Yard Care
You may be wondering what this is doing on a website seemingly devoted to ham radio. Is it a joke? Could be. I was toying with the idea of using YARD DONTCARE as the title. This topic is here to save you some time, effort, and money. Resources better spent on ham radio.
I am not an accomplished gardener, horticulturalist, or grounds maintenance man. I hold much better credentials. I have taken care of a yard for the better part of my life and have a wealth of real experience to share.
We moved to this corner lot in our north Texas suburb in 1979 and have been here ever since. During that time we have resodded the front and side yards twice. We have also lost three large trees that had provided a comfortable, shady environment for our predominately St. Augstine lawn. Today it is still mostly St. Augustine but making a definite transition to bermuda. We can also attest to a warming trend in the local climate. The severe winters that were the cause of the demise of our lawn on two occasions, requiring resodding, have not recurred. For the last ten years or so we have experienced fairly mild winters.
Since we have been here, we have always had a nice lawn. Not perfect, but nice. We have also discovered that you can have a nice lawn without an equally nice amount of effort and expense. The following are pertinant points we observe to effect effective lawn care.
Water. Lots of water at least twice a week. If it does not rain that often then you will have to water from the faucet. No sprinklers. Sprinklers throw water into the air. We dont have anything up there that needs watering. We want our water to be applied to our lawn directly. We use soaker hoses. With soaker hoses you will find that you get more out of the water you apply and also save on the amount of water required to keep the lawn looking decent.
Grass height. How high is high? Adjust your mower for a maximum grass height. Tall grass provides shade for the roots and the ground. Shade keeps the sun from drying out the ground so much requiring less water. Naturally if you have pets with short legs or children, you may not want to keep the grass so high as to have them dissappear in the lawn. In general, high is good. Look at it this way, the more green vegetation you have above ground, the better able it is to convert sunlight, water, and minerals into roots and green grass.
Fertilizer. I have not added any chemical product to my lawn in over ten years. I am not about to start now. My grass is a deep rich green all over with minimal weed content. It is greener than my neighbors lawn and my neighbor religiously uses fertilizer and weed killer. My secret is that I use a mower with a mulching blade. The grass that is cut is shreded into very fine slivers which are allowed to fall to the ground and decompose, thus releasing nitrogen which feeds the lawn.
Weeds? If it is green mow it. Twice a year I pull weeds. Once in the spring after a good soaking rain. Once in the fall, also after a good soaking rain. Get them before they go to seed, but let them get big enough to pull out with the root.
Mowing frequency. This depends on how wet or dry your growing conditions are. This year we could get by mowing once every two weeks, but we are under near drought conditions. Some of our neighbors have their grass mowed. At one time we did too. I fired my mowing service when they mowed my lawn two days after I had done it myself. Dont assume that just because a fellow cuts grass, he knows anything about lawns.
Mow when it looks like it needs it. When YOU think it needs it. A lawn is not there to impress neighbors, it is there for your enjoyment. There is something positive to be said about letting the grass in your lawn go to seed a few times a season. That is a lot cheaper and more effective than buying seed.
Mowers. My brand of lawn care (and age) requires a power mower. Preferably one that has driven wheels to assist going up a hill. In some areas the old, manual, push mowers are making a comeback. The claim made in their favor is that they are easier on the environment. I thought the environment was under attack from carbon dioxide emissions. So do people using manual push mowers stop breathing while they mow? Nuts everywhere and not a decent cashew in sight.
Any power mower will do as long as it has a mulching blade. If you have an old mower that does not mulch, you can always replace the blade with a mulching blade. You might also want to make sure that the engine is powerful enough to effectively use a mulching blade. Takes more horsepower to turn those clipings into chaff. An old 3hp engine might do but a better choice is a newer 5hp or better. Larger engines last longer too. Especially if made by Honda.
Edging. Do it first.
Tidy up. Sweep it, blow it, bag it. If you intend to use one of those power blowers, make sure it does not blow YOUR waste into MY yard. If it does, you may not like my reaction. As with everything I have my own way of making the yard tidy after a mowing. I leave any unmulched clipings to dry and shrivel up (takes one or two days). Then I use a large broom to sweep the sidewalks and area in the street next to the curb. Sweepings get stuffed into a trash bag. Bag is either set out for pickup or emptied into the compost bin. Depends on how much non-organic trash is included.
Advice. I have already given you all the advice you need to maintain a lawn. However, you might get all sorts of additional hints from gardening shows on the radio and the TV. I used to listen to a particular gardening show, aired in this area, on Saturday mornings on the radio. Every Saturday morning, I would rise, turn on the radio, and listen attentively as I had my coffee. It was almost like going to church on Sundays. I followed all the advice given religiously. I used the products recommended. I even fed the birds as I was often reminded to do. Then I experienced two major lawn disasters that required resodding. The grass that had died had been specifically recommended as hardy for this area by the subject gardening show. I could see it happening once, but twice in two years was enough to convince me that the advice I was getting was flawed.
So I quit feeding the birds, and fertilizing the lawn. Instead I started using a mulching mower and feeding the worms. I figured that birds were smart enough to find their own worms.
I learned my lesson. When taking advice to use a product make sure the fellow suggesting its use is giving you sound advice and not just a sales pitch.
All the time wasted on those Saturdays listening to bad gardening advice could have been much better used to enjoy ham radio. Then every cloud has a silver lining. Had I not experienced that gardening show dissappointment, I would not have been able to warn anyone else about it.