We are half way through the month of July and there have been a few days of rainfall and some nice humidity that has given our grass a boost. As I said a week ago this has been a particularly trying transition year. I have answered tons of e-mails from people concerned early on about the growth of their bermudagrass or paspalum, but as we move forward it seems people are starting to see what is necessary to get their lawn up and going in the summer time. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been one of those transition years that make us in the turf industry want to get back to the drawing board and find that magical year round grass. Will there ever be a grass like this? It is doubtful, but at least in the mean time there is paspalum!

If you are a bermudagrass grower or going through a tough transition this summer I am going to give you a few tips and try to alleviate some of the panic that may be setting in as you see your beautiful ryegrass start to turn brown. I want to explain just a few things in today’s blog that will help everyone understand the different phases of growing grass and how to get through the growing pains. I have attached several pictures that will make everyone see just how normal it is to have a few minor issues during transition. Read the rest of this entry »

My beautiful overseeded lawn has turned brown over the last couple weeks. Do I need to apply a fungicide, insecticide, or is this normal?

It is not normal for your entire lawn to go brown at the same time. What you are seeing is the quick die off of the ryegrass. Normally we have a month to two month long gradual transition period and the ryegrass dies slowly and gives way to the bermudagrass or paspalum. This year we had a mild spring and then were blasted with a heat wave causing the ryegrass to shrivel up. If you have a small lawn, lightly rake up the dead material and give the warm season grass a place to grow or lightly verticut to remove the material. I posted a short video on how to verticut last week if you didn’t get a chance to watch it. Read the rest of this entry »

I am pretty sure that I have utterly confused a lot of people about just how to verticut your lawn, and why I only suggest dethatching or power raking every few years. I put together a little video talking about the basics of verticutting and showing how and what machine to use for this process. Read the rest of this entry »

If you are new to the southwest and have some questions regarding your lawn then you are in the right place. I try and give my readers weekly updates and a little bit of turf knowledge that can help them make an informed decision about which product to buy or how to grow your lawn properly. Believe it or not we are in the best time of the year to put sod down because you are giving your grass optimal weather and well over 100 growing days to get your lawn established.
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 It appears that all the cooler days are now behind and it’s time to get our grasses out of dormancy and greened up.  If you have an overseeded lawn right now you are going to see an influx of growth in the next couple months and it will be important to stay on top of it so you don’t shade out your warm season grass underneath.  Often times in March-May it will be necessary to mow your ryegrass 2x per week to reduce the grass canopy and allow light to get down into the grass and get it growing.  Read the rest of this entry »

I have received lots of emails regarding where you can purchase the “Soil Burst” fertilizers for your  lawn.   We now offer them through our Arizona office and will soon be available online.  We have a few different formulas to choose from and each serves a different purpose. Read the rest of this entry »