A well planned landscape can save you lots of money. A lousy one can cost you lots of money.

Whether you hire a landscaper to install your lawn and landscape, or do it yourself, there are some things you should give close attention to aside from the standard design principles commonly followed today. These tips will help to “green” your lawn and landscape, and keep some green in your wallet.

Soil type and irrigation

What could be more green than saving one of our most important natural resources; water? If you have a heavy clay soil, and you want to grow almost any of our common lawn grasses, you should be certain that the soil is amended properly, or top soil added.

If this is not done, you will be at constant odds with mother nature and your pocketbook when the heat of summer arrives. The best practice for lawn grass irrigation is to water deeply, and infrequently, but if you have hard clay soils, and nothing else to absorb and hold the water for the plants, you will have to water more often, using less water each time to achieve similar results. If you attempt to water deeply on clay soils, the result will be excess runoff. When watering more frequently to avoid runoff, you will still need to have the same amount of water, but it will have to be broken up into several smaller increments. Either way, the water used is less efficient. You will lose water to runoff, or evaporation, neither of which is desirable, and in some places, it is even considered criminal!

To avoid this problem, you need to start before the landscape and lawn are installed, or renovated.

Make sure that there is sufficient top soil to become an adequate root zone for your lawn grasses and landscape beds. Plan your irrigation layout carefully to avoid having tree watering or bed watering on the same station with lawn watering. Each of these will require differing amounts of water, and you could end up drowning one type of plant while allowing the others to die of thirst! Be certain that your landscape beds are not built in a basin, and that they have good surface drainage, otherwise the plants being used could suffocate from excessive watering. Be sure to clump your plantings according to water needs and water use. Landscaping is more than just making a drawing, and choosing plants, it involves the proper placement of the plants to achieve the best combination of growing conditions.

Plant and bed placement tips

This tip will help you to save money, and “green” up your homes pest control program: When designing landscape beds, leave yourself a foot or more of space between the plants and the home. Do the same with bark mulch. That extra foot of space between your walls and plants can mean the difference between a full blown insect insurgency, and a healthy symbiotic relation between the great outdoors and the insect and mold free comfort of your indoor living space.

Pests use plants and bark mulch as a covered highway onto and into your home. The further you can keep these 2 elements from your exterior walls the better. You would probably be surprised at the difference just a few inches of space can make when it comes to insects. Instead of using the mulch between the plants and the foundation, try digging a trench, and adding coarse sand with pebbles on top. Tunneling insects like termites will find the sand and pebbles impossible to make a tunnel without having it cave in behind them. Other types of insects will see the space as being a cover-less dead end, and  and you will save yourself a lot of money on pest treatments in the long run.

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Land Management Mowing options chemical mowing

Mowing can be a chore, 10 acres of mowing can take a lot of your valuable time, or a lot of money to hire someone to do it for you.

There are alternatives to mowing, even options that might make you a little extra spending cash. This option will cost money, but it will cost a lot less than the mowing option, and leave wildlife in place, while giving your watch and your wallet a little relief. That option is chemical mowing, and before you decide to reject it outright because of environmental concerns, you should read the rest of this page.

What is chemical mowing and trimming?

Chemical mowing and trimming are the terms used to describe the process of treating weeds and weedy grasses with a chemical to inhibit growth. Mowing chemically retards the growth of the plant, while still allowing it to provide erosion protection.

Many fence rows are adjacent to highway right of ways, and killing the grasses present may not be a good option, but suppressing the growth will save hours of backbreaking labor.

A proper treatment, with proper chemicals at the proper time, can virtually eliminate mowing and trimming for an entire growing season with as few as two treatments per year. Comparing this to the cost of mowing and trimming such areas, it is a real bargain.

Chemical mowing and the environment

A very good argument can also be made, that chemical mowing of pasture type areas has environmental advantages over mechanical mowing. There is less debris in the runoff to clog drainage, and less harm to wildlife living in such areas. Chemical mowing does not destroy the cover used by wildlife, it merely slows it down, ground nesting birds, and small mammals and reptiles living in the area can carry on as though nothing had happened, instead of being chopped to bits by a mower.

Chemical mowing products

Preventive growth regulators

The first class of chemicals is “pgr’s” these are preventive growth regulators. Most of these work by miniaturizing the plant, and can produce some amazing results both in growth rate, and lawn quality. What is the downside? These chemicals normally reduce wear tolerance, and are pretty expensive.

Systemic herbicides

The second class is systemic herbicide, used in lighter than normal dosages. salts of glyphosate are a good example. Most 41% glyphosate products are labeled for this use, and instructions on the proper methods and mixtures are included.

Chemical mowing and yellowing

One thing that you should be prepared for if you choose to use chemical mowing, is the fact that there will be some yellowing of the treated grasses. Usually the amount of yellowing that you are prepared to put up with will help you to determine the amount of time that the treatment will be of benefit. The yellowing can be overcome by fertilization.

Chemical mowing: Other uses:

If you are not comfortable with treating an entire lawn, or pasture, you can still use this process to chemically trim around walks, the edges of buildings and around such items as posts, fences, and trees. A light dose of a growth regulator around the base of a tree can help avoid such things as “Mower or trimmer blight” caused by the destructive forces of trimmer string or mower decks contacting the tree and taking off bark.

Chemical vegetation control in highway right of ways, should only be practiced by properly licensed individuals or companies.

See also: Chemical Trimming and Land Management Mowing Alternatives For Large Acreage

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If there is a secret to the perfect lawn, it is this: Mow often!

Mowing often offers many advantages, frequent mowing:

• Removes less blade leaf each time, so the grass suffers less shock.
• Encourages lateral growth of tillers and stolons, which thickens the turf.
• Reduces the need for water.
• Decreases fertilizer needs since smaller clippings revert to nitrogen quickly.
• Prevents weeds from gaining a foothold since it creates a healthier lawn, and cuts the weeds off before they have a chance to produce seed.
• Decrease thatch.
• Reduces the chances of attack by fungus.
• Reduces cover for insects.
• For these reasons, frequent mowing reduces the need for herbicides, insecticides, fungicides.

With the need for less fertilizer, water, and pesticide, mowing frequency also saves you money!

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• Backyard Wildlife Habitat Requirements// Traditional backyards, with their non native lawn grasses, and non native landscape plants have a few problems. There is now a trend which repl…
• Changing Lawn And Landscape Design
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• Lawn Alternatives Native HabitatsTraditional lawns are expensive // Of all the home maintenance operations, lawn care takes the lions share of resources. The average home owner s…
• Lawn And Garden: Less Lawn More Garden// More natural, and native style gardens may offer answers to some of the difficulties facing the homeowner. Traditional lawns require a lot of…
• Maintenance Checklist Fences Drives Walks // Drives, walks and fences are the forgotten parts of property maintenance. They tend to be lost in the shuffle to maintain other parts of the pr…
• Mole Control Mole PreventionMole Control and Mole Prevention // Moles create slightly raised areas along the top of the ground as they tunnel in search of food and shelter. …
• Preventing Insects And Rodents: Eliminating CoverBrush weeds and debris as cover // Weeds, brush, and debris feed and hide insects and rodents. These insects and rodents are continually probing …
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• Tell Us What You Need Home & Garden SurveyTell us what you need, what you would like to know, what home and garden issues are important to you, and we will try to respond with the type of…

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Lawn clippings and fertility

Want to save money on fertilizer? Why not take advantage of the free fertilizer available from your own lawn?

That’s right, lawns produce fertilizer. The fertilizer they produce comes from the grass clippings. It is possible to recycle as much as 60 percent of the nitrogen from the clippings by doing nothing more than leaving the clippings on the ground! Of course, if you are going to get the maximum effect, you will need to mow often, leaving short clippings that are easy for soil microbes to digest.

There are other reasons to mow often and leave your clippings on the ground instead of bagging them and sending them to a landfill. Speaking of landfill, that is a good place to start.

Lawn clippings and the environment

Leaving your lawn clippings on the lawn keeps them out of the landfill, which is good for the environment. Most cities, and many states have laws prohibiting the bagging of lawn clippings because of over stuffed landfills. By leaving the clippings, you are avoiding this problem altogether.

Lawn clippings and organic matter

Organic matter is essential to healthy lawn growth. Lawn clippings are a great, and free source of organic matter. Clippings add organic matter to the lawn when they are left in place and allowed to degrade naturally.

Lawn clippings and thatch

Mowing often, and leaving short clippings will also prevent the accumulation of thatch. That is the layer of dead grass at the base of the plant. Short lawn clippings will degrade more quickly, and even help to break down the thatch built up from leaving long grass clippings.

Reasons why people bag

Thatch problems.

Thatch problems are caused by leaving lawn clippings that are too massive to break down through microbial activity. If this is the case, the lawn should be mowed more often, or fertilization, and irrigation should be lowered. If the lawn is growing so rapidly that it can’t be mowed often enough, there is usually a problem with excessive fertility, and, or, too much water. In such cases, the answer is not to bag the clippings. The answer is to moderate the activity that is causing the problem.

It is habit.

It is habit learned from someone in the past, who needed to bag, or thought they needed to bag. The world is full of stories about people who continue to do things when the need is long past, or a better solution is available.

See also: Grass Clippings UC Davis

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Sometimes you may need to fill in some bare spots in your lawn, or maybe even start over with your lawn.

Want to jump start your new lawn, or your lawn repairs? Want to make your neighbors wonder how you got a new lawn in just a few days? There is a way to do it! It is done by germinating seeds, before you apply them to your lawn. This gives you an advantage over the weather, and hungry birds.

It will require:

• A new plastic trash can.
• Your seed.
• An air pump from an aquarium.
• Water.
• A cloth strainer of some type.
• Pelleted dolomitic limestone.

This is how it’s done:

Make sure that everything that comes into contact with the water and the seed is clean.

1. First, rinse out the trash can, to make sure that it is free of any chemical residue.
2. Add fresh clean water, to the halfway point.
3. Put the air pump air outlet inside the can, so the pump will circulate the air evenly. You may need to weight it with a clean heavy object. It should be circulating the water a little, and have a lot of air bubbles when plugged in and turned on. This air and circulation is very important. If you don’t do this part, your seed will rot, and you will have a stinky rotten mess!
4. Slowly pour in the seed, and stir with a clean utensil, until all the seed are wet. The amount of seed that you can process this way at one time, depends on the strength of the air pump. Put only as many seed in the tank, as the air pump you use can easily agitate.
5. The waiting is the hardest part. It will take several days. Use this time to prepare your planting area. Till, rake, add amendments, do whatever it takes to get it into shape for planting the seed.
6. Check this concoction every day, to make sure that it is well agitated, you may need to stir it occasionally, and make sure it smells clean.
7. When the seed coats start to swell and crack, you are about ready to apply them.
8. Strain the water through a cloth strainer of some type. A new paint strainer is what I like to use, cheese cloth will work, so will many other types of cloth. Just drain the water and save the seed.
9. Carefully mix the seed with the dolomitic limestone, continue to add limestone until the mixture is dry enough to work in your spreader. Your planting area should have been prepared ahead of time.
10. Now spread the seed out evenly over the area.
11. A light dusting of sand and organic matter spread out over the top will help. In a very short time, you will see the seed begin to grow.
12. Water the seed lightly as needed, do not let the seed dry out!

If you have done everything right, you should have a good stand of Bermuda grass in your new lawn, or once bald spot, in only a few days. Then just kick back and watch the neighbors scratch their heads!

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Home And Garden Press Lawn Care Products

Lawn care can be a pleasant task, or it can be a bitter task, depending on how you approach it, and the tools used for the work. We offer a lot of advice on the best ways to care for your lawn, and the easiest ways to go about the work of lawn care, and now we offer an easy way to find the best tools and additional information from the most trusted suppliers of lawn and garden tools and equipment in the business! You can even buy them on line:

Home And Garden Press Lawn Care Products

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Part three in our pest prevention series

Believe it or not, what you do with your lawn has a direct effect on the pests in your life. A well maintained lawn will reduce pest problems, even the pest problems inside your home. A poorly maintained lawn will increase pest problems, even inside your home.

Mowing

The most important activity for home lawns is mowing. Mow well enough and often enough at the right height, and all other things being equal, your lawn will stand out for it’s quality and texture.

Mowing frequency

If mowing is really the genie’s lamp of good lawn care, and it is, then the frequency with which you mow is the way you rub it. No single activity has as much effect on creating that model lawn that makes the neighbors weep with envy as the number of times you mow each month.

Mowing weekly is the minimum for most lawn grasses! Mowing twice per week is the start of golf course type care. Such care will allow you to leave clippings in place, without thatch build up. This will also increase the lawns level of fertility. I have mowed athletic fields daily at from about 1 half inch to around 3 quarters of an inch, and produced fields that the golfers preferred over the local courses. Our weed population was gone with little pesticide use, and our insect, fungus, and disease problems disappeared!

Irrigation

Irrigation has a direct effect on pest populations as well.

Watering too much

If you water too much, you will be inviting fungus, disease, and water loving insects and mosquitoes onto your property, and some of them will find their way into your home.

Watering too little

If you water too little, you will have problems with bare spots in your lawn, and weeds will ensue. Along with the weeds will come pests. In this drought weakened state, some insects and diseases thrive because the plants are more vulnerable in their weakness.

Fertilization

The same situation exists with fertilization. Too much causes lush green growth that is just one watering away from being invaded by fungi, and pests wanting to feed on the succulent juices. Low fertility will favor the invasion of weeds and insects doe to weakness.

Cultivation

Cultivating the lawn is one of the least remembered practices in lawn care. Cultivation reduces the thatch that has accumulated from all those bad mowing, irrigating and fertilizing practices. Lawn cultivation also relieves compaction from foot traffic, allowing air and water to reach the root zone where the grass can use it. Thatch provides hiding places for bugs, and a base of rotting and semi rotting plant material that encourages fungi and disease development. Cultivation is needed most in lawns where the other lawn care practices mentioned were not carried out properly.

Lawn care and pest control

Each of these cultural practices interacts with the other. infrequent mowing and high fertility coupled with too much water equals thatch. Thatch sometimes makes the soil hydrophobic so that more water is needed to keep the grass growing. All of these practices done poorly will raise the pest population. If done properly, they will significantly lower the pest population, and the need for pesticides. Lawn insects are the result of poor cultural practices, and some of the lawn insects will become house insects. Fewer pests outside, means fewer pests inside!

See part four in our pest prevention series: Landscaping For Pest Prevention

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Chemical trimming

Spin trimming is a hassle. It is almost never fun, no matter how much or how little there is to be done. Obviously, the less there is to do, the better, but any is enough to leave you feeling irritated. There are some ways to make trimming a less frequent, or even an almost never needed operation.

If you live in suburbia, you can benefit from this method, and if you live in a rural area with lots of fence rows, this type pf trimming can save you a ton of money, time and aggravation.

Chemicals used for chemical trimming

There are two types of chemicals that can be used for chemical trimming: Growth regulators, and herbicides. Some herbicides can be used for regulating growth if used properly as well.

Chemical trimming with growth regulators

With preventive growth regulators, you trim the grass around your home and property by slowing it’s rate of growth. Some growth regulators offer a 50% decrease in growth for a month or more. The advantage to using these is that you will cut your trimming in half, and still leave your grass green and growing, although it will be growing slowly. The downside of this method is the cost of preventive growth regulators. They can be expensive, but compared to the cost in time, labor, and fuel of trimming weekly, you will still come out spending less.

Chemical trimming with herbicides

The use of an herbicide to trim chemically, implies killing the grass. This is usually not desirable in a fine lawn, but if you have a mile of curb line or fence row to trim, a well done 6 inch straight line of dead grass beats an overgrown fence row, or a poorly trimmed fence row any day. The advantage is that there will be no trimming needed if it is done early and kept up with occasional spot treatments. The disadvantage is that it kills the grass. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is not as attractive as a carefully trimmed line, and it should be done carefully and thoughtfully where erosion might be a problem.

Chemical trimming using herbicides as growth regulators

It is possible to regulate growth with some standard herbicides. This is usually a very diluted mixture which stunts the grass and slows the growth. The one I prefer is glyphosate. This comes under several brand names most notably “RoundUp Pro” There are directions on the label for this type of application, and it will need to be very carefully measured, calculated, and calibrated to get the best result.

No matter what type of chemical you use, whether for killing the grass, or regulating the growth of the grass, you will need to make some careful calibrations.

First, you should read the label of any chemical you use, and follow the directions as though your life depends on it. There are two very good reasons for this.

1. The directions on the label are there for a reason, and they will not lead you wrong. Using more of the product than called for will not give better results, and in many cases, will produce the opposite result.
2. The label is the law. “It is a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with it’s labeling.” is a phrase that is oft repeated by chemical professionals who have learned the truth by experience.

Calibrating the sprayer for chemical trimming

The best way to properly calibrate a backpack sprayer for someone who is not already familiar with the process is this: You should determine the distance you need to travel, and then time yourself walking a portion of it with the backpack sprayer full of water spraying a mock application. You should use the nozzle that you will be using for the application. This will help you to determine both the time it takes to travel the course, and the amount of water used for the distance.

If the test was 100 feet, and the entire distance 1000 feet, and 1 quart of water was used in 2 minutes of travel time spraying a line 6 inches wide, then you have sprayed 50 square feet in 2 minutes. You can reasonably expect to spray 100 square feet, or 200 feet, that is 100 square feet in 4 minutes, which would give you a total of 500 square feet or 1000 linear feet of 6 inch line in 20 minutes using 10 quarts, or 2.5 gallons of water for the entire distance.

If the label calls for using 4 ounces of product per 1000 square feet, and you are only going to cover 500 square feet, then you would, of course, use 2 ounces in 2.5 gallons of water to spray the entire distance.

Surfactant

If adding surfactant is suggested, be sure to add the recommended amount. If spraying for growth suppression, do not over use the surfactant, because it will increase the herbicides effect.

Disclaimer:

If any suggestion on this site is contrary to the suggestions, or restrictions, or any other part of the product label, the product label should be given precedence. Please check all facts and calculations before making an application.

See also: Mowing Options Chemical Mowing

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Native habitats and evolving lawn and landscape design

Lawn and landscape design is changing to meet the challenges of new water requirements and a revived interest in native habitats that encourage native wildlife.

Traditional lawns

Everyone loves a beautiful, freshly cut green lawn, well, almost everyone. More and more people are moving away from the traditional large grass covered areas, opting instead to use more trees, shrubs, and other plants, and they are “going native” with the varieties used in lawn and landscape design.

Water use and phosphorous

I suspect that this trend will continue, as water use restrictions and environmental laws begin to effect the amount of water available for lawn and landscape use, and the allowable nutrient “run off” produced by traditional lawn care. Certain lawn nutrients may eventually be severely restricted, particularly the amount of phosphorous, due to it’s negative effects on lakes, ponds and waterways. Such restrictions are inevitable unless we learn to self regulate. It is only a matter of time.

Traditional lawn grasses

Most of our traditional lawn grasses are not native, and therefore require extra water and nutrients to thrive. While they do produce oxygen and process water fairly efficiently, the extra nutrients, pesticides, and other excesses may make them a less practical practice than in the past.

Traditional landscapes

Traditional landscapes, with their heavy use of exotic plants, are also losing favor. Most of these non native plants require more water, more fertilizer, and more insecticides than their native counterparts.

Lawn and landscape design and biodiversity

There is also a biodiversity issue involved in lawn and landscape design. Who would have ever suspected that so many of the popular landscape plants from the middle of the last century would have taken on the role of environmental terrorists? The Japanese Silk tree, commonly called Mimosa, the Chinaberry, the Chinese Tallow, and a variety of Asian privets are now more prevalent in our woodlands, than in the home lawns where they were once used as landscape plants. Thought to be safe, and non invasive at the time, they have now become a serious threat to native biodiversity throughout the lower half of the country. Which of the currently popular exotics will become problems? It is hard to know, but just because they do not appear to be invasive now, does not mean that they won’t gain a foothold later.

Why non native plants are a problem

When invasive species gain a foothold in our forests and waters, they tend to eliminate the native competition, much of which is needed to support native wildlife. If a native plant preferred by pollinators disappears, the pollinator may move on. This gives the non native an even stronger foothold. It also means that the insects which pollinate food crops may be gone as well.

Non native plants and wildlife

Studies have shown that the nutrient value of most of the non native species is less than that of the native varieties, particularly for native wildlife. As these exotics take over more and more territory, the native wildlife populations sometimes get hungry, and move on. These are just a couple of the hundreds of reasons why biodiversity should be considered when devising a landscape strategy. It is not just an issue in some remote forest or jungle, biodiversity is a problem on the home front as well.

Backyard habitats for lawn and landscape

The fact is, that our traditional ways of dealing with our outdoor habitats are responsible for a number of environmental problems such as water quality, biodiversity, and over use of pesticides. With growing awareness of these effects, many are choosing to take a different approach to lawn and landscape design.

Backyard habitats, or, native habitats, are viable alternatives to traditional lawns and landscape designs. Rather than imposing our will on the environment, we simply allow the native environment to do what it does best, with our assistance. In the long run, there is less fertilizer, water, and pesticide needed. The native varieties are acclimated to the native environments, and native soils, and are resistant to native pests. After the initial installation or modification, there is much less labor involved. It is a cheaper, easier, more environmentally friendly form of landscaping.

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