Date: Fri 12-Sep-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: CAROLK

Quick Words:

Suburba-Gardener-lawns

Full Text:

SUBURBAN GARDENER: ESTABLISHING AND RENOVATING LAWNS

"Look thou forth o'er wood and lawn; with the frostlike dew of early dawn!"

-Wordsworth

By Anthony C. Bleach

This is the only time to sow a lawn. Once I tried to fill in a patch in

spring, and watered twice a day until there was a gentle green fuzz on top,

but now crabgrass reigns supreme.

The cool nights and dewy mornings of late summer/early fall provide ideal

conditions for the grass roots to establish themselves. Our lawn grasses are

British immigrants and are responding to the climate back home!

On a new lawn a soil test is a good investment. You can get kits and

instructions from your County Extension Service. In return you get precise

instructions on how to correct nutrient imbalances.

Much of your success in making a lawn will depend on how well the seedbed is

prepared. Be sure the land is well drained and that stones and debris have

been raked off. The soil should be loose as deep as six to eight inches. If

grass roots cannot grow down deep, the plants will not send out the tillers,

or side shoots, that transform a collection of individual plants into the

complete carpet that is a lawn.

Mix in a two-inch layer of organic matter, lime and fertilizer at this stage.

If no soil test recommendations are at hand, use 50 pounds of lime and the

equivalent of twenty pounds of 5-10-5 per 1,000 square feet. Finally, the

seedbed must be firm enough so that your footprints do not show up.

If you wait after the soil preparation until it rains, the bed will settle

naturally without the air spaces which can dry the seed out. Aim for a

roughish seedbed with lumps varying from a pea to a large grape. This is less

likely to crust up after rain.

Buy good quality seed. Sow at two ounces per square yard. Heavy seeding will

only be more susceptible to drought and disease. It is hard to get an even

cover for a large area unless you follow this technique.

Weigh the seed for each 1,000 square feet. Divide it into half. Mix each half

with half a gallon of fine soil or sand. Spread this mix walking one way, and

then at right angles for a 1,000-square yard area. Repeat for each 1,000

square feet. Rake the area lightly, so that the seed is covered no deeper than

one quarter of an inch.

On steep slopes a mulch is worthwhile. Spread it thinly so that you can see

most of the soil surface. You will need 1-to-1 and a half bale of hay per

1,000 square feet.

Remember, if you are patch seeding, the seed must have contact with soil, not

thatch , if it is to germinate.

This fall I took the radical approach to renovating a thin, weedy lawn area. I

killed out large areas with Roundupî in the back lawn. I didn't have the

courage to try the experiment on the front.

After three weeks the thatching rake peeled off the dead turf as easily as

peeling an orange. The bare ground, nicely scored, was broadcast with a "deep

shade" mix, then with starter fertilizer and finally with a thin covering of

topsoil. Then I trod all over to firm it.

At the Lesotho Agricultural College, years ago, I got the students to do a

Zulu boat dance over a newly seeded area. Great fun. Both then and in my lawn

the establishment was successful.

(Anthony C. Bleach coordinates the horticulture program at Naugatuck Valley

Community-Technical College in Waterbury, which offers a "Turf & Lawn

Maintenance" course every spring.)