Fire up the lawnmowers.....

Grass cutting season for fescue lawns is rapidly approaching.  Few things are more satisfying than the smell and look of a freshly cut and manicured lawn.  Here are some things to keep in mind as you fire up the lawnmower this spring to ensure that you turf will be healthy and look great all year long.

Take some time to service your mower to start the season.  Clean air and oil filters now and periodically throughout the season.  Check the mower blade for any damage, dents, bends or dullness.  A straight, sharp blade is not only critical for getting a clean even cut, a bent or dull blade will tear and rip at the grass rather than making a clean cut which leaves the plant susceptible to disease and pests.

Set your mower height for 3.5 inches and never scalp fescue grass.  At this height and with regular mowing, it is not necessary to bag or remove clippings.  In fact, those clippings left in the lawn provide valuable nutrients to the soil.

Mow when the grass is dry.  Mowing when wet will create the dreaded "clumps" that left behind will damage the turf. 

Change the direction of cutting with each mow.  This will help keep the grass upright rather than leaning and growing in the direction of the last cut.  Changing the cutting pattern will also help avoid ruttting of the turf by keep the mower wheels from running over the same spot week after week. 

Happy Mowing!

An ounce of prevention

Just because you don't see it now, doesn't mean it isn't there.  Crabgrass can be a real problem for lawns in our area. They are annual plants, and one plant is capable of producing 150,000 seeds per season. The seeds germinate in the late spring and early summer and outcompete the domesticated lawn grasses and expand outward in a circle up to 12 inches in diameter. In the fall when the plants die they leave large voids in the lawn. The voids then become prime areas for the crabgrass seeds to germinate the following season.



Crabgrass

Once it becomes established, Crabgrass can be very difficult to control.  One of the best defenses against this yearly invasion is the use of pre-emergent herbicide in late winter/early spring.  The application of pre-emergent creates a barrier in the soil that blocks a key enzyme in the plant as it begins to germinate.  This barrier effectively prevents the crabgrass from germinating while leaving established grass unaffected. 

If you have a fescue lawn, this is a critical step in ensuring that your lawn gets off to a good start and will greatly reduce the occurrence of summer grassy weeds in your turf.  Putting down pre-emergent will save you the time and expensive chemicals later on.  Summertime should be spent enjoying your lawn and not spent battling weeds.  Here's to a weed free 2013!

The AA Texlawn Team