Lawn Care | Lawn Clippings What You Should Know
Clippings
Every year your lawn creates about a hundred pounds of nitrogen per acre. That is over two pounds of nitrogen per one thousand square feet, which is about two fertilizer applications per year.
It is estimated by many experts, that up to 60 percent of the fertilizer applied to your lawn is removed by removing the clippings.
When you bag, you are removing a significant amount of organic matter from your lawn.
The money saved can be substantial if you have a large lawn.
Now, there is work involved, if you wait too long between cuttings, the grass could grow so much that the cuttings do not break down quickly, but I know, if you are reading this, that you are interested in creating a healthy lawn, and would never allow that to happen. Mowing frequency is a big part of good lawn care, and on most of our grasses, the more frequently you mow, the better the quality of your lawn. This helps in a couple of ways:
It makes the clippings easier for nature to break down into nitrogen.
It causes the grass to grow laterally, thus getting thicker, and filling in the empty spaces, or as we say, it “tightens the turf”. This makes your lawn more wear tolerant.
I hope you will give this consideration when the time to begin mowing arrives. It is the most ecological, economical and aesthetic way to a better lawn!
Mowing The Single Most Effective Tool For Lawncare
Mowing The Single Most Effective Tool For Lawncare
When you start planning out your routine for lawn garden and landscape maintenance, give a little thought to the single most effective thing that you can do to improve your lawn. Increasing mowing frequency will help your lawn in ways you might not have thought about.
Here are 10 great reasons you should:
1. The more often you mow, the “tighter” your lawn will become, because the grass will start to grow laterally rather than upward.
2. Mowing more frequently will allow you to lower your mowing height, providing less cover for insects, and less cover means fewer bugs.
3. As a result of the tightening of the turf, it will be more durable as well. Mowing heavily trafficked areas more frequently can help to prevent those ugly bald spots in your lawn.
4. Since there is less leaf blade to transpire water, the lawn will need less water, and irrigation can become less frequent.
5. Less frequent irrigation will help to keep fungus from becoming a problem.
6. The clippings you have will be smaller, and will degrade more quickly, putting more nitrogen and organic matter back into the soil, so less fertilizer is needed to keep the lawn green.
7. Thatch will be less of a problem.
8. The need for bagging will disappear.
9. It will help your lawn to be more healthy, and healthy lawns ward off lawn disease and fungus, can withstand more traffic, and suffer less from insect damage, recovering more quickly when these problems do occur.
10.You will have fewer weed problems, because they can’t go to seed between mowing’s, and because the weeds will be competing with a healthy opponent.
Let’s recap.
Mowing more frequently saves money on fertilizer and irrigation, makes your lawn stronger, tighter, and more bug, weed, disease and fungus resistant.
There is another benefit of more frequent mowing. It provide exercise. If you want to tone up, or work off some extra weight, why not double the benefit? So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and mow, mow, mow!
Lawncare Winter Lawn Care
Lawncare Winter Lawn Care
Tyler Lawn And Garden: 8 Ways to Help Your Lawn Beat “The Winter Blues”
We are still basking in the remnants of summer in East Texas, but it is never to early to start thinking about the next season. No matter where, you are, or when you read this, these basics will help you get your lawn through winter.
1. To help your lawn through the winter months, there are several things you can do. You can increase your lawns cold hardiness by adding a little extra potassium, the third number on the fertilizer bag. Remember, your lawn grasses roots will continue to grow and store nutrients even when the tops are dormant.
2. If you have dry winters in your area, check the moisture level of your lawn from time to time. Roots will still need some water. It is not good to allow the roots to freeze in a dry condition.
3. Mow your lawn as you normally would. Scalping your lawn for winter will only lead to erosion, or bare spots, where the winter weeds will find a new home. Scalping just generally leaves the lawn in bad condition.
4.If you have a lot of leaves, either rake them, or mulch them. Raked leaves can be recycled in your compost bin. Mulching them over your lawn, will add nutrients and organic matter to your lawn.
5. If you have winter and early spring lawn weeds, start planning now to get rid of them. When the lawn is dormant, it may be possible to remove the weeds manually, or chemically without doing any damage to your lawn. If you have complete dormancy, that is, no part of the grass has any green, you can apply a non selective herbicide such as a glyphosate product to any weeds or weedy grasses which spring up during that time. Be certain that you follow the label directions, because it is possible to “salt out” an area with almost any product, natural, or chemical.
6. If you plan to use a pre emergent herbicide, it would be good to have it on hand when the time comes to apply it in your area. Once again, follow those label directions.
7. Make sure that your irrigation system is protected from freezing, before you find out about it the hard way.
8. This will also be a good time to start thinking about your lawn equipment. It will need to be winterized before you put it away. This is a good time for such things as; oil changes, filter changes, new spark plugs, repairs, upgrades, to sharpen or buy more blades. If you can, sharpen several to have handy when spring comes. Be sure to balance the blades after sharpening, so they won’t vibrate, and affect your mowers longevity.
Lawn Care 3 Reasons Not to Bag Clippings
Lawn Care 3 Reasons Not to Bag Clippings
Most cities now have programs to encourage people not to bag their lawn clippings. This is done to slow the flow of spring and summer lawn refuse going into landfills. There are three good reasons not to bag your lawn clippings listed bellow, so read them, and do yourself, your lawn, and the environment a favor, and put that bagger away!
1. Unless you compost clippings, they are just landfill! No one wants to add more than necessary to our landfills, but there are other reasons for not bagging, that are of practical use to the homeowner.
2. Your lawn needs organic matter. Lawns need organic matter for rebuilding the soil, and the clippings help provide it.
3. Your lawn needs those clippings for nutrients. It needs nutrients for rebuilding the grass. When you leave the clippings on your lawn you provide both. In a years time, your lawn produces enough nutrients to equal several applications of fertilizer. Removing the clippings, robs your lawn of these nutrients, gradually weakening it, requiring you to buy and apply more fertilizer.
It has been demonstrated that removing lawn clippings removes as much as 60% of the fertilizer you apply on a yearly basis. If you have a fairly large lawn, the savings could be substantial.
The arguments for bagging, and why they are wrong.
1. “My lawn builds a lot of thatch if I don’t bag.”
True, you can have a thatch problem, but that is really a symptom of another problem. Thatch is usually a sign that something isn’t working right.
A. The lawn is not breaking the thatch down through microbial activity as it should, which is either because the lawn has very little microbial activity, probably because it is not being fed enough material due to previous bagging.
Or:
B. There is too much growth between cuttings. This can be a result of over fertilization and irrigation, or too much time between cuttings.
The clippings need to be kept short in order to be broken down and reused by the soil. The smaller the better. If you are mowing once every two weeks, that will not be enough. In this case, you don’t need a bagger, you need a hay rake!
If you have a thatch problem, you should aerify, or dethatch your lawn, and start over by mowing more often, and leaving the clippings to degrade.
2. “I need to bag, to pick up the weed seed.”
A. First of all, your bagger will not pick up all the weed seeds.
B. If weeds are going to seed in your lawn, it should be mowed more frequently.
In general, the more often you mow, the better the quality of the lawn. This works because the nutrients are broken down more quickly, and are available for the grass to recycle. It also helps because more frequent mowing causes the grass to grow laterally, and keeps weeds from growing to maturity and producing seed.
Leaving your clippings on your lawn, reduces the amount of waste going into landfills, adds nutrients and organic matter to your law, can help save money on fertilizer, and promotes a healthier lawn. It just makes good sense!
Tyler Lawn Help: Cultivation Fertilization Irrigation
Tyler Lawn
Tyler Lawn Help Cultivation, fertilization, and irrigation.
Enjoy caring for your own lawn? That’s good, maybe we can offer some tips, advice, and “how to” help.
Mowing
Mowing is the biggest part of, and the primary activity in lawn care, but it is not the only thing. Not by a long shot! There are still plenty of other things that need to be done, so out of the easy chair, and into the sun!
Other lawncare activities
Your lawn needs air, water, nutrients, and an easy way to get them all into the root zone where those plants can make use of them. With that in mind, we will start with lawn cultivating. There is no need in fertilizing and irrigating if the ground is so compacted that it has no air space. Air, nutrients, and water can’t get into the root zone if there is no space for them to occupy. They will just run off into the roadway and drainage system. Cultivating will provide the needed space.
Lawn Cultivation.
Cultivating is not needed as often as the other items on our list, but it is highly important.
If you have a thatch build up, or compaction problems, aerifying, or verticutting will aid in keeping your lawn in good condition. Thatch hides insects and provides conditions which encourage insect reproduction. It also weakens the lawn grasses, deprives them of natural nutrients, and inhibits water intake.
If your lawn is in need of renovating, cultivation is essential. Top dressing could be a separate subject, but I mention it here because cultivation and top dressing are usually a collaborative efforts. Cultivating twice per year will have a positive impact on your law, and more frequent cultivation in high stress areas can work wonders. Avoid cultivating your lawn late in the fall. It will plant weed seed that would have otherwise rotted on the surface.
Fertilizing.
Getting the right amount of nutrients to your lawn is important. For the best fertilizer, mow more frequently, which will leave smaller, more easily broken down clippings, and don’t bag your clippings They can return as much as 60 percent of the nutrients to the soil. Of course, you will want to add more fertilizer, so start with something like one pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet of lawn space per application. Three applications per year should be sufficient.
Of course you will need to adjust this to the needs of your particular lawn. Most common lawn grasses can use as much as two pounds per thousand square feet, per application.
Some fertilizers use sulfur coated urea formaldehyde. The sulfur coating slows the release of nutrients, allowing for more time between applications. You can use these at higher levels, less frequently. If you use regular fertilizer, smaller doses at more frequent intervals are recommended.
Irrigating.
Keeping your grass healthy requires making the right amount of water available. Too little and it desiccates, to much and it will languish and invite fungus, pests, and disease. I am not going to go into the details of precipitation rates, or evapotranspiration rates (yes, they are real terms) but you should watch your lawn. If it is soggy two hours after watering, you should probably back off the water a little. If it is dry at a depth of one inch, you should increase the watering.
Pest Control.
If you have done everything else on the list right, the chances of having pest problems is greatly diminished. The best lawn pest control is a healthy lawn! There can still be problems due to weather conditions, and other natural phenomena, but even these will be diminished.
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