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fertilizer

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

August 11, 2016

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/.

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Categories Lawns, Seasonal Chores Tags fall garden chores, fertilizer, fescue grass, lime, mowing

November Garden Tasks to Save Time and Money

November 3, 2014

November 1st brought first frost, first freeze, and first snow, all in one morning! Winter is on the horizon, but there are still some essential gardening tasks to be done.

Soil tests save time and money! Your lawn and gardens will grow better, and you will not waste money on unneeded fertilizer. Free soil tests are available for samples received in Raleigh by November 25th. After that, they will be $4 per sample. Soil test boxes and instructions are available at the Extension office. For more information about soil testing, go to http://content.ces.ncsu.edu/a-gardeners-guide-to-soil-testing.pdf

Regardless of soil test results, now is the time to fertilize your lawn with one pound of slow-release nitrogen per 1000 square feet. Lime may be applied if a soil test indicated pH below 6.0. Keep leaves off your lawn, and save those leaves for composting.

Autumn leaves

Any remaining diseased foliage should be removed and bagged for the landfill. Perennials can be divided and dead foliage removed. Remember that wildlife needs shelter for the winter. Often this is dead foliage and fallen evergreen branches, so consider leaving non-diseased foliage in place until spring. The birds, bees, and other small critters will appreciate it.

Clean and oil your garden tools and equipment so they will work better and last longer.

For the best return on your investment, now is the time to plant trees, shrubs, ground covers, and spring-flowering bulbs. Roots will grow through the winter, and plants will do better when summer heat returns.

Article written by Diane Puckett, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

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Categories Seasonal Chores Tags fall garden chores, fertilizer, garden tools, leaves, lime, soil test, trees

Should I fertilize my trees?

March 21, 2013

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Unless an established tree shows symptoms of distress, such as die back at the tips of branches, discolored leaves, sparse foliage or maybe just slow growth, they generally don’t need additional fertilizer.

Sometimes in an urban environment a tree will need help.   Mechanical or physical problems can be the culprit … such things like being planted in a very constricted area, receiving contaminated runoff from a parking lot, or where traffic has compacted the soil over the tree’s root zone.

A soil test, representing the entire planting area,  would be helpful to check acidity and availability of major nutrients‑ phosphorus and potassium.  If fertilization is needed,  it’s best to apply it… either on the ground’s surface or through holes drilled or punched in the soil, while the upper part of the tree is dormant from late fall to early spring.  Fertilizing during the summer may cause new growth which wouldn’t have time to harden off before cold weather.

How much fertilizer to apply?  The phosphorus and potassium should be governed by the soil test. For the nitrogen apply 10 to 20 pounds of 10 percent nitrogen per 1,000 square feet based on the area within the tree’s drip line.   Reduce the amount of fertilizer for any area covered by sidewalks or such.  Spread the fertilizer over the area.   A slow‑release product will help the tree get the most from the feeding.

Those same symptoms (leaf dieback, discolored leaves, sparse foliage, or slow growth) can also indicate stress from heat and drought conditions.   Generally speaking most trees, young or old, urban or rural, will benefit much more from water during dry spells than they will from fertilizer.

Originally printed in Asheville Citizen-Times in March, 2002. Written by Glenn Palmer, Extension Master Gardener Volunteer.

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Categories Trees Tags drought, feeding, fertilizer, leaf die back, tree fertilization

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