The New York Times Garden Book, Revised by Joan Lee Faust

Author:Joan Lee Faust [Faust, Joan Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82809-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2013-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

Solutions for Spring Lawn Problems

JOHN F. CORNMAN

NEW house in spring—no lawn—what to do? This is one of the most perplexing horticultural problems a new home owner has to face. For most persons there is really no perfect, economical answer. Here are the major possibilities:

1. Is sodding the answer? Almost ideal for any lawn problem is the lawn produced by an experienced commercial operator working with good soil and top-quality sod. The cost of such a contracted sodding job is about one-third to one-half more than a comparable contracted seeding job. Unfortunately, the price is beyond the average suburbanite’s budget and far beyond the cost of a thorough do-it-yourself seeding.

2. How about planting a permanent lawn seed mixture in the spring after preparing the ground properly?

For crabgrass control, siduron can be used at seeding time without interfering with the germination of good grasses, so spring-planted lawns have some chance for success even where crabgrass has been a troublesome summer weed. Spring-seed lawns still require frequent watering and protection from traffic and at best will be a ground cover of seedlings rather than a dense, tough sod.

3. Would the usual commercial seed mixture containing plenty of ryegrass, or a top-quality bluegrass-fescue mixture spiked up with ryegrass do a better job? Certainly the ryegrass will show green more promptly. However, the slowly developing bluegrass and fescue plants will have to fight competition from the quick-growing ryegrass in addition to trying to hold their own against crabgrass.

The larger the proportion of ryegrass, the greater will be the competition. If the lawn survives the summer and then develops well during the autumn and following spring, scattered tufts of ryegrass will continue to disfigure the lawn for several seasons. Again, remember that the larger the proportion of ryegrass in the mixture, the worse the nuisance.

4. Should a temporary lawn of ryegrass be started in the spring, with a view toward rebuilding or renovating with permanent grasses in autumn? A heavy seeding of ryegrass will give a green cover in about two weeks. With careful tending it will begin to look like a lawn in a month or six weeks. Of course, this will not be a sod that can be walked on or used for badminton or other games, but it will give an illusion of a turf.

Just when the ryegrass might amount to something, it will be time to start all over again. A stand of ryegrass heavy enough to have functioned like a lawn will need to be turned under and the permanent lawn started from bare soil. If the ryegrass is thin enough to permit scarifying the surface and broadcasting good seed it could not have amounted to much as a summertime lawn.

Scattering seed of permanent grasses on the undisturbed ryegrass lawn will be useless. The surface should be loosened thoroughly with an iron rake or worked over with one of the new renovating machines. The effort and expense to prepare such a seedbed will be considerable. If seed is simply planted among the ryegrass, the same old ryegrass nuisance will irk the owner for the next several seasons.

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