Last Call for Fall Aeration and Seeding

Posted on October 12, 2013 by jeremy jenkins

Seed

It’s hard to believe that October is almost halfway over, and that means time is running out to aerate and overseed your fescue lawn. If you have a fescue lawn, you may have noticed thinning over the summer. You may also see dead patches of grass caused by disease due to all the rain we got this summer. If your lawn is suffering from any of these conditions, now is the time to fix it! Fall is the best time to seed fescue lawns, seeding now will make your lawn more disease and drought tolerant next summer.

Seed germinates best when temperatures are between 60 and 70 degrees, and it can take 2-3 weeks for full germination so time is running out to get your seed down. If you are a do it yourselfer, look for seed with multiple cultivars of fescue seed (3 types is most common). Also, make sure you put down a good starter fertilizer along with the seed.

Before seeding, it’s a good idea to aerate your lawn. Core aeration removes hundreds of small (2 to 3 inch) soil cores from the soil. After aerating your lawn, it will be filled with small holes (which is a good thing). Aeration has many benefits for your lawn; it reduces soil compaction and increases water absorption. Seed also collects into the aeration holes, which reduces drift from wind and water. Make sure to water the lawn the night before you aerate, having moist soil will result in deeper cores.

Fescue Rescue

If you need any help with aeration and seeding of your fescue lawn, we are here to help. We offer full aeration and seeding services, and would be happy to provide you with a free estimate. To get an estimate or schedule service, give us a call at (919) 999-0936.

Happy Seeding!

Tyler

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Heavy Rainfall Causing Disease Problems in Cary Lawns

Posted on July 5, 2013 by jeremy jenkins

Here’s a newsflash: it’s been raining in the Cary NC area… a lot. I checked the RDU rainfall totals on the WRAL website this morning. For the past 30 days, we are a whopping 10.54 inches above normal! Year to date it has rained 9.15 inches above normal levels. That’s a lot of rain!

If you walked on your lawn in the past month, your steps probably were accompanied by a squishy sound. Lawns have been wet for weeks now, and there is more rain in the forecast. This prolonged period of high moisture levels in lawns has led to significant disease problems, especially in tall fescue lawns. I spoke with someone earlier this week who said their lawn had suffered serious damage in a matter of 2 weeks.

Leaf Damage to Tall Fescue from Disease

Leaf Damage to Tall Fescue

Many times, disease problems will appear in your lawn as circular patches or rings. Sometimes the rings are large, but sometimes they are smaller.  For example, brown patch will typically appear as larger patches while dollar spot patches are about the size of a silver dollar. When you look at the grass leaves, you will often notice spots that are discolored like in the photo.

If you believe that you have a disease problem in your lawn, you should get it treated as soon as possible to keep the disease from spreading and causing further damage. We are fully licensed to apply fungicides and would be happy to help you diagnose and treat the problem. We can be reached at (919) 999-0936, or send an email to info@clearcutlawncare.org.

If your lawn is suffering from a disease problem, be patient. It typically requires more than one treatment to cure the disease, and treatments are applied in short intervals (every 2 to 4 weeks).  Hopefully the rain will slow down soon and give lawns time to dry and slow down the spread of these pesky diseases!

-Tyler

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Testing Organic vs. Chemical Fertilizer

Posted on June 26, 2013 by jeremy jenkins

I offer my customers the option of organic fertilizers or chemical fertilizers. Organics have many benefits, I think the most important to customers so far is that they are kid and pet safe. But safety aside, is one product better at producing a green, healthy lawn? Well luckily I have a large field at my house, which provides a great place to do a side by side comparison. This article is the first in a series on the results of the test, and I will be writing throughout the rest of the year with updates.

For those who are unfamiliar with organic fertilizers, here are a few key differences between organics and chemical fertilizers:

  1. Organic fertilizers aim to improve the quality of the soil by adding organic matter to the soil.
  2. Organic fertilizers provide a slow release of nutrients that provide longer lasting nutrition for the soil.
  3. Organic fertilizers are made from plant and animal products, where chemical fertilizers are made from fossil fuels.

To keep things simple, I will be using 2 criteria for results: they eye test and soil samples. I will be including pictures in my posts so you can be your own judge on the eye test. I will also taking soil samples along the way to see how the soil is impacted by the use of each product. I have taken samples as a baseline, and the soil in each area is very similar:

  1. Organic Area: Phosphorus Index: 10 Potassium Index: 45
  2. Chemical Area: Phosphorus Index: 9 Potassium Index: 51

Note: According to the NCDA Agronomic Division, the normal range for each index is 50-70.

Here is a picture from day 1 (click for larger image):

Pre Treatment

Check back next month for an update!

Also, being new to the blogging, I want to make sure I am providing readers with interesting content. So let me know if you have questions or topics you would like me to discuss in an article. You can either leave comments or send me an email at info@clearcutlawncare.org.

-Tyler

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