Renovation-Pick Up Your Run-Down Lawn

THE term "lawn renovation" has different meanings for different people. Many homeowners speak of renovation when they actually mean maintenance—the year-to-year feeding and reseeding any lawn must have if it is to remain healthy and beautiful. No stretch of turf, regardless of how well it may have been started, can be expected to retain its beauty without some attention to these factors.

Others think of renovation as a more extensive program of killing weeds, aerating the soil and perhaps a large-scale resodding or re-seeding of badly worn spots. To still others, it means a total rebuilding, destroying the old grasses and establishing a completely new lawn.

Feeding was covered thoroughly in an earlier chapter. It is simply a matter of selecting the proper fertilizer and applying it on schedule. Re-seeding is a more difficult operation, and one that fails more often than it succeeds. Incidentally, what many gardeners take for improvement due to re-seeding is often nothing more than the improved growth of existing grasses following an application of fertilizer.

The widespread practice of tossing on loose seed in spring, without much further attention, is good for the business of the seedsman, but does little for the lawn's condition. If the seed sprouts, the seedlings are usually smothered out by existing grasses as they make their first flush of new growth after a spring feeding. Even where the old lawn is thin enough to allow sun and air to reach the newly-sown seeds, a regular watering program must be followed faithfully if the seedlings are not to perish long before they can establish a crown,

Insurance Device

A tool for partially overcoming this difficulty was brought to my attention by Dr. William Daniel of Purdue. This is a device made up of closely-spaced disks that rotate on an axle. The disks have teeth that chew up (scarify) the surface of a soil to a depth of about half an inch, producing a loose mulch.

First the seed is sown on the bare spots, without treatment. Then the tool (which is sold under the trade names Lawnovator or Garda-vator) is run over the seed, loosening the surface soil and pressing the seed firmly into this loose layer. I have seen a new seeding fail completely when this tool was not used, yet spots in the same lawn where it was used had an excellent stand of seedlings. The difference this simple device makes is amazing. My one objection to it is that, if a large area is to be covered, the labor involved is considerable. For touching up thin spots in the home lawn, however, it is the best thing I have seen. For larger areas, various power-driven spiking devices are available, but the teeth should not be too long if they are to be used in the manner described.

Where a long-toothed scarifying tool must be used in re-seeding, the loosening of the soil should be done first and the seed sown on top. Then tamp it down lightly with a very light roller or the back of a hoe.

All In Good Time

The ideal time for re-seeding (as for new lawn making) is late summer to early fall, about mid-August over most of the bluegrass area. If rains are frequent, no watering may be needed, but if dry spells occur, as is likely, then regular sprinkling is vital to successful germination. Before seeding, always cut the established grass as short as possible, no matter what the regular mowing height may have been in the past. Remember, as the sun drops lower and lower with the approach of fall, it hits the soil at a low angle, so that even a 1-inch-tall blade of grass can shade a tiny seedling. That seedling needs all the light it can get.

Too, mowing should be delayed for two to three weeks after the re-seeding to avoid injury to the tender seedlings. This means that the established grass will grow rather tall before you can mow it again. That is another reason for a very close cutting of the old grass just before re-seeding; it will keep the entire lawn area looking reasonably well until it can be mowed. Even with this delay, many of the seedlings will be crushed or pulled out in the mowing process, but enough should survive to renew the stand of grass.

All too often, these steps do not bring about a correction of the poor condition, and further action is needed. Before you decide to plow up old grass and start anew, consider the fact that you will not only have re-building problems, but will have to face all of the troubles that can arise with a new lawn.

In theory, turf experts claim that if 50 per cent of the old grass has died out, or if 50 per cent of the area is bare, a complete renovation and rebuilding is needed. This poses several problems, the first of which is to know exactly what 50 per cent coverage is. Since not every fraction of an inch of a lawn is covered with grass, that SO per cent figure is a false standard.

A Good Old Trick

One old-time landscaper taught me a trick which has served as a good guide in determining when a rebuilding is needed. Here it is: Stand in the middle of the lawn and look down at your feet. If the soil can be seen readily and there are spaces between the individual plants, then the turf merely needs improving. Now look out at an angle of 45 degrees, so that your line of sight meets the grass at about your height away from you. If the soil can still be seen, then the lawn is too thin and a major correction (possibly a complete rebuilding) is necessary.

The decision is easier to make if you have had a chance to observe the lawn for a number of years. If this is the case, you have some clue to the reason for its decline. Perhaps it is due to the use of the wrong species of grass, as when a fescue is planted on rich, wet soil, or a bent on dry, sandy loam.

About five years after Merion Kentucky Bluegrass was generally available, I would frequently be asked to examine lawns of this grass which the owner said had "run out." All of these lawns were in their third or fourth year. A cursory examination showed they were starved because the vigorous roots had extracted most of the fertility from the soil and were hungry for fertilizer, especially nitrogen. Because of Merion's typically heavy root system under the surface, it was easy to supply the needed nitrogen and produce a near-miracle in rapid resuscitation. The grass was in such poor shape that had I not known it was Merion, I would have mistaken it for common Kentucky Bluegrass and might have recommended a re-seeding.

In other cases, constant traffic or even the regular use of a heavy mower may have brought about compaction. Dig a hole in some inconspicuous corner to discover whether tight, hard-packed soil is at fault. Sometimes if the lawn is of some size, professional aeration with a spring-loaded spiker is the answer.

Home Spiking

In many cases, however, you can do your own spiking to relieve compacted turf. Do not use the devices with fiat, tamper-shaped spikers: they merely poke a hole, which serves to compact the soil more. The only satisfactory device is one that jerks out a little clump or cylinder of soil, depositing it on the surface and leaving behind a small hole or pit into which loose compost can be worked. I have found the West Point spring-loaded rollers to be excellent tools for this purpose; in larger communities progressive turf specialists are substituting these for rollers. If you can't find the right tool, or can't afford a professional job, you had better leave the soil alone and depend upon winter-spring freezing and thawing to swell it enough partially to undue compaction.

Another frequent cause of poor condition is the presence in the soil of the grass root-eating grubs of the Japanese beetle or the June beetle. Digging up the sod will merely redistribute these pests more generally through the lawn and will not solve the problem. Here, the use of calcium or lead arsenate, chlordane, etc. (as recommended in detail under Soil Insects in Chapter 12) is the logical solution, followed by feeding and re-seeding to restore the dead areas. Sometimes, re-sodding the dead spots may be necessary, to give a quicker cover.

The Case Of The Careless Cutter

I have seen many a lawn where the owner neglected to mow late in fall, and unseasonable warm weather kept the grass growing months after the mower had been put away for the winter. The lawn thus passed the winter under a stifling mat of grass. In spring, when the dead thatch was raked away, the lawn was in very poor condition. The owner, of course, blamed everything but his own malpractice.

Snow mold, that pernicious winter pest of lawns, may kill large patches so that the remaining turf seems hardly worth saving. But here is another case in which careful renovation can save the day. (Diseases are discussed in Chapter 13.) I recall particularly two fine lawns on the North Shore of Chicago, side by side and almost identical in layout and exposure. These were both invaded by snow mold one year, with about 80 per cent of the area of each lawn showing the typical pinkish-gray color of this disease. The owner of one property, certain that his grass was beyond salvage, quickly plowed it under in the spring and re-seeded. For two years he struggled to re-establish a good stand, only to have it hit by snow mold again. His neighbor did not act hastily, but raked out the dead grass, sprayed with Arasan to get rid of remaining fungus spores, fed and re-seeded. By mid-June of the same year his lawn was in excellent condition.

Don't Give Up

Another time at which many a homeowner is quick to throw in the sponge is after a heavy infestation of crab grass or some other aggressive weed has been killed out with chemicals. I have seen an entire lawn so brown after a spraying with crab-grass killer that the owner claimed the chemical had killed both weed and permanent lawn. Closer examination, however, showed healthy crowns of the permanent grasses, ready to grow if given half a chance. Many a lawn has been plowed up needlessly at this time when a little attention would have brought it back to life in a few weeks.

Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) is another offender. It is so susceptible to leaf-spot diseases that it may collapse overnight in mid-summer, leaving dead patches under which the permanent grasses may be weak but still alive. Since Poa annua is likely to invade areas low in fertility, feeding and soil aeration are the first steps in restoring such spots. Often a little attention to these details will solve the trouble without complete rebuilding.

Where the lawn contains bent grasses of the type that creep along the surface, lack of top dressing is a factor in poor condition. If the bent is to be retained (and there are many places where it is still the most desirable lawn grass to use), an application of sterilized compost or similar top dressing may be all that is needed.

Haste Makes Waste

Often the past history of a lawn is not known, and here you can only guess about the right course to follow. My recommendation is to try feeding first, re-seeding next, aeration and weed control next and complete rebuilding only as a last resort. Fortunately, there is usually enough grass present, even if poor in quality, so the owner will not have to act in a hurry. If you have enough turf to hold the soil and prevent the formation of mud holes, it is better to endure what you have than move too rapidly on a major reconstruction job. Try corrective measures first; if they fail, wait until mid-August to start a complete rebuilding.

Lawn rebuilding generally differs from the making of a completely new lawn in only one major particular—surviving grasses in the old sod may have to be killed off to prevent them from competing too vigorously with the new seedlings. This may not be necessary where Common Kentucky Bluegrass, for example, is seeded over the same species. If, however, a better grass is to be seeded over a less desirable variety, the less competition it has, the better. Bent must be eliminated if it is to be succeeded by any other type of grass.

If the owner can endure the sight of dead grass for a month or two, calcium cyanamid (sometimes offered as garden cyanamid) is perhaps the best chemical to use to kill out a lawn. It destroys all vegetation and then (in about two months) breaks down into a valuable nitrogen residue. If time is short, Dalapon will work more rapidly. These chemicals are available at well-stocked garden stores.

If you want to see sod used like a magic wand, visit England. The efficiency of a really competent English gardener, wielding a sharp spade and laying down a new lawn in a matter of hours, is a wonderful sight.

The art of sodding is not easily learned, however, and if large areas are to be covered, this work is best left to professionals. The level of the soil surface cannot be left to chance: it must be as uniform as you can possibly make it. Otherwise, hills and valleys will occur in the sodding that can only be corrected by hours of tedious hand labor.

One point to watch if you buy sod: don't have it cut too thick. One inch is best. The number of additional hair roots in a 1/4-inch thick sod layer is too small to make up for the greater difficulty in handling so thick a sod.

Sod is of greatest use to the homeowner as patching for areas worn by traffic, killed out by soil insects, or for filling low spots that are too deep to bring up to grade by other means. If possible, try to maintain a sod nursery in an inconspicous corner of your property. (I grow my extra sod partially under overhanging shrubbery, where I can skin off a foot or so without hurting the lawn.)

The first step in laying sod is thoroughly to prepare the lawn area's soil. Work it at least 2 inches deep, incorporating a little fertilizer, preferably one with a ureaform base. Rake as level as possible.

Cut each sod patch with a thin or "feather" edge so it can be merged with surrounding grass. If the operation is carefully done, and if the patches are kept moist for two to three weeks after the laying, the new grass should blend into the old without a visible dividing line. Always tamp or lightly roll newly laid sod so it can form a firm contact with the soil underneath. More sodding jobs fail because of poor contact between roots and soil than for any other reason.

Slopes And Terraces

Any out-of-horizontal area with a fairly steep slope presents a problem in turf establishment and maintenance. Whenever possible, such areas should be planted to a ground cover rather than, to grass, for several reasons.

For one, the labor involved in mowing a sloping lawn is practically always serious. Even where power equipment capable of running up and down the slope can be used, "scalping" at the top of the rise is almost unavoidable.

Second, slopes lose moisture so rapidly that artificial watering is almost essential to keep the grass alive. Water applied to the upper part of the slope runs downhill, taking with it much of the plant food applied to the grass. At times, even the grass goes with it.

During the past two years, I have been asked to examine a number of grassed slopes along some of the new toll road systems now crisscrossing the country. Turf building and upkeep along these roads are excellent and the percentage of "take" following seeding, even in midsummer is amazing. Most of the problems encountered are those involving sloping ground, where grass simply cannot hold on long enough to get its roots down, without some form of mechanical protection.

One partial solution to the problem of getting a "take" is the use of erosion netting—a coarse meshed bagging made in wide widths especially for holding slopes until seed can germinate and produce enough roots to survive. The seed is sown first and then covered with the netting, which should be pinned down with loops of wire or "hairpins" so the entire planting will not slide down hill.

For seeding slopes, I know of no better species than Alta Tall Fescue or Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue. These must be seeded at a heavy rate—about 8 to 10 pounds to 1,000 square feet—to produce a dense stand and to crowd the individual plants so they will produce a fine-leafed turf. Both grasses will form a deep, heavy mat of roots that will effectively bind the soil. Because of their deep root system, these Tall Fescues are able to go down deep for water and overcome the natural dryness of sloping ground.

Where expense is not a factor, sodding is the best way to establish a sod on sloping ground. To prevent the new sod from sliding down hill before it can make new roots, each sod should be pinned down to the slope with a 12-inch length of stiff, heavy wire. These wires should be a foot long, not because that much wire is needed to hold the sod, but so that at least S inches can be left exposed. As soon as the grass is well-rooted, these pegs should be pulled out. If too short a wire is used, some of them will be overlooked, with disastrous effect on the mower.

Merion Bluegrass sod, if expense is not a factor, is ideal for covering slopes. In a location of this kind, extra watering may be necessary, even where a Merion lawn on the level needs no artificial irrigation. Ordinary chemical fertilizers wash out so quickly from sloping lawns that they must be applied in small doses, dissolved in water so the grass plants can take them up almost as soon as applied. Frequent applications are necessary to maintain fertility.

The new "one-shot" mixtures of ureaform nitrogen with other sources of nitrogen work particularly well, since they do not leach readily. They can be used at even heavier rates than recommended on level lawns, applying up to 8 pounds of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. At these rates, application should be made before the grass starts to grow in spring. A soil spiker or aerifying device should be used once a year to loosen the soil on a slope and allow moisture to penetrate without running off.

Chips Off The Chapter

1. It's usually much easier—and cheaper, and better—to rehabilitate a decrepit lawn than to start all over again. Even the ravages of weeds and pests can be overcome.
2. Re-seeding is sometimes necessary and always helpful. But very often a program of regular fertilizing is all that is required to revitalize "tired" grasses into rich new growth.
3. Compaction of the soil is a common cause of sickly turf. Aeration is the solution.
4. Sod usually is expensive but also is without peer if you want an immediate lawn restoration.

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