Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County

fall garden chores

Lawn Replacement: More Lawn or Something New?

You can see your lawn is beyond renovating, but what to do about it? Once you’ve killed off the struggling grasses and the rampant weeds, your choices are to start over with a new lawn or to replace it with one of many alternatives.

How to decide
First, assess the area where you had your lawn. Be realistic about where you can expect grass to grow. Eliminate those areas that are too shady, too wet or dry, or too steep and concentrate on what remains.

Next, think about what purpose(s) your lawn space serves. Do you need a recreation area for sports, a play area for children, or space for your pets to roam? Does your homeowner’s association require you to have a lawn?

Finally, do you like the look of a lawn and enjoy maintaining it—or don’t mind paying someone to do so? If yes, you’re ready to start over and do your lawn right this time! If not, go back to the reasons you have a lawn and consider ways to achieve your goals with little or no lawn. 

Cutting back lawn area
Consider keeping a lawn only in those areas where you really want or must have one. Instead of lawn, consider mulched soil, areas planted with groundcovers, or paved surfaces. Increasing impervious surfaces can cause stormwater management problems, though, so consider using gravel or other permeable materials where practical.

New lawn: seed or sod?
Now is the time to plant cool season fescues and Kentucky bluegrass, but you have a choice of seed or sod. If you choose to seed, study the seed bag label and buy certified seed. Cheap seed mixes may have less desirable grass varieties and some percentage of noxious weeds. You can find tall fescue and fescue/bluegrass sod grown in North Carolina from several sources. Check that your sod is certified, too. Whether you seed or sod, you will need to prepare your soil.

Photo by Joey Williamson, Clemson Univ Extension
Till to prepare soil.

Soil preparation
Once you have killed off your grass and weeds and have your soil test results, remove any obvious debris, and work your starter fertilizer and lime into the top six to eight inches of the soil surface. This is one of the few situations where rototilling is useful! Rake the surface smooth before seeding or sodding.

Seeding
Use a lawn spreader to apply your seed evenly to your prepared soil surface and then gently rake to cover the seed just barely. Mulch lightly with a weed-free hay or straw and keep the soil watered to a depth of at least 1.5 inches, being careful not to wash the seed away! This may require watering more than once a day to keep the seeds moist enough to sprout. As the grass begins growing, water less frequently, but more deeply. Let your plants reach about 4.5 inches before you mow to 3 inches. Fertilize your lawn again about six to eight weeks after it sprouts, using your lawn spreader.

Photo by Joey Williamson, Clemson Univ Extension
Lay sod in brick-like pattern.

Sodding
Be sure your prepared soil is well-watered, but not muddy. You may want to seek professional advice about how to estimate the amount of sod you’ll need and consider having a professional install it. Time your sod delivery so you can lay it within 24 hours and keep it in the shade so it doesn’t dry out. Start laying sod from a straight edge, using a brick-like pattern. You may need to stake the sod to keep it from slipping. Always lay strips lengthwise, or across the slope, even on gentle slopes. Use a lawn roller to ensure good contact with the soil and then water.

Not happening? Consider alternatives to lawn
Now that you know what it takes, maybe you’ll consider planting trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, vegetables, and herbs instead of lawn! University of Delaware Extension personnel call lawns “turf grass madness” and make a strong case against them as high maintenance, water-using, polluting, and of low wildlife value. Some increasingly popular alternatives are edible landscaping, moss lawns, and pollinator gardens.

To learn more, visit the following websites: 

Article written by Debbie Green, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

 Photos courtesy of Joey Williamson, HGIC Horticulture Extension Agent, Clemson University, http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/lawns/hgic1203.html

Time for Lawn Assessment: Maintain, Renovate, or Replace?

Mid-August and early September are good times to focus on lawn care. This blog is the first of a three-part series on lawn assessment, replacement, and maintenance.

Lush LawnTake a good look at your lawn. Is it struggling? That’s not surprising given the punishing heat and drought this summer! Don’t despair, though, we have answers for you.

The right grasses
A healthy lawn starts with choosing grasses. Here in Buncombe County, we grow fescues and Kentucky bluegrasses, cool season grasses that look good much of the year, but languish in the summer heat. We don’t grow warm season grasses—such as zoysia and bermudagrass which like the heat of summer—because they brown up as they go dormant in the cooler weather we have most of the year.

Sun, water, and nutrients
Like all plants, grasses require sun, water, and nutrients to thrive, so even the right grasses may die out, or be quickly overrun with weeds. Grasses need sun much of the day, so look carefully at where you’re trying to grow a lawn. Give up on areas where buildings, trees, or shrubs shade your grass.

Too little and too much water are both problems for lawns. Avoid grasses in very dry or very wet areas of your yard unless you can provide irrigation or improve drainage, respectively.

Lawn grasses often require lime to be able to take advantage of soil nutrients and nitrogen fertilizer annually. Soil testing at least every three years will tell you how much lime to add and if you need phosphorus or potassium in addition to nitrogen when you fertilize.

Mowing considerations
Don’t have more lawn than you can keep regularly mowed. Cool season grasses do best mowed to three inches, cutting off no more than an inch or so of the grass blade. In the mountains, slopes pose another obstacle to having a great lawn. Although grasses can help prevent erosion, don’t plant a lawn where you won’t feel comfortable mowing!

Decision time
If your lawn is growing in all the places you want it to grow, you need only to follow a good maintenance plan this fall to have the lawn of your dreams. (Watch for coming blog!) Not your reality?

Renovate as temperatures begin to drop after mid-August. NC State turf specialists recommend overseeding bare spots with a seed mix of tall fescue cultivars at the rate of 6 pounds per 1000 square feet of lawn. Fertilize with a lawn starter fertilizer high in phosphorus. You must keep your seeds moist with light, gentle, watering, which may need to be done more than once a day if the soil starts to dry.

If your lawn is in dire condition, consider replacement by killing off the existing grass and weeds to put in a new lawn or lawn alternative. Now is the time to begin the replacement process! Kill a lawn by:

  • Smothering: burying the surface under several inches of mulch, such as arborist’s wood chips.
  • Solarizing: covering with clear plastic for 4 to 6 weeks. (This is unwieldy and kills off beneficial soil organisms.)
  • Stripping off the turf with a sod cutter. (You may rent these.)
  • Using a broad-spectrum herbicide that will kill both grasses and broadleaf weeds.

For smothering, solarizing, and stripping, you can cut the lawn low to help kill the plants. If you use herbicides, be sure you apply to an actively growing, uncut, well-watered lawn, and be very careful you don’t allow any of the product to drift onto desirable plants or shrubs.

While your lawn is dying, consider what you want in its place! We’ll have some suggestions!

Article written by Debbie Green, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

For help with grass and weed identification, go to http://turfid.ncsu.edu/.

Fall Tool Maintenance

imageAs you’re finishing up the fall garden chores it’s a good idea to get your tools repaired or maintained before you put them away. Don’t wait until you need them next spring to discover a missing bolt or broken handle on the machine or tool that you need to use. As a reminder here are some of the common tool maintenance tasks:

Hoses: Don’t leave them connected to a faucet! Freezing temps can burst the pipes as well as the hose. Take off the nozzle and drain the hose. Coil them flat or on a reel; make sure there are no kinks that may lead to a leak next time pressure is applied.

Gasoline engines: Drain or run off all the fuel in the tank. Change the oil while it’s warm, right after you shut the engine off. Check the service manual to make sure it’s the correct type or weight of oil. If the engine has gotten hard to start change the plug or haul it in for a tune up.

Electrically driven tools: Check cords for wear or cuts, particularly on hedge shears! Look the manual to see if there are other maintenance points.

Lawn mower, tiller: Clean clippings from under the mower deck and tingled stems and roots from the tiller tines. Apply a rust preventative to surfaces where the paint has worn off, perhaps using the oil drained from the engine.

imageCutting tools– pruners, clippers saws: Clean off hardened sap with mineral spirits or paint thinner. Remove rust with steel wool, then sharpen the blade or have it done professionally.

Digging tools – hoes, rakes shovels, spades, forks: remove mud and rust with a wire brush, touch up the edges with a file and then oil the blade.

Wooden handles: run over the wood lightly with fine sandpaper of steel wool and then apply a conservative, like one part linseed oil to two part mineral spirits or paint thinner. Paint a brightly colored weather resistant, band around the handle so the tool is easier to find if it’s laid in the garden.

Finally, as you complete each job put that tool back in its regular storage place and make a resolution to do likewise every time you use it next year.

By Glenn Palmer

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Buncombe County Extension Office
49 Mount Carmel Road
Asheville, NC 28806
Helpline 828-255-5522

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