Just because the kids are going back to school soon, doesn’t mean the summer is over, at least not for your lawn and trees.  In fact, we are just embarking on the best growing weather you can ask for when it comes to your lawn.

After a tough summer of heat and drought stress, fighting the difficult battle against weed grasses (like bentgrass, annual and rough bluegrass, crabgrass  and the like), fertilizing just to keep the grass you do have and watering just to keep the lawn alive,  THIS is when your hard work starts to pay off!

The nutrients are in place, the weed grasses and broadleaf weeds have been weakened.  Now it’s time to continue with your proper care regimen of frequent mowing and deep watering, over-seeding, as well as repairing and renovating weaker areas in your lawn.

After all, grass grows actively until the ground freezes which can be as late as December in Southern Ontario!  That’s right, the top growth might slow down by early November, but the roots will keep growing and building up reserves to fight back with a vengeance next spring!

Here’s a quick recap of what to focus on:

1. Mow frequently- every 5 or 6 days, often enough to make sure you never remove more than 1/3 of the blade. If you don’t have many weeds and are mowing often enough, you can leave the clippings on the lawn- which makes this job even easier.

2. Mow high- 3″ is the ideal height for Kentucky bluegrass and perennial rye-grass if you want to crowd out the weeds and undesirable weed grasses.  Don’t work against your selves, these grasses were meant to be this height, you cant change it!

3. Water deeply- proper watering through the late summer months is essential

4. Fight the weed seeds!- Bag your lawn clippings if the weeds are in seed (flowering), this prevents working against yourself.

5. Rip out the Crabgrass- Crabgrass is an annual plant, so it doesn’t even matter if you get the root system out.  Its going to die after the first frost. The goal here is to remove the seed heads that can put out 100′s of seeds per plant that will grown back next year, if you let them have their way!   Don’t let the seeds stay- rip them out too!

6. OVERSEED anytime through the late summer and early fall is a great time to seed bare spots or areas that contain weed grasses.  Be sure to vigorously rake to rip out what you can of the old stuff, loosen up the top inch or 2 of soil, spread the seed, step on it and keep it moist!

7. The goal here is to get your lawn back into shape so you can return to the #1 position on this list, and in the neighbourhood heirarchy of lawn heroes!

PS.  Don’t forget your trees, After a long hot and dry summer, Your trees are thirsty and can use a nice deep watering using LawnSavers slow drip method.  You may also want to consider deep root feeding them this fall!

It is sweltering hot and humid out there!  Many homeowners like you want to know how you can help your lawn and garden make it through this heat.
Forecasts highs of 34 deg C (93 F) today and 37 deg C (98 F) for tomorrow will likely break and achieve all time heat records.  Then when you add in the humidity, we are well into the 40′s C (100-115 F)!
This kind of heat is the equivalent of planting your lawn into a sauna and expecting it to survive.
Here are some quick tips and reminders on how to help your lawn and valuable trees, shrubs and flowers make it through these difficult times.

WATERING TIPS
- Recognize that all plants have different watering needs, turf needs on average 1.5″-2″ of water per week over one to two waterings.  Annual flowers may need daily watering, especially if newly planted or in elevated beds or pots that dry out more quickly.  Trees need at least one good soaking every 3-4 weeks using our slow drip method (below).
- Water deeply and regularly using our guidelines:  high temperatures and wind can dessicate the ground very quickly so the soil will need replenishing. Shallow and frequent watering causes more harm than you think.  Sprinkler systems that go on every day for 10-15 minutes don’t create healthy plants and only create a false state of security.
- Water in the morning or early evening:  to prevent water loss from evaporation.  If watering at night, you may encourage some leaf diseases and fungal issues.  These normally won’t kill plants and are more aesthetic.  Better to water at night then to never water at all.
- Water the soil, not the leaves:  This helps reduce disease and leaf injury from sun scorch.
- Get a hose end timer!:  One of the main reasons people don’t get around to watering is that they don’t have the time to hang around and turn the hose off.  Well, these relatively inexpensive devices will turn off the water for you after a predetermined interval.  Budget about $25-$100 depending on manual vs. digital.
- Dont forget your trees!: They need deep watering too.  Use our slow drip method; turn the hose on just enough to achieve  a slow drip or trickle, place the hose at the base of the tree and go away for a while…  Have a cold drink and only move the hose after you see the water puddling up on the surface.  Depending on the size of the tree, you may have to move it around a few times, this method ensures the roots get a deep soaking.  Spruces are particularly vulnerable to drought stress and damage from this year often shows up in later years.  A single medium to large tree can take 3-5 hours to do this right.
- Thunderstorms are useless!:  Seriously, just because we get 3″ of rain in 10 minutes, doesn’t mean the soil absorbed any of it!  Check for yourself, grab a shovel and check a small spot after a storm, you’ll be lucky if the water soaked the top inch of soil.  The ground becomes so hard in the summer with the heat , that soil can become hydrophobic, and actually repel water, especially clay soils.  If this is the case, water in intervals until it starts to absorb (water for 15 minutes, wait 30 minutes, repeat). I recommend to disregard thunderstorms as a source of beneficial water entirely.

MOWING TIPS
The first rule is that if you follow the rules, mowing will be easier!
- Throw out your calendar: Grass cant tell if its the weekend or not, it needs to be mowed when it needs to be mowed.  This depends on the season and the weather, no matter how important or busy you think you are, the lawn doesnt care…humbling, I know!
- 1/3rd rule:  Mow as often as necessary so that you are never removing more than one third of the blade at each mowing.  The good news is, this prevents having to rake and bag clippings.  The lawn can easily absorb and decompose clippings of this size without causing excess thatch.  It will even add some nutrients back into the soil.
- Mow high: No not literally, we are talking about turf-grass! Keep the lawn at 2 3/4- 3″ high, not because I said so, but because whoever you believe created grass, made it that way.  It needs to be at the height to achieve a healthy root system and give you the nice lush look you want.  Any thing lower, reduces the abilty to produce a proper root system, and also cuts off the main leaves that give you the thick lush look, plus the leaves are the food storage- If you want the look of a golf green, then buy a $4000.00 greens mower, be prepared to water daily, install a $50,000 drainage system under your lawn, fertilize weekly, have plenty of fungicide on hand and plant bentgrass or annual bluegrass that were made to grow and be mowed that short!
- Bag clippings when weeds are in seed: The only time you really need to bag clippings is when the weeds are in flower (seeds come right after the flower), this helps to prevent the spread of weeds and is an important tenet of organic lawn care.
- Sharpen your blade: One of the most common problems we see with lawns is the “torn-look” of mowing with a dull blade.  Not only does this make the grass tips look brown, fuzzy and ragged, it invites disease by increasing the surface area for pathogen entry.
- Change up your pattern: Mow in different directions to prevent rutting, compaction and pr0duces a more vibrant stand of grass.
- DONT MOW when the lawn is stressed: especially with heavy machinery and big tires that only further rip already weak and stressed blades. Take a break, the lawn probably hasn’t even grown that much (see throw out your calendar, 1/3 rule, etc.)

Crabgrass growing in a bare patch at the edge of a lawn

Crabgrass is an annual strain of wild grass (a new plant will grow from seed each year).  Seeds travel on the wind and are transported by animals. Once in the ground, the seeds lie dormant until conditions are right for germination. Crabgrass seeds have been known to remain in soil for up to 15 years and normally blow down the street resting near curbs and driveways until the seed has the right amount of soil contact, heat and water.

Note the overlapping blades in the upper left

There are two varieties of crabgrass commonly found in Ontario. Large, or hairy crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis) and small, or smooth crabgrass (Digitaria ischaemum). Both are recognisable by their broad, pointed leaves that grow from a common stem.

Crabgrass germinates when soil temperatures average 12.8°c consistently. Typically in the Greater Toronto area we encounter most crabgrass growth from July through September. Because of the need of warmth, crabgrass typically first appears along the edges of driveways and other paved areas.

There is not currently any effective, selective treatment for actively growing crabgrass. Because it is a type of grass, it is difficult to develop a treatment product that does not also effect desirable varieties.

However, there are several things that can be done to reduce the amount of crabgrass you get in the future.

As an annual, crabgrass dies at the end of the year. Before it dies each plant can drop over 150,000 seeds, which can lie dormant for years. So getting rid of crabgrass is all about preventing as much seed from growing on the lawn as possible.

Removing crabgrass and preventing new seeds

• Manually pull as much crabgrass as possible before seeds mature
• Crabgrass growing on hard surfaces like interlock or between stones can be destroyed with horticultural vinegar
• Mow frequently and bag all clippings to capture seeds. Raking prostrate crabgrass tillers before mowing to stand them up will improve results

Reduce germination of crabgrass seeds

• Rake out dead plants along the edge of driveways early in spring to prepare for seeding with desirable grasses varieties
• Thicken the lawn with core aeration and over-seeding to reduce thin or bare areas to crowd out the crabgrass
• Let the lawn grow to two and a half or three inches tall to shade the soil and reduce the amount of sunlight and warmth that reaches dormant crabgrass seeds
• Water deeply, once a week, to strengthen desired grass and minimize surface moisture that crabgrass seeds need to germinate
• If you are not planning to seed the lawn, apply corn gluten meal (it is a decent fertilizer also)

Corn gluten meal can be used to create a barrier on the surface of the grass which helps to limit seed germination. If you are considering this treatment, be aware of false claims, know its limitations and be patient. Corn gluten meal can prevent up to 40% of crabgrass germination but will have the same effect on desirable grass seeds, and will take up to three years for protein levels to become established in the soil.

The unseasonable heat and terribly dry spring we have been having  are causing bentgrass and other annual weedy grasses in lawns to brown out much earlier than we normally see it. If you are seeing areas on your lawn yellowing or browning right now, there is a good chance it is Bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera),  or one of its close cousins, Poa Annua (annual bluegrass) or Poa Trivialis (Rough Bluegrass).

Bentgrass, or annual bluegrasses,  can invade a lawn through use of a low-quality seed mix, or from a nearby golf course.  It is encouraged by too frequent shallow watering.  Golf courses use bentgrass because it doesn’t mind being mowed very short. It can spread quickly through a lawn during cool, wet weather, taking over areas where the rest of your grass isn’t doing well. But it is helpless against heat and drought. Once that hits, an invaded lawn will start to brown out in large, uneven patches.

Here are some tips on identification, and what to do about bentgrass in your lawn.

The damage in this lawn is easily identified. The dividing line between healthy and dead grass is sharp. You can also see that the blades of the brown grass are much thinner than those of the healthy grass. Bentgrass also roots shallowly, which just makes droughts worse as its root structure quickly dries out in the top level of the soil, while the more deeply rooted desirable grasses remain protected deeper in the soil profile. This patch pulled right out when Kyle tugged on it.

The only way to deal with bentgrass is to replace it with more desirable grass cultivars. If you have a dead patch now, there is nothing to do but rake it all out, loosen the soil, and reseed with a proper seed varietal. In the future though, you can avoid ugly brown patches like this by dealing with patches of bentgrass before they die. In the early Spring, when everything is going well, you can find bentgrass when it is healthy and green. Look for patches of lighter-coloured grass with the characteristic skinny blades. The shallow roots make it easy to pull out at this time, too.

Closeup

Finding a patch early in the year gives you time to spot-seed the area while giving the desirable  grass time to establish itself. Then by the time the heat strikes, you will have stronger grasses among the weak bentgrass. This method also avoids making the kind of large area of open earth that weeds consider an open invitation to take root.