When Is The Best Time Of Day To Water Your Lawn?

Some homeowners seem to find that they can only water their lawn when it is convenient for them. This for them may mean early in the day, late in the day, or even after sunset (if an irrigation system is being used). There is one time during the day, however, when a lawn stands to benefit the most from being watered. That time is after any overnight dew has evaporated and before mid-afternoon when the day’s heat is strongest.

The reason you should wait until after your lawn is dry (no longer damp from the overnight dew) is because there are certain water-borne fungi that require 8 to 10 or more hours of moisture before they will start to flourish. For example, if it began raining at 6 p.m. and stopped at 11 p.m., but then because of cooler night temperatures your lawn remained wet until sunrise at 6 a.m., your lawn will already have been continuously wet for 12 hours. If you were to begin watering your lawn - either manually or via an irrigation system - at 6 a.m., you would be extending the time that your lawn has been continuously wet and thereby increasing the possibility of a fungus problem. It would be much better in this situation to hold off watering until the previous day’s rain or the previous night’s dew has completely evaporated and your lawn has become dry to the touch. Once it has become dry it would take another 8 to 10 or more hours of being continuously wet for any fungi to start flourishing again.

Another important consideration in the watering of your lawn is to have watered the lawn just prior to the time of day that it needs it most. Since mid-afternoon is usually the hottest part of the day, it is best to have finished watering by this time. If you have watered prior to the hottest part of the day then your lawn will be in much better condition to survive the coming heat.

There is an old wives tale that says, “One should not water their lawn on a hot sunny day because it will burn the lawn”. Although there is much I could say about this old wives tale, I will refrain and simply say that this is bunk. Your lawn will do far better if you give it the water it needs prior to the hottest part of the day than if you just stand by and watch it bake in the sun.

In simple terms, the best time to water your lawn is anytime between about 10 o’clock in the morning and approximately 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

NEXT TIME: How Much Should I Water My Lawn?

How Often Should You Mow Your Lawn?

For many busy homeowners, the only time they have to mow their lawn is on the weekend. However, if your lifestyle allows you to mow your lawn when you see fit, then I do have some suggestions as to when it is most desirable to mow.

The ideal time to mow your lawn is when the length that you will be removing is equal to 1/4 to 1/3 of the length that will be left behind. An example of this for a lawn that consists mostly of Kentucky Blue Grass and that is being maintained at a height of 3 inches, is to mow when the turf height reaches 4 inches. If you do this you will be cutting off 1 inch, and that 1 inch represents 1/3 of 3 inches (which is the height of the grass after the mowing). Another example would be trying to maintain your turf at 2 inches. In this case, when the height of your lawn reaches 2-1/2 inches it would be time to mow. Here you are removing 1/2 inch and what remains is 2 inches long. (1/2 inch is 1/4 of 2 inches.)

Please note, this is not rocket science. The aim is to avoid mowing such that you’re removing half or more of the turf’s height at a time. When you cut that much off during one mowing, it will put your turf under unnecessary stress. Additionally, it will not allow you to easily mulch as you mow. I have seen all too often where a homeowner will let their lawn overgrow to maybe 6 inches and then mow their lawn with their mower set at 2 inches. That practice is extremely hard on the turf.

In the Springtime, when most grasses have an accelerated surge in growth, it is healthier for your lawn to mow more often. This could mean more than once a week depending on how much water, rain, sunshine and nutrients your lawn is receiving. Oftentimes during the heat of the summer months, lawns may go into dormancy. When and if this happens to your lawn, you will find that your lawn does not need to be mowed for much longer periods of time.

So when it comes to the timing of your mowing, just keep in mind to mow it as necessary so that you’re not removing too much of its growth at any one mowing.

NEXT TIME: When Is The Best Time to Water Your Lawn?

The Benefits of Mulch Mowing

In my last tip I talked a bit about thatch. I would now like to discuss mulch mowing - the mowing of turf where the clippings are not sent to a catcher. They are instead held suspended under the deck, where they are continuously re-cut until they are of such a fine consistency that they drop back into the lawn. There are many homeowners who have a false belief that this type of mowing will cause or increase thatch. This is not true.

Just above the surface of the soil, the thatch layer consists mostly of dead and living grass roots. After mowing a lawn with a mulching mower there is a fine layer of grass clippings that will be lying below the surface of the turf. Some of these clippings may fall through and actually rest on top of the thatch layer. However, the fact of the matter is that, wherever they land, all of these finely chopped grass clippings will break down usually in less than 7 to 10 days. These clippings decompose by being acted on by microbes in the soil that the lawn grows in. This decomposition is accelerated each time it rains or the lawn is watered. It is important to note here that during this decomposition of the grass clippings all of their nutrients are released. Many of these released nutrients will find their way back into your growing lawn. Research indicates that as much as 10 to 15 percent of a lawn’s required nutrients can be applied by simply using a mulching mower. This means the cost of feeding your lawn can be reduced.

The use of a mulching mower has other benefits as well. Until the cut clippings have decomposed they will help shade part of the lawn and any exposed soil, which will slow water loss in your lawn and inhibit the germination of weed seeds. Some of the most immediate benefits to mulching your lawn are: not needing to collect clippings in a catcher that weighs your mower down; not having to continually empty that catcher; not having to store garbage bags full of smelly clippings; and knowing that you are not unnecessarily contributing to the landfills.

Another thing you may want to consider if you do not have a mulching mower is mowing your lawn with a mower that has a side-chute attached. If you go this route you may have to overlap a bit more while you are mowing but the net effect will be very similar. And lastly, though you should always avoid mowing your lawn while it is wet, this is particularly true if you are using a mulching mower. Mowing a wet lawn with a mulching mower will cause wet clumps of grass to be deposited on your lawn and the underside of the mowing deck to become packed with mushy grass.

NEXT TIME: How Often Should I Mow My Lawn?

Don’t Get Sold On Power Raking

There are many homeowners – and lawn care providers, as well – who believe that power raking should be a part of every Spring clean-up. My experience has been that power raking is rarely necessary for most lawns. For example, advocates of power raking usually claim that it will solve the problem of excess thatch. Although it may indeed remove thatch, usually it will also remove perfectly healthy grass plants or slice-and-dice them so that they will soon die. After a lawn has been power raked there is a considerable amount of exposed soil throughout the “lawn”. It may take weeks – sometimes months – for a lawn to recover from this treatment. Also, while it is recovering there is a very good chance that both broadleaf weeds and crabgrass will sprout and take hold in those bare areas.

The fact of the matter is, a half an inch or so of thatch is actually beneficial to your lawn. If, however, your lawn feels spongy as you walk across it, you may indeed have an excess of thatch. A much better solution than power raking is core aeration. A core aeration machine punches holes into the surface of the soil then pulls out and deposits small plugs of soil all across the lawn. These cores should not be raked up or disturbed. They should be allowed to remain on the surface of the lawn until they have been rained on or watered a couple of times. When the soil in these cores becomes wet, it will run down to the thatch layer and introduce microbes into that layer. The net effect of this process is that the thatch layer is now being composted by having soil both above and below. This is a very natural process and it does not tear up your lawn. Any remaining debris from the coring plugs can then be raked up, mowed up or just left to decompose.

An important consideration here is that the core aeration process does much more than naturally reduce the thatch layer. If the soil your lawn is trying to grow in has been compacted due to heavy foot or vehicle traffic, then core aeration is probably the best method to correct this situation. Also, after core aeration more water can find its way into the lawn’s root system as opposed to running off the hard surface. Yet another benefit is that it allows more oxygen and fertilizer to find it’s way into your lawn root zone.

So the bottom line here is that if your lawn needs to be treated for excess thatch or if the soil your grass is growing in is compacted, you’ll get much better results by using the core aeration technique than by power raking.

NEXT TIME: The Benefits of Mulch Mowing

When You Absolutely Positively Should Not Use Pre-Emergent Crabicide

If you, as a homeowner, decide in the Springtime that you want to apply grass seed to your lawn in the coming months, then it would be best to forgo an application of pre-emergent crabicide (or a Springtime fertilizer that also contains this crabicide). Many of the chemicals used as a pre-emergence crabicide are not specific to crabgrass. Several of these chemicals will also kill or inhibit the sprouting of desirable grass seeds as well. If you have small areas in your lawn that need special attention and a little extra grass seed, an extra heavy raking in these areas may undo the effect of pre-emergence crabicide that has already been applied. If, however, your intent is to over-seed much of your existing lawn, you will have much better results if you have not applied a pre-emergence crabicide beforehand.

If you have had problems with crabgrass in your lawn in the past, the timely application of pre-emergence crabicide is generally considered the best prevention. Now, if your intent is to over-seed your lawn with desirable grass seed and to forgo the application of a pre-emergence crabicide, you still have controls available to you. One such control is the use of a post-emergent crabicide (common crabgrass killer). This type of product is applied to areas of the lawn containing crabgrass for the purpose of killing just the crabgrass. Although this may be a more labor intensive alternative to pre-emergence control of crabgrass, it is a viable option when it is your intent to over-seed your lawn. In other words it’s much easier to prevent the crabgrass from ever getting started than it is to kill it once it has started to invade your lawn.

And just so you know, the very best and most natural control of crabgrass is to keep your turf thick, dense, and mowed high. Crabgrass tends to get its start in lawns that are thin and mowed too short. The crabgrass seed will only sprout when the conditions are ideal - with an excess of water and an abundance of sunshine. Keeping your turf tall and thick keeps the crabgrass seed (down at the soil level) out of the sunlight and it cannot germinate. And watering should be minimized, only done when needed in the absence of rain.

NEXT TIME: Don’t Get Sold on Power-Raking

Don’t Undo the Effectiveness of Your Crabicide Application

Before getting into the details of my 4th tip, it’s important that the homeowner understand a few things here. The first thing is that crabgrass is an annual plant; any time it is exposed to freezing temperatures it is going to die. Another thing is that every year crabgrass starts new from seed - and these seeds are already in your soil. They are extremely tiny, and research has shown that they can survive alive but dormant in the soil for many, many decades until the conditions are right for them to sprout.

For example, in the Springtime there may be an unusually warm period during which crabgrass seeds can sprout. But if after several days of this warm weather the temperatures should drop again below freezing, all the new crabgrass seedlings are going to die. The point here is that in early Spring when temperatures are still dropping below freezing (even if only overnight), you still have Mother Nature protecting your lawn against the emergence of crabgrass. Once temperatures no longer drop below freezing, crabgrass can sprout and may begin to take over your lawn.

So if you’re trying to prevent crabgrass, it is important to apply a pre-emergent crabicide while temperatures are still occasionally dropping below freezing because this chemical only kills crabgrass sprouts in their earliest stages. If crabgrass has started to establish itself, it is the freezing temperatures that will kill it, not the pre-emergent crabicide. But once this chemical is down, crabgrass cannot establish itself - if it hasn’t already - regardless of the temperature.

One more bit of information here. The chemical barrier that pre-emergence crabicide leaves at the surface of the soil can be destroyed with heavy raking. In other words, heavy raking should be avoided after an application of this crabicide, as this has a tendency to undo much of the protection that the crabicide was offering.

If any of the above seems confusing to you, just remember this: do your heavy raking early, apply the crabicide, and then do not do any more heavy raking until the Fall.

NEXT TIME: When You Absolutely Positively Should Not Use Pre-Emergent Crabicide

Early Spring Cleanup

To recap my first two tips:
1) Make sure you start the season with a sharp mower blade.
2) Maintain a sharp blade throughout the mowing season.

This post is about my 3rd tip, which concerns early Spring cleanup. Since your lawn has had little or no attention through the winter months, chances are good that it now requires special attention. If there are any leaves from the previous autumn still laying on your lawn, it's now time to make sure they're raked up. There may also be small twigs or branches under trees that have fallen to the ground since last autumn. Anything else - such as litter, kid's toys, pet droppings, or whatever you may find that doesn't belong on your lawn - should also be picked up.

If you feel that a vigorous hard raking is necessary for your lawn, this should be done as early as is possible in the Springtime. This may mean raking even before you see signs of fresh growth in this year's lawn. By giving your lawn this vigorous raking now, not only will you be removing debris that would otherwise be dulling your mower blade but you will have this chore done early enough to complement an application of crabicide.

To get the best bang for your buck, crabicide should be applied after any hard raking is done and while nighttime temperatures still drop below freezing. This technique is critical if you have had any problems with crabgrass sprouting in your lawn in the past.

I will discuss the implications of this technique in my next tip.

NEXT TIME: Don't Undo the Effectiveness of Your Crabicide Application