Lawn Diseases
Sometimes it seems like
the more you do to your lawn, the more problems you have. The story we
hear often goes something like this:
"My neighbor doesn't do
anything to his lawn and it looks better than mine! I've spent thousands
of dollars on my lawn and have nothing but problems!"
"Lawn Frustration" is easy to understand, especially when your problems
are so visible to everyone, and your wallet is saying "Ouch!"
Doing too much
to your lawn?
Can you do too much to a lawn? Yes. And
in order to take charge of your lawn, it's important to work with the
cycles of nature instead of against them. One of the best examples is
lawn fertilization...how many times have you seen a moisture stressed,
semi-dormant lawn being fertilized during the hot, humid summer months?
While it's best to "Work with Nature" and fertilize lawns in the
northeastern United States twice a year, May & September, you'll often
see lawn applications being made at the worst time of year, mid-summer.
While this timing might promote cash flow, it won't promote lawn growth.
And the high "salt index" of some
lawn fertilizer
can cause burning.
Not enough lawn care?
Since some varieties of
turfgrass have special maintenance requirements, it's also possible to
do too little. A prime example of this would be a common problem that's
encouraged by low fertility, red thread disease. It's one of the few
lawn diseases that's controlled by fertilizing your lawn, thereby making
the lawn "grow away" from the disease. Many other lawn diseases grow
worse with too much fertilizer.
Red Thread is common on Red Fescue -
One of the few lawn diseases that you
should fertilize to make things better.
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