The other day I dared to voyage into a territory that no father should.  I entered my son’s bedroom.  At least I think it was a bedroom, even though I couldn’t see any bed with all the junk piled up on the floor and furniture.  I explained to him that he needed to take more pride in his room and keep it clean.  He didn’t believe that pride had anything to do with keeping his room clean and neat.  I explained that taking care of our belongings is a demonstration of pride in our society.

 

This taking care of our belongings is why having a lush, green lawn is a major symbol of enormous pride for homeowners.  We Americans become overly critical of our neighbors if their lawn isn’t perfectly manicured all year long.  It is a tenet that no one can actually have any pride if they have dandelions growing in their lawn.  

 

I blame Thomas Jefferson for America’s great obsession with the lush, green lawn.  As far as I can tell Jefferson was the first American to put a lawn in the US at his Monticello Estate.  This obsession has caused people to buy “vacation properties”, and tear out the wildflowers and beautiful woods so that they can show the homeowner pride by putting in a lawn and mowing all weekend.  I believe it would be more of a retreat if the mower stayed home.

 

Since we are obsessed with our lawns we need know how to irrigate properly to have a stunning lawn.  Water is essential to all living organisms.  Too much water can cause drowning and too little can cause dehydration.  Water makes up 70% to 80% of the weight of lawn grasses.  Clippings are 90% water.

 

Most people actually over water their lawns.  Over watering creates problems for your lawn such as encouraging diseases.  Many of the fungal diseases require a period of moisture to germinate.  The longer the lawn is moist the more disease problems are likely to occur. 

 

Watering in the morning will promote quicker drying of the grass blades than watering in the evening.  The less time the blades are wet, the fewer the disease problems.  It is usually cooler and less windy in the morning.  During this time more water will make it to the turf roots and not evaporate or blow over to the neighbors.  We don’t want to help out the neighbors since our goal is to show the neighbors we have more pride.

 

Demonstrating true pride in your lawn means taking time to look at it.  This is the best way to know if your lawn needs water.  Grass will turn a blue gray and wilt when it starts to dehydrate.  Grass that is in need of water will leave footprints longer than usual when you walk across it.

 

By going out and checking your lawn you are showing much more pride than setting a clock on an automatic irrigation system.  How many of you have seen an automatic irrigation system running during a rainstorm.  I guess the water they are pumping out is better for the grass than what is coming from the rain.

 

When you water, water deeply to encourage deeper roots.  It is believed that shallow watering encourages the germination of weed seeds that are near the soil surface.  Shallow watering also creates shallow root systems that are susceptible to drought.  After you water, it isn’t a bad idea to go out and dig a hole and see how deep you are watering. 

 

Make sure that your sprinklers are hitting the lawn.  Remember pavement is a non-living organism and does not need to be watered.  Watering the driveway is money down the drain.  Water that runs off the lawn onto the driveway is also taking nutrients away from your lawn.

 

The last thing I want to say is people who truely have pride in their lawn never cause soil compaction.  This means that after you irrigate or after a rain do not drive on the lawn or mow the lawn.  Soil is very sensitive to compaction when it is wet and you need to stay off the lawn.  Many of our lawn problems occur because of soil compaction.

1809 eastman avenue • midland • michigan • 800.362.4874 • tierney@dowgardens.org