.

[Read more…] about Is Brown the New Green?

In the lawn business, we use tools such as wetting agents, moisture managers, and polymers to help combat drought and its effects. To an outsider, it can be confusing to know what each of them do.

	Soil Wetting Agents	Moisture Managers	Polymers
What they do:	Reduces surface tension of water, allowing water to easily penetrate soil	Pushes, pulls, and attracts water in the soil, making it available to plants	Absorbs water and holds it more tightly than soil particles
When to use them:	When soil compaction prevents water from entering soil profile or after drought stress has occurred	Before drought situations occur to prevent drought dormancy	Polymers need to be placed INTO the soil, so usually prior to planting seed or after a core aeration
Notes/Comments	Wetting agents are temporary, lasting anywhere from 1 week to 1 month	Lasts up to 3 months. Requires moisture. If there is no water or humidity, nothing happens	As they absorb water, the pellets expand. With constant growing and shrinking, eventually they get pushed out of the soil.

Quote: “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience” Ralph Waldo Emerson 

A gardener’s best attribute isn’t their ability to work long hours or their knowledge of the plant kingdom, but their aptitude to be patient. Large, beautiful trees don’t get there overnight; botanical gardens can take years to become the places of solace they are.  

[Read more…] about Lawn care Takes Patience

Why Preemergent Herbicides Fail 

A preemergent product stops weeds before they emerge and is one of the best tools for keeping invasive annual weeds out of lawns and flower beds. However, they are not always 100% effective. Recently I was involved in a focus group in helping to understand how to get preemergent products to work better.   Here are some facts to know: 

[Read more…] about Pre-Emergent vs. No Pre-Emergent