Environmentalists Demand Alternatives to Pesticide Use

More and more homeowners are trying to find ways to reduce or eliminate the use of traditional pesticides in their lawns (and sometimes even in the lawns of their neighbors).

Some environmentally conscious homeowners believe that many traditional pesticides are much more dangerous and unhealthy than the pesticide industry would have us believe. Quite a few cities in Canada have already taken steps to restrict the use of some traditional pesticides. This backlash against pesticide use seems to be gaining momentum.

If you are unfamiliar with this growing battle between environmental groups and the pesticide industry, I’d like to refer you to a recent article written by

Bruce Taylor Seeman with Newhouse News Service

Bruce does a good job of outlining the health concerns of the environmental groups and the responses that the pesticide manufacturers have regarding these concerns.

You Need To Get Down On Your Hands And Knees

For any homeowner who is serious about caring for his lawn, you must occasionally get down on your hands and knees and get your eyeballs into the lawn. If you don’t do this once in a while you may miss an opportunity to discover early that small insects may have invaded your lawn or that a lawn disease is in its early stages.

When you’re looking closely at your lawn, look for unusual discoloration or spots on the leaf blades. Also, when you’re down and close like this you can get a pretty good idea of how sharp your mower blade is by how clean the cut is. If most of the cut leaves of grass do not have fuzzy white-ish fibers sticking out past the cut line, your mower blade is probably sharp enough.

If you’re examining your lawn close up and your lawn looks a little thinner than it has and the grass leaf blades appear to be folded along a center crease, this may indicate that the grass is trying to protect itself when it is very hot and dry. Although this is not necessarily cause for alarm, this folding of the leaves becomes quite obvious when you are down and close to the lawn. So if your lawn has been getting an adequate supply of water, then the folded leaves are just an interesting bit of plant behavior. Also on close examination, chances are pretty good that you will notice an insect, a spider or perhaps an ant here and there. But again, unless you find these in great numbers, you need not be concerned.

Most lawns are made up of several desirable varieties of grass. For instance, many bluegrass lawns also contain fescues and perennial rye. When standing over the lawn it can be very difficult to distinguish the different varieties that are mixed together. However, examining the length, width, color, smoothness, etc. of the grass blades when you are close up will help you identify the different types of grass that make up your lawn.

The whole point of getting down and close to your lawn is to become better acquainted with your lawn, the soil it grows in, and the insects that live there. And besides, getting down on your hands and knees and poking around through the grass can be a bit of an adventure. The kind of adventure maybe not experienced since childhood - and we could all use more of those.

NEXT TIME: I will try to post some links to information on the net that lawn care enthusiasts may find useful.

Lawn Diseases

There are several lawn diseases that can appear on a homeowner’s lawn. Some diseases are more harmful than others but some of the damage can often be reduced by the cultural practices of the homeowner.

Most lawn diseases only start after favorable conditions develop, and then if these conditions remain the disease will spread. Favorable conditions for a lawn disease may include turf that is under extreme stress and turf growing in poor soil conditions. Even the weather can impact the development of a lawn disease.

One of the easiest things a homeowner can do to avoid or lessen a disease in their lawn is to plant disease resistant varieties of grass. It also helps to use grass mixes and blends of different varieties of grass, as, if a disease affects one variety of your turf mix it may leave the others alone. Two other cultural practices include not over-watering or over-fertilizing your lawn, as some diseases prefer wet conditions or high nitrogen.

Diseases such as Dollar Spot, Red Thread, and Rust are apt to appear in lawns that are low on fertility and high on moisture. Other diseases that might appear under conditions of excess nitrogen and a heavy thatch condition include Leaf Spot (sometimes referred to as “Melting Out”) or Snow Mold. Lawn diseases that are apt to appear where there is a heavy clay soil, soil compaction or heavy thatch include Summer Patch, Necrotic Ring Spot, and Fusarium Blight.

Although some lawn diseases are easily identified, others may be much more difficult. My advice to a homeowner is that if they suspect a lawn disease has infected their lawn, they contact a professional. It can be very difficult for a homeowner to differentiate one disease from another and sometimes to even differentiate between disease and insect damage. A professional, however, makes these determinations on a regular basis. Payment for his advise is usually money well spent.

There is also a lot of good information on “lawn diseases” on the internet and it as close as your favorite search engine.

NEXT TIME: You Need To Get Down On Your Hands And Knees

The Best Kept Lawns Have The Most Problems

A lawn tends to adapt itself to the care and treatment that it receives from the homeowner. If a homeowner indulges his lawn with regular watering, regular feeding, and regular use of pesticides, his lawn will adapt itself and come to expect the continuation of this treatment.

It is important to understand that when a lawn is subjected in a limited way to drought, insect infestation or disease, it builds some resistance to these conditions. There is the process of natural selection at work.

If you water your lawn on a very regular basis you will be cultivating many thousands of individual grass plants that are all accustomed to receiving regular watering. Now if something should happen to disrupt this regular watering - such as an imposed watering ban or an extended trip away from home - this lawn will find itself without all the water it has grown accustomed to receiving. This lawn will be less able to survive any type of drought as compared to another lawn that has become adapted to periodic droughts. During a drought any individual grass plants that are intolerant to drought are apt to die out. In a lawn that has become adapted to an occasional drought there will be many individual grass plants that are in fact very well adapted to prolonged drought. When these adapted lawns begin to receive water or rain again, it is these drought resistant grass plants that will be left to reproduce themselves.

This same adaptability also holds true when it comes to a lawn’s resistance to attacks by insects and disease. If you continually apply preventative chemicals - such as pesticides and fungicides - your lawn will have less chance to develop its own natural resistance to attacking forces. Also, it should be noted that if you maintain the lushest, greenest and healthiest lawn in your neighborhood, then your lawn may become the lawn of choice for hungry grass-eating insects looking for a place to lay their eggs.

The bottom line here is that natural selection is always at work despite what you do or don’t do for your lawn. If you want your lawn to have more natural resistance to whatever Mother Nature might throw at it, don’t be too regular and too quick to intercede on your lawn’s behalf. Your lawn will adapt to that behavior and you are apt to become a slave to your lawn.

NEXT TIME: Lawn Diseases

More Homeowners Are Turning To Native Grasses As Their Turf Of Choice

A growing number of homeowners are trying to find low maintenance alternatives to the common American lawn. Many of them are turning to native grasses.

In order to better explain the growing popularity of native grasses, let me first discuss the more commonly used turf grasses. Many of today’s turf grasses were either brought to this country by immigrants or they are relatively new products developed by horticultural research scientists. These recently introduced grasses have not had time to evolve and adapt for survival in the places they are used the way that native grasses have.

Native grasses are those grasses that have existed in their environments for thousands of years. They are well adapted to whatever Mother Nature may throw their way. They tend to survive harsh freezing weather, extreme droughts, severe insect damage, and many different diseases. In addition, they survive quite well given a lot less nutrients than the grasses typically used for homeowner’s lawns.

Some grasses native to the U.S.A. include:

• Bluestem,
• Buffalograss,
• Indiangrass, and
• Switchgrass.

There are also seed mixtures of these and other native grasses available.

Most native grasses are well suited for use in pastures (uncut), but several are being used more and more as lawns on homeowners’ property. If you decide to give native grasses a try, it is important that you select the varieties that are particularly native to the part of the country in which you live.

The bottom line here is that you can minimize or eliminate much of the work, expense, and chemical applications typically associated with the common turf type species of grass. If you are interested in learning more about native grasses, I encourage you to use your favorite search engine directed toward “native grasses”.

NEXT TIME: The Best Kept Lawns Have The Most Problems

More and More People Are Growing Less and Less Lawn

According to some historians, the concept of having a lawn grew out of the idea that having a lawn represented wealth, that the landowner could afford to leave a large portion of his property “unproductive”. A lawn meant the landowner could afford to purchase any food that he or any animals he owned might need. Otherwise, he would have had to put all of his land into production, like other people did.

This concept that large open expanses of green lawns represented success and prosperity has lingered for hundreds of years. There has, however, been a movement over the last 20 or 30 years or so that has challenged this age old custom. This movement is made up of people who believe that a lawn does not have to be the main focus of their property and that maybe it shouldn’t be. The people who feel this way tend to increase the size of flower beds, vegetable gardens, shrubbery beds, and naturalized areas in lieu of a large expanse of lawn.

The people who act on these beliefs may have different motivations. For some, they are unwilling or unable to care for a large expanse of lawn. Some others are just avid flower or vegetable gardeners and they need the room for their gardens. However there is another group - in fact a group that is growing - that believes a large expanse of turf is not only unnecessary but harmful to the environment. This group believes that the huge amounts of toxic substances (such as insecticides, fungicides and herbicides) along with the overused synthetic fertilizers do more harm to the environment than they are worth. Although the people in this group may not totally eliminate all lawn areas in their landscape, they do make efforts to minimize these areas.

Some of the alternatives to a large lawn include: naturalized areas (wild uncut grasses, wildflowers, or even small wood lots) or extensively cultivated areas (hybrid flower gardens, vegetable gardens and fruit trees). I guess the bottom line here is that if you have ever felt that you have more lawn area on your property than you want, there are plenty of attractive options.

NEXT TIME: More Homeowners Are Turning To Native Grasses As Their Turf Of Choice

Soil vs. Dirt

You can take what I have to say today with a grain of salt. It is just my personal preference and personal opinion with regard to using the term “dirt” when one is speaking about “soil”.

When I was young and had no understanding of the complexities of soil, I referred to soil as just dirt. If I had spent the day playing outdoors - perhaps digging or making mud pies or whatever - upon entering my home I was apt to hear the words from my mother, “Go wash that dirt off your hands!” And as the substance on my hands needed to be washed off, it truly was dirt. It was dirt because I had to scrub it off. I had to get it out from under my nails. It was dirt because it made me unclean.

Later, when I was older and studying horticulture, I gained a keen appreciation for all the dynamic interactions taking place in soil. From that time to this I have never referred to soil as dirt. Good rich topsoil can take centuries to develop. It is dynamic and is filled with all kinds of life, such as microbes, worms, fungi, insects, roots and more. It contains minerals and small rocks that vary in size from that of silt to pebbles. Soil also usually contains organic matter which is the decaying remnants of plant and animal life.

Now chances are pretty good that if you go down to your garden center and tell them that you need a few bags of dirt, they will know what you mean and direct you to a pallet loaded with bags of topsoil. After all, there will be nothing in the garden center labeled as “Dirt”. And, as we all learned as children, dirt is something to be avoided or to be washed away. The bottom line here is that because soil is the foundation of so many life forms on this planet that I have a very difficult time referring to it as lowly “dirt”. I prefer to give it the respect it deserves.

NEXT TIME: More and More People Are Growing Less and Less Lawn