Help-I burned my thumb
9 years ago
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Help me revitalize my lawn (no green thumb here!)
Comments (3)Here are the OP's pictures Yes, we have some better suggestions. Never use a chemical fertilizer early in the spring. If you feel like you must be spreading something on the lawn, try a preemergent herbicide. Perhaps a better option would be an organic fertilizer. If you want to apply a chemical fertilizer, do it no sooner than after you mow real grass for the second time. A better time is to wait until the initial flush of new spring growth is finished. That could be a full month after you start mowing. It looks like your lawn is a mix of fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. Fescue remains green in the winter while KBG browns out in dormancy. It will all return to green soon. The fescue will do much better in the shade than KBG. If it is thin in the shade in July, you might want to over seed those areas with more fescue in late August. Where do you live? How often do you water? How high/low do you mow? How often do you fertilize? What do you use? And when?...See MoreBurned my Lawn - Help! - See photo
Comments (2)How much of the fertilizer did you use? How big is your lawn? I'm assuming you're on the Wasatch front somewhere. If so, you've probably got Kentucky bluegrass (KBG) or tall fescue (maybe a mixture). It's going to be getting hot and dry pretty soon, so it'll be tough to keep new grass happy through the summer. If you've got secondary water, you'll have a better chance, but if not, I'd wait until late summer to seed. The KBG may have filled in by then, anyway. Timing a seeding project here can be tough because there's so little time between when the heat breaks and when we get our first frost that there isn't much leeway. I've been getting better results by seeding after it has gotten too cold for the grass to sprout. The seed sits there over winter and when it warms up in the spring, it sprouts with the snow melt and any rains that we get. That tends to work better than a "normal" spring seeding because it gives a bit of a head start to the new grass so it has a better chance to make it through the summer....See MoreI have a black thumb and need help!
Comments (7)I do not accept it that you have a black thumb! There is just something or other about keeping plants happy that you could learn. Ask someone who is an experienced gardener to plant the window boxes with you and I bet you will find out what the problem has been. I thought I was planting spring bulbs according to the directions, but when a friend and former Master Gardener watched what I was doing, I quickly discovered why my bulbs were rotting in the ground. Similarly, when I helped a novice but very enthusiastic gardener with her perennials, I found that she was just sprinkling them rather than watering them deeply, planting sun plants in the shade and vice versa, and trying to grow plants in the thin old dirt that had been under her grass instead of in good garden soil. So, if you want to, you can learn to garden!...See MoreHelp - I have a brown thumb
Comments (6)Pictures, yes. The best pictures of gardens are taken on cloudy days or in the shade. Videos of grass growing, not so much. Your grass is a relatively primitive form of fescue turf. Back before fescues were hybridized in the mid 20th century, Kentucky 31 (your grass) was the lawn to have. But since then it has been improved to be more manageable with nicer blades and color. You are about 45 days early for spring fertilizer. I realize they have been advertising for weeks now, but waiting has benefits. You might see the color go a little more yellow in late May. If you see that, then fertilize again with just a fertilizer - no weed control. Generally weed n feed products are not what all they're cracked up to be. If the fertilizer you applied was a weed n feed and you applied on a dry day without watering FIRST, then you wasted the herbicide. From what you said I'm not sure whether the grass was still wet or not when the product went down. Weed n feed products are different in that they go down onto wet grass. Regular fertilizer goes down on dry grass and gets watered in BEFORE the next day. Dew on dry fertilizer is the problem if you don't water it in the night before. There might be a slightly different Turf Builder that has a crabgrass preemergent in it. If that is the case, then putting it down on dry grass is correct. And yes if you used this one then you should delay seeding. In fact, if you can stand it try to delay until September. Seeding now or in a few weeks will result in a crabgrass lawn by July. Why? Because crabgrass seed is sitting there waiting for water to sprout. It sprouts faster than other grasses and grows more aggressively. Lawn maintenance comes down to three main elements. Those are, in order of importance, watering, mowing, and fertilizing. If you don't get the watering right then you will make mistakes on the other two. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. Mowing: Mulch mow your lawn at the mower's highest setting every week during the growing season. Fertilizer: Fertilize first on Memorial Day. Next on Labor Day. And last around Thanksgiving after the grass has stopped growing but before it goes completely dormant....See More
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