We all know that transitioning from ryegrass back to a warm season grass is difficult (especially for California and Arizona sod), but throw in some cooler than normal weather and now you have a battle. Every year the producers of ryegrass seed seem to make their seed a little more heat resistant in search of that year round turf. The problem with this is that we’re shortening the growing window of our warm season turf. Not to mention that cool season grasses in the desert areas use much more water than the underlying warm season turf. The solution is to aide your lawn in transition, and to get your lawn free and clear of ryegrass in the next couple weeks.

Before I go into techniques to remove ryegrass I want to make a couple points about how the average lawn looks at this time of the year. We all love our winter lawn for its color, texture, and feel, but it’s important to remember that it puts agronomic stress on your lawn. When you have two different grasses competing for nutrients, water, and sunlight you’re bound to have an “ugly period.” The turf world refers to this as the transition period. This is the period of time when the cool season grass is starting to die off slowly and the warm season grass is trying to emerge. What creates the ugly period is the competition.

(BTW…this beautiful turfgrass is NOT going through an ugly stage!)

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So here we are, May of 2015, and for the first time in many of our lives we are being asked to cut our water usage by at least 25%. As I alluded to in PART-1 of using water wisely (please click here to read PART-1 if you have not already) many people view water consumption solely as an agricultural problem. It is easy to look at the percentages of water used by the agricultural industry and blame them for the water shortage, but have you considered that the real problem lies within us.

Did you know that over the past ten years the agriculture industry has lowered their water use rate from as much as 90% to less than 69% of total water consumed? Again many of you will look at the percentage of water used and say it is still too high, but the homeowner use rate has skyrocketed, while agriculture has learned to adapt and change.

Did you know the average family of four wastes 10,000 gallons of water a year waiting for hot water to arrive to their shower? Right there you can save 6% of your yearly water use. I know we’re supposed to be talking about landscape water rates, but more needs to be addressed than simply blaming one industry. I will be the first to tell you landscape water use rates need to go down. The average household wastes 16,000 gallons of water per year overwatering their landscapes. This is an additional 9% of your yearly water total being wasted. Today I will be giving you directions on how to not only save the 9% of overwatering, but I will also give you ways to save another 10% by watering smarter and using proper agronomic practices. I would be remised if I didn’t say this before I begin. Grass doesn’t waste water, people do. Read the rest of this entry »

With the new water restrictions in California, I think now is a great time to revisit the proper way to irrigate your lawn. We have some say they will be taking out their lawns due to the water restrictions, but before you do so I think it is important to take everything into consideration.

We often see every issue in society as black and white, but there is always a grey area. We all take our own individual sides of an issue, but we need to take the time to find a middle ground. Just as is the case in the political spectrum one answer isn’t always correct. Two sides need to work together to come up with a way of solving our problems. Over the next week I will be writing a two part series on how to conserve water and have a great lawn at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have taken a look at the extended forecast you most likely saw that temperatures in the desert areas will be hitting close to 100 this weekend. No one wants to see that in late March unless you’re a sod producer or looking to get your warm season lawn to green up. While it is great for green up, it is still too early to know if this weather will stay or if we will get a minor cold snap. If we were assured that the 90’s were here to stay I would tell you to really start pushing your warm season turf, but it is best to ease into the season until soil temperatures reach 64 degrees.

Either way, transition time is upon us and it is time to start easing into the summer grass season. For people with non- overseeded turf this weather is great news for their lawn, and for others transition can bring a few headaches. I have outlined some simple steps to help you get your lawn to go from ryegrass to bermudagrass without any anxiety.

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Last week it was raining and in the low 60’s and this week we will be pushing the low 80’s. Everyone knows that the rain is great for our lawns but it is also great for producing weeds.

As we move through February it is important to think about your lawn from the previous year. Did you have weed issues? Were you constantly pulling spurge out of the lawn during the summer? Even if you didn’t have a bad case of this last year you should still think about putting down a pre-emergent herbicide. The window to apply these is from now until the end of February. If you miss the window and the seedlings have already germinated you can bet you will be on your hands and knees this summer pulling weeds out of your turf.

AutoStack Sod Harvester

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By now most of you are probably doing what I do all day and that is watching grass grow. If you threw down seed to overseed your warm season lawn in the last couple weeks it surely has sprouted,and should be filling in quite nicely with our weather.  It always amazes me how quickly ryegrass grows at this time of the year. You can check your lawn before you leave for work in the morning, and by the time you get home it has grown a ½”. It usually takes about 7-10 days to get your lawn really going, but once it does you will start to see the grass tiller and fill in any voids in your lawn.

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The days are getting shorter and the heat is starting to die down a little as we enter the fall season. With fall comes the onset of overseeding in many parts of the country and the west coast is no different. For those new to overseeding let me give you a brief definition. Overseeding is simply the process of seeding a cool season grass into your warm season turfgrass in order to maintain winter color. This is not a mandatory process if you have grass, but it is one of the options that are out there for homeowners and professionals.

There are a few options during the fall months to take care of your lawn and without question the most popular is to overseed. Outside of overseeding you have the option of using turf paint such as Endurant to give your dormant grass a nice green appearance or you can just let your lawn go dormant for the winter months (brown can be the new green!). There is no right or wrong approach so decide what you would like to do as the temperatures begin to drop over the coming weeks. If you will be letting your lawn go dormant it will stay fairly green until the first hard frost which is around Thanksgiving and will start to green up in late March. If you have a paspalum lawn you can usually get through the month of December with a green lawn and it will start greening up in early March.

(Dogs love overseeded lawns!)

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With the heavy rains and slightly cooler temperatures we had this past week no doubt people are thinking about overseeding. By the way, if your sprinklers are still set to on, turn them OFF. While the calendar says September 11^th we’re still a few weeks away from having temperatures in the optimal window. Overseeding does not need to be a one day process. You can begin the process a little early and then when temperatures are in the 60’s at night you will just need to give your lawn one last haircut, drop the seed and begin watering.

Prepping for overseed is often a large ordeal, but starting the process gradually you can eliminate the headaches associated with trying to get it all done in one afternoon. I want to reiterate something I have said for the past few years. The height of the grass is not associated with a quality overseed. In other words scalping the grass down to the dirt does not guarantee good results, but opening up the turf canopy does. The shorter you mow your lawn the tighter the leaf blades become making it harder to get the ryegrass seed into the plant. If the seed is lying on the surface it will be slow to germinate and much of the seed will be lost. The seed needs a base to grow out of and getting inside the grass plant allows for perfect moisture, heat, and a solid growing medium. By looking at my last statement you can now understand why I have said without a good warm season grass base you will most likely have a poor ryegrass season. The seed will establish much faster inside a healthy grass stand than it will on bare dirt. Read the rest of this entry »

Lately there have been quite a few articles and stories talking about the over consumption of water in turfgrass. As many of us know parts of California have put strict demands on water usage and one of their main targets are home lawns. Over the past few years we have seen everything from districts paying home owners to take out grass, to people putting in artificial synthetic lawns.   What we’re not seeing is a lot of information about how you can have a lawn and also conserve water. How do you know if you’re using water wisely? Today’s blog is all about tips for saving water and what you should be doing as a homeowner, landscaper, or golf course to help protect our natural resources. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought it would be nice to put up some pictures of common summer issues–and some easy solutions. While there are several areas I could expand,  I’ll leave it to the most common areas of concern for now……

Scalping

During the summer months you will see scalping in turf for a variety of reasons but some of the most common are:

1. Lawn is too lush or juiced up on fertilizer

2. The lawn is too thick and it needs to be verticut to remove dead material between grass blades.

3. The mower blades are too dull or the wheels of the mower are set to uneven heights. The picture above represents this very well. Read the rest of this entry »