Early Spring!
Lawn's disappearing act may seem sudden but took years
of preparation
Dear Janet,
My lawn is under attack. Every night a new patch is
ripped up and scattered around, but I never see what's doing it. In
some areas of the yard the grass has died right out -- maybe not
from the digging. I'm afraid that the mixture I sprayed last year
when the grass was not doing well may have killed it. I sprayed a
combination of beer, dish soap and mouthwash.
What's doing the digging and do you think I can get the
lawn to grow back where I killed it or did my spray poison the
soil?
M.S.
Dear M.S.,
My guess is that a skunk is working your yard at night, digging
for soil-dwelling insects, including grubs. Usually a skunk's
hunting creates numerous, shallow holes a bit smaller than golf
balls. These pits punctuate the turf but don't cause significant
damage to healthy sod. However, if the turf is weak a skunk might
uproot chunks of grass and peel back strips of sod.
Grubs may be eating your grass roots and skunks may be pursuing
the grubs, yet I doubt that either one is the primary cause of the
lawn's demise. Neither is your home brew of fertilizer, insecticide
and fungicide to blame, even though it may have done more harm than
good if you used it during hot, dry periods. (Think how soap can
dry your skin. That's how it works as an insecticide, killing
soft-bodied insects via desiccation. It harms water-stressed plant
tissue by the same mechanism.)
What killed your lawn and many others is years-long drought.
Each year of subnormal rainfall shortened lawn's growing season.
Less starch was stored in the roots toward the next year, so each
spring it was weaker, with shallower roots and more gaps between
blades. Now it's so thin even four-pound skunks can plow it as if
they were 30-pound anteaters. Grubs, probably always in residence,
can eat faster than the lawn can grow. Weeds such as crabgrass that
revel in heat and drought find chinks in which to sprout, then
steal even more of the available water from the poor sod. If trees
shade the area, that's another blow to the grass, which isn't fully
energized unless it's in full sun.
Start renovating your lawn as soon as the soil is workable --
when you can press a handful of the earth into a clod that will
then break apart with just a light tap. Till lightly or aerate,
watching for white grubs turning up. If you see more than two grubs
per square foot, let the birds feed on them before you proceed,
since grubs can eat grass seed as well as roots.
Rake the area smooth, then seed or sod it. If it's a shaded area
use a shade-tolerant grass seed blend of fine fescues rather than
sod. Sod consists mainly of sun-loving bluegrass.
Water the new grass regularly throughout the growing season.
Once a day, one-eighth inch per day, is often the best
prescription. Fertilize it once it's grown a couple of inches.
Don't scalp it when you mow. Let it grow 3-4 inches high, so each
new grass plant has twice the energy-producing leaf surface of a
two-inch plant, can produce twice the roots and throw denser,
weed-seed deterring shade.
Refrain from using pesticides, even homemade soap and mouthwash
formulas, unless you know there is a specific fungus or insect in
residence, in significant numbers and in a vulnerable stage of its
life.
Short reports:
It was dry most of the winter...
...so your dwarf Alberta spruce, holly, rhododendron or boxwood
may now show the damage in scorched brown needles or leaf edges.
Trim off the damage. Water well throughout the growing season, and
fertilize once growth starts, so new foliage will fill into the
bare spots
Green thumbs up
to intelligent observers like E.L. who saw and remedied the
mistake made by crews working to remove emerald ash borer infested
trees. Every scrap of that infested wood and bark should have been
taken by those crews to an ash disposal site, not left to be
cleaned up by homeowners, put into bags and thus taken to other
landfills.
Green thumbs down
to thinking negative thoughts about the upcoming growing season.
Brooding over the possibility of drought, late frosts and pests is
non-productive. It also makes you emanate an aura of gloom -- which
may account for why people are ducking and swerving to avoid you,
lately. Deal with the season as it happens, and be prepared to be
pleased!
Originally published 3/29/03