Lawn Care Tips
By Michael J. McGroarty, Fri Dec 9th
You are welcome to use this article on your website or in yournewsletter as long as you reprint it as is, including thecontact information at the end. Website URLs must be activelinks. You are welcome to use this article with an affiliatelink, http://www.freeplants.com/resellers.htm A beautiful lawn does not come without some effort. Dependingupon what type of soil you have, the amount of effort will vary.For instance when raising trees and shrubs, sandy or a gravelbase soil is great. Landscape plants like well drained soiled. Alawn on the other hand is different. Lawn grasses growconstantly throughout the growing season, and need an amplesupply of both nutrients and water. The most basic of lawn care tips includes regular watering andfertilization is required to keep a lawn beautiful. If you'relucky enough to have a lawn that was originally planted in goodrich topsoil, you won't have to work near as hard as somebodylike me, who has a lawn that is planted in sandy gravel. Thesoil at our house has little nutritional value, nor does it havethe ability to retain any amount of moisture. By mid May my lawnstarts drying out. It is very difficult for us to keep our lawnlooking nice. Lawns are one area where a little clay in thesoil is a good thing. Of course standing water is not good, buthaving soil that has the ability to retain some moisture ishelpful. If you happen to be installing a new lawn, here's anews flash from my lawn care tips that will make all thedifference in the world: Add lots of organic matter before youinstall your new lawn if you have sand or gravel type soil. Theeasiest way to do this is to find some good rich topsoil andspread that over your existing soil. Because most lawn grassesgrow so vigorously, they need additional amounts of nutrientsadded in order to stay looking nice. Just use one of the fourstep programs offered by the fertilizer companies. Most of theseprograms also include weed control along with the fertilizer.Here in the north we basically have two concerns with weeds inour lawns. Crabgrass can be a problem, and I do consider it aweed. In order to control crabgrass you must use a pre-emergentherbicide that will prevent the crabgrass seeds fromgerminating. In order for this herbicide to be effective youmust apply it early in the spring while the soil temperature isstill below 45° F.
Broadleaf weeds such as Dandelions are another problem, althoughfairly easy to control with a broadleaf weed control. Mostbroadleaf herbicides are mixed in with the fertilizers, and mustbe applied when the grass and weeds are damp. The wet foliagewill cause the herbicide to stick to the weed, giving theherbicide time to be absorbed by the weed. Once absorbed theherbicide translocates through the weed plant and kills itcompletely. These types of herbicides are considered "selective"since they seem to know the difference between a grass plant anda weed. That's why they only kill the broadleaf weeds and notthe grass itself. However, many people have different kinds ofthick bladed grass in their lawn such as quack grass. Quackgrass is on the ugly side, and can really detract from a lawn.The problem is, it is still in the grass family, and "selective"herbicides leave it alone because it is a card carrying memberof the grass family. So what's a person to do? In order to get rid of these thick bladed grasses you must use a"non-selective" herbicide, and "non-selective" herbicides don'tcare who they kill. Well, at least that's true in the plantkingdom. When you use a "non-selective" herbicide you mustunderstand that everything that you spray is going to die, butit really is the only effective way to rid your lawn ofundesirable thick bladed grasses. This type of treatment iseffective if you have isolated areas that contain wide bladedgrasses. You'll have to spray all the grass in the area, thenreseed with good quality grass seed. My herbicide of choicefor this type of spraying is RoundUp®. It is believed thatRoundUp® does not have any residual effect, which means that itdoes not linger in the soil. That means that the new grass seedor the young grass plants will not be affected by the herbicide.Being a non-selective herbicide you must be careful whenspraying, making sure that the spray does not drift onto otherplants or lawn areas that you do not want to kill. To keep the spray from drifting, adjust the nozzle so that thespray pattern is narrow with larger spray droplets. You do notwant a fine atomized spray if there is danger of spray drift. Italso helps to keep the pressure in the sprayer as low aspossible. Pump the sprayer a minimum number of times, to keepthe pressure low. You just want enough pressure to deliver thespray, but not atomize it to the point that it can be easilycarried by the wind. Buy a sprayer just for herbicides and markit as such. You never want to spray plants with a sprayer thathas been used for herbicides. Once you have sprayed the areayou want to kill, wait three days before doing anything else.After a period of three days the grasses that you sprayed maynot look any different, but if they have been properly sprayed,they will die. It takes three days for the herbicide totranslocate throughout the entire plant, then the plants willdie. So even though the weeds and grass plants look fine, youcan start digging and chopping and not worry about them growingback. If you start digging and chopping before the three dayperiod you will interrupt the herbicide, and the weeds and grassyou were trying to kill may come back. If you happen to be installing a new lawn, make sure you sprayall the weeds and thick bladed grasses before you start. Onceyou have the lawn installed, you sure don't want to go throughall the trouble of killing areas of your lawn and reseeding. Ifyou make sure that all of these undesirables have been killedbefore you start, you'll be way ahead of the game. When selecting grass seed, you should always use a blend that isrecommended for your area. Here in the north a popular blendcontains fine bladed perennial rye grass, fescue, and bluegrass. Keep in mind that it takes blue grass seeds 28 days togerminate, while most perennial rye grasses germinate in 5
|
3-Point Hitch Tractor-Mounted Top-Discharge DR® Chipper Wood Chipper Shredder
Mounted on the
back of your tractor, the 3-Point Hitch DR®
CHIPPER goes wherever you need it to, for
quickly clearing your property of unsightly
brush piles and woody material up to 4-1/2"
thick. With a top-discharge feature, the 3-Point
Hitch model DR® CHIPPER can easily expel chips
into a pickup truck bed, a large cart or wagon,
or even into a wooded area or field.
The head of the
chute can be angled down, for filling a truck
bed or for creating a large pile of chips. Angle
the head of the chute up and chips are dispersed
evenly over a large area. It can also be rotated
side to side. Constructed of heavy gauge steel
with a 35-pound flywheel.
Tractor Horsepower:
19 HP to 45 HP
Tractor
Mounting:
Fits category 0 or 1 three-point hitch
PTO Details:
Quick-attach, shielded PTO shaft for 1-3/8"
6-spline PTO with clockwise rotation
PTO RPM:
540
or 6days, so you never want to plant a lawn that is 100% Kentuckyblue grass. Before the blue grass seeds have a chance togerminate, every kind of weed imaginable will already beactively growing in your lawn. With a blend, the fastergerminating grasses come up quickly, and act as a nurse crop forthe slower germinating seeds. Having a blend also gives you someprotection in case some new pest comes along that attackscertain types of grasses. People often ask if they have tohave their lawn hydro-seeded in order for it to be nice. Theanswer is no. Hydro-seed is not some kind of magic formula. Itis nothing more than a fancy way to apply grass seed. Ahydro-seeder is just a machine that mixes water, grass seed,fertilizer and mulch into a slurry that is sprayed onto yourlawn. The ingredients are exactly the same that you would use ifyou seed by hand, with the exception of the mulch. And contrary to popular belief, hydro-mulch is no better thangood old fashioned straw. In my opinion straw is a much, muchbetter mulch. The primary advantage to hydro-seed is that thegrass seed is thoroughly soaked before it is applied, whichassures germination. That's a huge advantage if you're seedingalong a freeway where it is not practical to wet the seed afterit has been applied. At your house, it really doesn't mean much.Hand seeding works just fine. With either method, you stillhave to water just as much once the seeding is done. Many peopleare led to believe that hydro-seed doesn't have to be watered asmuch as hand seed. This is a huge misconception. If you fail towater hydro-seed once it is applied, it will still germinate andlittle tiny grass plants will appear. But just a few hourswithout water on a hot day, and those little tiny grass plantswill wither and die. This is a big problem because once the seedhas germinated, it is spent. All the water in the world will notmake that spent seed produce another grass plant. Hydro-seed has its benefits, but for the residential lawn it'snot all that important. Why do I claim that straw is a bettermulch than hydro-mulch? Think about how the hydro-mulch isapplied. It is mixed with the seed, fertilizer and water as aslurry, and sprayed on the lawn. The mulch has not been appliedover top of the seed which is how mulch is supposed to beapplied, it is all mixed together. Some of the seeds are underthe mulch, and some of the seeds are on top of the mulch. Mulchcan't do much good when the seeds are resting up on top of it.They might as well be sun bathing! Now think about the processof hand seeding. The seed is spread on the soil, then you shouldtake a push broom and drag it backwards over top of the seededarea. This applies a very thin layer of soil over most of theseeds. Then you spread the straw over top of the soil. Thepieces of straw are scattered in all directions, with many ofthem criss-crossing each other. Remember the movie, "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"? The part wherethey are walking through the lawn and the blades of grass arehuge compared to them? This is what it's like to be a grassseed under a mulch of straw. Those little tiny grass seeds arelost under the straw, and that's exactly what you want toprotect them from the intense rays of the sun. As the sun works its way across the sky the grass seedsactually receive filtered sunlight. Enough sun to warm the seedsso they grow, but also enough shade to protect the tender younggrass plants. As the grass plants grow, they also raise themulch with them to a degree, providing additional shade for theseeds that haven't germinated yet. The shade that straw mulchprovides also helps to retain the moisture around the seeds. Grass seeds will never get this kind of protection fromhydro-mulch. Another trait of hydro-seed is that as the slurry dries, itbecomes a blanket over the lawn. In the event of a heavyrainfall, running water tends to get under this blanket andcarry it away, leaving big areas with no seed at all. They makea glue that you can actually add to the hydro-seed mix, but myexperience has shown that the glue will hold the hydro-seed inplace a little longer, but when it does wash out much largerareas wash because they are glued together. With hand seeding, each seed is independent, and they fallbetween the nicks and crannies of the soil. In the event ofheavy rain, the running water must be severe enough to wash thesoil away before the seeds can be moved. I've installed hundredsof lawns using both techniques, for the difference in cost I'lltake the hand seeded lawn any day.
About the author:Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit hismost interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign upfor his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided byhttp://gardening-articles.com
|
Merry Mac Tow-Behind Wood Chipper Shredder - 18 HP, Model# SC183-16VEM
The
professional's top choice for lawn and garden
clean up! Ideal for growers and landscapers, for
municipalities, corporate grounds, campuses,
parks and golf courses. 48 shredding hammers
make it possible to level the brush from a 60ft.
tree in 55 minutes. Includes: 1 1/4in. bar
screen. Electric start. Highway-towable. Truck
ship. U.S.A.
Overall
Rating:
5 / 5
Order the Merry Mac 18 HP Tow-Behind Wood
Chipper Shredder...
We strive to provide only quality articles, so
if there is a specific topic related to
wood chipper shredder that you would like us to
cover, please contact us at any time.
And again, thank you to those
contributing daily to our dr used website.
|
|
|
