Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. ------------------ Okay it's me now. Looks like too watering too frequently. At this time of year once a week might be too often. I'd be looking at every 14 days or more. Don't feel the soil to determine the watering. Watch for the grass to dry out. If it is not drying out, then wait. Your soil should be dry and hard for many days before you water again. Your lawn is either fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, or both. With that location and the proximity of the shade, any Kentucky bluegrass will die out. That is a fescue area because of the wall blocking half the day's sunlight. With that in mind you should be raising your mowing height all the way to the top. The reel mower is not great for mowing high. Good for mowing low but that's not your grass. Do not seed this time of year. If you need seed, wait until late August. You cannot have grubs yet. The grubs show up several weeks after the June bugs swarm your porch light. If you don't have any June bugs, then you can't have any grubs. That's not a universal truth but it is fairly useful for most people. And on that line of thought, please don't try to prevent problems you think you might have. Wait until you have the problem. The fungus problem is pretty apparent. I have a suggestion if you are interested in an organic solution. tiemco will disagree based wisely on his experience. My experience is 180 degrees opposite to his. This time I'll wait for him to suggest something.

Hi there, i'm not an expert, but you should lay down some Tupperware (or tuna cans) and measure how much you are watering instead of just the length of time. You may be watering too much or too little, and if you can see how much water you are putting down, you maybe be able to make some better decisions. The yellowing could be a fungus caused by over watering. If that's the case, you'll want to put a fungicide on the lawn. I would wait for an expert opinion on that though because, like I said, i'm no expert. This post was edited by cmccarty on Fri, Jun 28, 13 at 14:50

Can you describe the differences between heritage, headway, pillar, and disarm? Not much. I think all of them have a strobilurin, and pillar and disarm also have a second different fungicide class as well. I'm pretty sure the stobilurins are all effective against pythium, so I would probably just buy the cheapest one. Where to buy (locally?) Best bet is John Deere Landscapes or any large turf supply store. You can also buy them online from places like Amazon, E.H. Griffiths, etc. Cost: Not cheap. Heritage is about 80 bucks for 40 lbs. The others are probably similar . Form - liquid spray vs granular Depends on what you are more comfortable with. Liquids are probably better for treating active disease, although I know Heritage G (granular) is quickly absorbed through moist leaf tissue. Granulars are easier to apply to large areas. Toxicity to humans: Very low, but I believe apple trees are very sensitive to stobilurins. Success speed and rate of success Very high when applied properly. Advantages/disadvantages? The advantage is you will stop and prevent fungal disease. The disadvantage is you are adding yet another chemical to the enviroment, as well as causing some harm to beneficial fungi in your soil. Golf courses use them during the hot summer months, otherwise they would likely lose large areas of turf.

I doubt it is chinch bugs. They usually start at the hottest part of the lawn adjacent to a concrete heat sink. But you can test for them easily. Put a piece of paper on the grass and wipe the palm of your hand away from the paper. Chinch bugs will flick off the grass and land on the paper. When you say you mowed appropriately, what does that mean? What was your watering schedule prior to the rain storm? If you look closely at your grass blades you will notice that there are no color changes or lesions caused by a fungal disease. However, if you dig down to the roots you will likely see that the roots themselves are black and rotting. The cause is too much water. You probably had soggy soil before the rain came and the rain took it over the edge. The reason this happens is the soil microbes are not "balanced." When things are normal and balanced, the beneficial microbes dominate and there is no disease. When the beneficial microbes are damaged or weakened from lack of food or oxygen, then the pathogens take advantage and will cause diseases. This describes the difference between healthy soil and unhealthy soil. When the soil becomes saturated for 3-4 days, the lack of oxygen causes a die off of the beneficial microbes. What needs to happen is the soil needs to dry out so the beneficials at least have a chance of repopulating. In addition it never hurts to feed them. The beneficial microbes eat food, real food - the same as we eat. If you look at the ingredients of organic fertilizers they are full of corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and some things we would never think of eating, but the microbes eat nevertheless. So you could put down some organic fertilizer while the soil is drying out to give the microbes a running start at recovery. I have had great success getting rid of plant borne disease in St Augustine using ordinary corn meal at 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Year after year my lawn in San Antonio would become afflicted in a couple spots. And year after year the microbes that grow on corn meal wiped it out. You could try that or you could try a chemical fungicide. If you use a fungicide then the corn meal will not work to treat the disease, because it relies on other fungi to kill the disease. However, corn meal is an organic fertilizer and will help the soil in general.