Do I have creeping bentgrass in my lawn?

Creeping bent grass is a common cool season turf type that is commonly found in the greater Heights area and beyond.  Its is very common to find creeping bentgrass in lawns unless they have been removed and replaced with a mixture of bluegrass, perennial rye and/or fescues. 

Creeping bentgrass has a different growing habit than the other commonly found cool season turf types - bluegrass, perennial rye and fescues.  The upright growth habit of the blue/rye/fescue types make them easy to distinguish compared to the low, creeping and spreading habit of creeping bentgrass. 

Creeping bentgrass can be readily identified in early
morning hours when dew is still on the grass. 

It is easy to identify creeping bentgrass in the home lawn by looking for a few different indicators.  Creeping bentgrass is typically a lighter shade of green compared with blue/rye/fescue which tends to have a deeper/richer blue-green color. 

Creeping bentgrass lays over, it does not grow upright like the blue/rye/fescue types.  During ht early morning hours when there is still dew on the lawn, there is a more dramatic difference in the appearance of the lawn.  The picture to the left shows dew sitting on top of the more horizontal blades of the creeping bentgrass thus making it more obvious.  As the moisture evaporates the difference between the turf types may not be as obvious to the untrained eye.  Because creeping bentgrass lays over and has above ground tillers/runners (called stolons), it will create a thick spongy mat in the lawn. 

Creeping bentgrass can be a very nice type of grass when used as a singular turf type in a lawn and managed properly.  It is desirable because it will handle some shade and also recuperates well from stress.  The moisture, fertility and maintenance requirements for creeping bentgrass in addition to disease susceptibility make it a less desirable turf type than other cool season turf types.  The cost to properly maintain creeping bentgrass, which is used in golf courses and professionally managed for best results, often makes creeping bentgrass a undesirable turf type.  It is often considered a weed in a blue/rye/fescue lawn like in the picture above. 

Often home owners have to "manage to the middle" when they have creeping bentgrass in their blue/rye/fescue lawn.  Eventually the creeping bentgrass will spread and take over a larger portion of the lawn if not kept in check.  The only effective way to remove creeping bentgrass from the lawn requires spraying it with a non-selective herbicide (i.e. Round-up), then removing it from the lawn and reseeding the area.  If removal is not a desirable option, then the owner must manage the lawn to keep both the creeping bentgrass happy as well as blue/rye/fescue mixtures - hence managing to the middle.  In the final analysis it will be challenging to manage a consistently green, lush and healthy appearing lawn from season to season due to the different needs and maintenance requirements of the turf types.  

Watering new grass seed

Over the years we have installed many lawns and renovated even more, we've seen and experienced both successful and not so successful seeding projects.  What we do know to be true is that effective water management is the key to getting new seed to germinate.  Too much, not enough or too late are all common problems.  Getting the right amount of water when the lawn needs it is essential to the success of the lawn establishment process. 

Grass seed may be installed into an existing or new lawn.  A new lawn is when we remove the old lawn completely, add soil, grade and hydro-seed to create an entirely new lawn.  A lawn renovation is a series of lawn care related services which will improve the health of the existing lawn, and this often includes over seeding the lawn to fill in thin or bare areas.  In either case, new grass seed is introduced into the lawn and now must fill in. 

An irrigation system is a helpful tool to have in getting a new lawn established.  However, be careful not to rely on it as if it's autopilot setting.  We often see over watering issues when an irrigation system is not managed properly and the owner does not make adjustments to account for the effects of weather or site conditions. 

More detailed watering instructions can be found here, which includes information about the first days of care through the first year.

Watering Instructions for a fall seeded new or renovated lawn:

The first few days and weeks are critical to getting your lawn established.  It’s important to water daily (morning is preferable to late day). Water for 10-15 minutes with an oscillating sprinkler, but not to the point where there are puddles. It is imperative to not saturate the soil, so focus on frequent yet light watering. You should be able to gage the soil moisture by walking on the lawn without sinking into it. Check soil moisture to see if shorter or longer time is necessary based on weather and site conditions. 

Newly seeded lawns require careful nurturing to ensure
successful establishment.  Over or under watering can
dimminish the desired results. 

With the new seed you’ll need to water daily for the next few weeks, at which time you will begin to water less frequently but for longer periods of time.  You can skip watering in the morning when we have had rain in the overnight. Do not skip watering even with rain in the forecast – as the weather forecast is not always accurate and forecasted rain fall amounts may not be sufficient. Please minimize the use of the lawn as much as possible during the establishment of the new grass.

Watering for spring seeded or summer seeded lawns will vary slightly.  The principal of keeping the seed moist remains the same, but you may need to water more or less frequently depending on the weather.  Establishing seed during hot periods of weather is risky - going for an extended period of time without moistening the germinated seed may put it at risk of drying out and dying as result.  Remember, too little water is just as bad as too much water.  Find the balance by checking moisture regularly and adjusting the watering accordingly. 

 

When Mother Nature conspires against your lawn and garden

What a summer Cleveland has experienced. With cooler temperatures signaling that fall is around the corner, our yards and gardens have an opportunity to recover from the stresses of this past season.

April was the wettest April on record with more than twice the normal rain fall. May turned out to be the second wettest May on record. Cleveland normally receives approximately 6.87” of rain in April and May – but instead we had 14.63” – 212% over normal. With such wet weather the root systems in our lawns and garden plants could not become sturdy before summer heat. In April and May there were 37 days with rain, homeowners and landscape and lawn care companies alike struggled to keep up with normal yard and garden maintenance activities.

June didn’t really do us any favors. The wet spring resulted in weaker lawns – and then the soil dried up rapidly as we received less than normal rain fall for June. The soil in our gardens and lawns cannot store up the extra moisture, so the weaker root systems in our lawns struggled to provide enough water to suffering turf grass plants that began to wilt with the lack of moisture. Most homeowners were not watering their lawns because they were remembering how wet it was just weeks prior – and logically it would seem that watering was not necessary. Lawns became more stressed.

July was the last nail in the coffin for many lawns that were already weak and under performing. July was both the second warmest July on record, but it was also the fourth wettest on record with more than twice the normal rain fall (7.47” of rainfall versus normal of 3.52”). While common sense would tell us that moisture is good when it is abnormally hot – July actually suffered from ineffective rain falls. There were a total of nine days of precipitation – including a record setting 3.65” of rain on July 18th. When rain falls so rapidly it runs off the lawn and garden and does not get absorbed into the soil. Soil remained fairly dry below the surface despite the record rain falls. Top it off with nine days with temperatures above 90 degrees and lawns began to show real signs of stress. Crabgrass and broad leaf weeds filled in the voids where weaker lawns thinned out and lawn care companies struggled to keep up with weeds that were so prevalent. If it wasn’t raining it was too hot to spray weeds.



Lawns with poor root systems became stressed this summer
and will require renovation work to recover this fall.

 August was only slightly more moderate –but still remained relatively warm. Another record setting 3.51” of rain fell on August 14th, which is the normal rain fall for the month of August. When an entire month’s rain fall arrives in one day – there is little benefit for plants. Fortunately by the end of August temperatures cooled and moisture returned allowing for desirable lawn growing conditions.

What lessons can be learned from a year with such extreme weather? Focus lawn care efforts on building the root system of your lawn which requires focusing on soil health. Healthy lawns with strong root systems rebounded in late August. Lawns that became thin or weak experienced more weeds, have brown and dead patches and require seeding and renovation work this fall.

Click here to find out more about lawn renovations.

Imprelis and the continuing fall out

The Imprelis herbicide has been national news this year.  A new weed control product released by DuPont this past spring showed great promise in managing difficult to control weeds with lower amounts of herbicide.  However, after trees began showing signs of damage and dying off this spring it appeared that Imprelis was the culprit. 

It is important to know that Lawn Lad never purchased or used Imprelis in our operations. While we are always looking for and testing new processes and products to use in our operations to provide the best possible results - we are reluctant to be the first to test new products for this very reason.  You can rest assured that we did not spray this product on your property. 

For more information about Imprelis here is an article from the Ohio State University Extension newsletter - The Buckeye Yard & Garden Line from September 1, 2011. 

IMPRELIS UPDATE. An ongoing saga this year is a self-inflicted wound, an iatrogenic agent, so to speak, that has affected every corner of the green industry and their customers. An "iatrogenic agent", borrowed from medical terminology, is something which intended for positive use, ends up with a negative effect. The cure that creates another crime - a side effect. The case study we are all living this year is of Imprelis, a weed - killer, an herbicide developed by DuPont. This herbicide was used commercially for the first time this spring for a variety of turfgrass applications. It was widely touted as a low volume herbicide for broadleaved weeds, including many tough to control weeds such as violets. It was touted as being very effective for these weeds, AND it was! It was touted as having low environmental danger because it did not have the tendency to volatilize (turn into a gas during hot weather) and move off-site to unintended plants; the US EPA touted this as a plus. Many of the better-informed green industry companies, in good faith, with a labeled product, added Imprelis to their programs for this year.

Imprelis was indeed effective for these weeds. Unfortunately, unintended consequences did emerge. After initial applications in April, starting in late May and early June, lawn care companies and their customers, golf course professionals, and professionals taking care of turfgrass in commercial sites began noticing problems, not on the turfgrass (and weed control was excellent) but on certain adjacent trees. Most noticeably affected were evergreens such as Norway spruces, white pines, other needled conifers, and in some cases deciduous trees such as honeylocust.

There were comments on the Imprelis label about not applying the chemical on exposed roots of trees and of not using grass clippings from treated areas as mulch. However, for unanticipated reasons, off-site damage of certain trees occurred in a number of cases. Not always, in fact the vast majority of Imprelis applications resulted in no damage to adjacent trees. Trees do have extensive root systems, though, that as the tree grows, roots extend well beyond the dripline, and we did have many major storms with localized flooding, and it turns out that, though volatility of the chemical was low, root uptake appeared to be a major problem for certain trees.

So, for example on Norway spruce, we began to notice browning and curling of new shoots, browning and twisting of needles, sometimes browning of entire trees. Often there was still green tissue in the buds, so there was hope for recovery. The extent of damage varied greatly, sometimes occurring on some trees in a line but not all, even though clearly, as noted by weed control in the turfgrass, the application of the herbicide was uniform. The particular geography of the tree root system into the turf area was clearly a factor. The vascular (water and nutrient conducting) system of spruces and pines was a tip-off to the root uptake aspect of this problem. Unlike many plants, a spruce's vascular system ascends spirally up the tree, and when browning and twisting on a tree was not throughout, you could see the pattern of damage in a tell-tale spiral pattern, indicating root uptake.

As the problem emerged, the green industry, DuPont, regulatory agencies, the media and the general public have become more and more aware of this issue. Ultimately, Imprelis sales were suspended, and incredibly we are now even hearing the "b" word relative to damages, as in over a billion dollars in injury to Norway spruces and other plants nationwide. Litigation looms. We are now all looking at how this happened and the answers to questions that will allow us to learn from this episode. Was it a perfect storm of unanticipated movement of the chemical in runoff water due to the flooding caused by many major storms this spring? Can science better test prior to registration the potential for this happening? What is common about the growth processes and uptake potentials of the most sensitive tree species that resulted in such differential damage? What is the nature of this particular chemistry that made the industry vulnerable to this problem? How can we prove through residue analysis whether Imprelis damage caused problems on a particular tree? What is the prognosis for affected trees?

The tough truth is that it takes time to answer these questions, including one key bottom line of what to do now with affected trees. Clearly there is a range of injury to trees and many will recover. Others were badly affected and will not recover. Others will survive, but with the extent of damage may be "horticulturally dead" in that after pruning out damaged branches will no longer serve the ornamental or windbreak function desired by the customer. Getting rid of the chemical quickly in the soil is problematical. Early on, some companies tried to water extensively to try to leach the chemical out of the root zone. At least in some cases this resulted in greater damage as this presumably resulted in moving chemical to other roots. The chemical is not particularly short-lived. DuPont has advised not replanting into the site of a removed tree until October where Imprelis was applied prior to June of this year, not replanting until November if applications were made in June.

One thing is certain: communicate with affected customers and your connections in the green industry and with DuPont and insurers. Sustain that communication. Take pictures of the damage sequentially. Hone your diagnostic skills. Many cases of white pine weevil insect damage and Diplodia tip blight fungal disease and long-term root health problems on spruce and pine were misdiagnosed as Imprelis damage this season. Monitor plant development this fall and next spring as you consider whether or not trees must be pruned or replaced.

To learn more, here is one good reference for starters:

"A Turf Professional's Guide to Suspected Imprelis Herbicide Injury in Your Landscape"

What do farmers know that we ignore?

When meeting with homeowners I often hear how frustrated they are with their lawns. They might be happy with their perennial or garden beds, but their lawn is just such a disappointment no matter the products they spread. The choice of installing a new lawn is always an option, but it’s expensive and often not a comfortable solution. What then is a homeowner to do?

I think it’s helpful to consider your home landscape like a farmer’s field. Consider what the farmer does in his fields that would also be useful for us to consider in our own lawns. When you consider that we rake all the leaves, clippings and other lawn debris to the curb for our local municipality to pick up and haul away to compost elsewhere (and sell back to us so we can topdress and mulch our gardens and flower beds) – our lawns have no organic matter that is being returned to them. In Mother Nature the natural life cycle involves dead plants decomposing and returning nutrients and organic matter to the soil maintaining a healthy soil composition.
For centuries farmers have tilled (aerated) their soil and spread manure and other organic materials to improve the soil health. We add soil to our gardens and beds before planting flowers and other plants and the root systems thrive. What then are we doing for our lawns to improve the soil health?

Top-dressing your home lawn with compost is similar to what a farmer does by spreading manure in his field. Adding compost to your lawn at least once per year in conjunction with aerating will being to return the organic matter to the soil and improve soil composition over time.

Yes, you can install a new lawn and bring in lots of new soil and organic matter in the short term, but eventually this organic matter will deplete and you’ll be back to just the mineral matter in your soil (sand, silt and clay). If you consider mulching your beds a necessity – why then does your lawn not receive the same consideration?

To find out more about top-dressing click here.

Spring and fall are great times of year to plant trees and other landscape plants. Before digging in take time to select the right tree for the right location to ensure your planting is a success.


10 steps for planting a tree:

1. Transportation: Carefully transport your tree from the nursery by covering the canopy to avoid windburn. Do not bounce or drop the root ball to avoid damaging fragile roots. Keep the root ball moist if you’re not planting immediately.

2. Dig In: Dig your hole twice as wide as the root ball and just slightly shallower than the height of the root ball. Scuff and roughen the sides of the planting hole. Compact the bottom of the hole so the tree won’t settle lower.

3. Remove the container: Remove the plastic container from the tree before placing it in the hole, separate and loosen circling and dense roots. For balled and burlapped trees cut and remove the top of the burlap and twine away from the trunk.

4. Planting height: Find the trunk or root flare where the roots meet the trunk, generally where the trunk becomes wider before going into the soil. You may need to scrape the soil back to find the root flare if it buried inside the root ball. Set the height of the tree to be approximately ½” to 1.0” above the surrounding grade. If you must add soil to the planting hole be sure to compact it before installing the tree.

5. “Face” the tree: Orient the preferred side of the tree to a prominent viewpoint – such as a patio or window of the house. When moving the tree lift from the container or root ball and not from the trunk or branches.

6. Plumb the tree: Once the tree is in the hole ensure that it is standing upright. Adjust the root ball until the tree is plumb and then pack soil under and around the root ball to secure it.

7. Improve the soil: Improve the native clay soil in our area with soil amendments like compost or SweetPeet. Mix one part amendment to three parts native soil.

8. Backfill: Pack in the soil as you backfill around the tree by compressing the soil every few shovels of soil to remove air pockets which will help to stabilize the plant.

9. Water: Water only after back filling is completed and the soil is compacted. Create a berm around the base of the tree larger than the root ball so water is concentrated around the tree and does not run off. Water more heavily with the first watering. Then continue monitoring the tree for water, adding generally 1 gallon of water per caliper inch plus one gallon. A 2.0” tree will need three gallons of water one or two times per week depending on the season and soil conditions.

10. Mulch: Cover the planting area with 1.5” to 2.0” of bark mulch, but keep it away from the trunk of the tree. Mulch moderates the soil temperature, helps to maintain moisture, reduces weed growth and prevents a hard crust from occurring on the soil which prevents water from getting into the soil.

Before you plant a tree know where your utilities are located. Call Ohio Utility Protection Service (OUPS) at 8-1-1 or (800) 362-2764 at least 48 hours before digging to have utility lines marked.

Visit http://www.lawnlad.com/ , http://www.treesaregood.com/ or http://www.arborday.org/ for more information.

Hardscaping in the Heights

Many homes in the Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights area are now will be soon a century old. Many of the older landscape designs do not mesh with the lifestyles of today’s families. Updating your yard and garden can be accomplished in “extreme make-over” fashion or can be tackled in more modest increments. The foundation of any well conceived and executed design is a functionally and aesthetically pleasing hardscpe.

Hardscape is an integral part of a landscape and can range from a couple of strategically placed boulders to fire places and outdoor kitchens with grills, sinks, cabinets and refrigerators. Hardscape in the landscape industry is the use of stone, brick or concrete (hard material) products incorporated into landscape to help the environment feel more natural or to create more living space.

Hardscape, or "hardscaping" consists of the inanimate elements of landscaping, especially any masonry work or woodwork. For instance, stone walls, concrete or brick patios, tile paths, wooden decks and wooden arbors would all be considered part of the hardscape. But by extension, anything used in landscaping that is not part of the softscape can be considered a hardscape element, including home accents such as water fountains and, yes, even pink flamingoes!

Patios are a great way to entertain guest or just relax by yourself with your favorite beverage. Your project is a reflection of your priorities, lifestyle and values. Your back yard paradise does not have to be featured on the cover of Home and Garden or MTV’s Cribs to enjoy a built in fire place, landscape lighting or other amenities that integrate your yard and gardens with how you want to live in your home. Installation methods have improved over the years making hardscape installations more economical for home owners. A common misconception is that you need specialty trades people to build a fire place, fire pit, or built in grill. Many of these amenities can be installed from kits providing a custom look and can cost effectively be installed by a professional or a very skilled DIY’er.

To begin the conversation about how we can make your yard the envy of the neighborhood – call (216) 371-1935.

[Special internet offer: Receive $100.00 off landscape design consultation services when you mention code LLB0410]


Written by:
Drew Cobb
Lawn Lad, Inc.
Design/Build Supervisor
Drew@lawnlad.com