Editor: In my area of South Langley, the Rural Road Maintenance Team is in the midst of a far too generous taxpayer-funded spending bonanza.

It started in the late winter, long before any visible grass growth, with trimming of the roadside verges. The next activity is the scouring of the ditches involving chopping of vegetation, chewing up the top couple of inches of dirt and massacre of every frog, toad, salamander and snake that lived there.

Each ditch warranted a pass on both sides of it and sometimes another up to the private property fence line. The final deed is the irregular gouging of often visually pleasing verges in the name of removing any grass sod with the temerity to grow above the level of the road surface.

So after all this action, five or six passes on each side of every road with diesel-guzzling heavy equipment belching noxious fumes, we end up with more air pollution, exuberant new vegetation growth in the ditches, ugly gouges in what were nicely owner-maintained grass verges and the murder of thousands of harmless amphibians.

Is this value for taxpayer dollars?

Margaret Ormston,

Langley

Link:
Maintenance overkill along South Langley roads

EDMONTON - Every spring when the snow is melting, Nicole Sharp puts out a sign on her front lawn, encouraging people to Feel my grass!

It saves people from knocking on our door, said Sharp, who estimates that between five and 10 people stop every spring day to marvel at her bright green grass compared to the neighbours brown and grey lawns. Many knock with questions. When the spring comes, it is ridiculous how many people stop and look at it.

After all, the grass is fake. Its plastic. Its perpetually bright green, even below the snow, yet never needs to be mowed or watered.

Sharp got her synthetic turf three years ago and is part of a growing wave of people in the Edmonton area choosing perfect plastic over growing grass. When Gary Selanders began his Evergreen Turf business in Edmonton eight years ago, he was busy installing the plastic product at about 15 houses during the summer.

In 2013, he laid down the fake blades at 130 houses. This summer, Selanders and his team of 13 workers expect to install synthetic turf at more than 200 homes and simply cant keep up with demand.

This has really boomed, said Selanders, whose company is the only Alberta dealer for U.S. grass-maker Southwest Greens. Its the only way to go. Its a no-brainer for people to put it in.

No more grass stains on her two sons clothing, Sharp said. No more snow mould or dandelions that set off the seven-year-olds allergies. No more aerating, fertilizing or watering. The Sharps got rid of their gas lawn mower the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one such lawn mower emits the same amount of air pollution as 11 new cars in one hour and replaced it with a lawn vacuum.

Yes, Sharp vacuums her lawn. She also uses a soft rake to brush away dust and dirt. Otherwise, the maintenance is low, she said, and far lower than when the family had dogs whose urine and digging killed the real grass.

PHOTOS: Grass certainly looks greener on the fake side of the fence

Barry Morgan, facility manager at the Edmonton Humane Society, said hes lobbying for cash to replace even more grassed areas with artificial turf. Currently, the dog daycare pen and exercise areas on the north side of the building are landscaped with dog-specific turf. They look brand-new even after five years of constant pawing, dog tussles and bathroom breaks, Morgan said.

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$9,000 can buy you a perfect (plastic) lawn|video

Dear Neil: I was told that I could dig a hole near one of my plants. Then I could punch small holes in the bottom and lower sides of a 2-liter bottle, put it down in the hole and fill it periodically with water to keep my plants hydrated. Is there anything about the plastic in the bottle that would hurt my plants?

A: Not at all. You could actually accomplish the same thing just by setting the bottom on top of the soil. That way the moisture would drain out quickly and be spread uniformly across the soil surface. Milk jugs have larger bottoms, so they actually might be better. Or you could just use conventional drip irrigation lines. They're tidier and quicker.

Dear Neil: My father has a peach tree that's 20 years old. It flowers, but the peaches never get bigger than an inch and a quarter. Last year, the immature peaches fell off. It has been the pattern for at least five years. What might the cause have been?

A: Peach fruit need to be thinned manually when they're about marble-sized. Leave enough that they are 6 or 7 inches apart on the branches. That allows them to develop to full size. Also, it's not uncommon for peaches to abort fruit, whether due to poor pollination, late freezes, wind and hail or a sudden turn toward hot weather.

Dear Neil: I've attached photos of my David Austin Sister Elizabeth rose. The same thing happened to two others last year in the same bed. I replanted with more of the same roses this year, and so far they seem to be doing fine. I don't believe it was a weedkiller, but I'm wondering how they could go from just starting to turn brown to dead within a week. I have a soaker hose beneath mulch. Could there be too much mulch?

A: If the soaker hose is functioning properly, and if it's beneath the mulch, there's not much way you could have too much mulch. I see in one of your photos that other plants nearby are doing just fine, while the rose plant is dying. Do check the soaker hose, to be sure that it's putting out the proper amount of water. I wonder if cotton root rot could be involved. That's a soil-borne fungus, but it's prevalent only in alkaline soils, and most of us put enough organic matter into our soils that it isn't present. Still, roses are highly susceptible. Unfortunately, that's about all I have to suggest.

Dear Neil: The photo attached shows a trouble spot in my St. Augustine. Three years ago, the grass in that area was thick and green. I've treated for grub worms and other pest problems, and nothing has worked. I water frequently early in the morning, so the area is not allowed to dry out. I had my soil tested by Texas A&M last year, and I applied all the minerals that were suggested. How can I get the grass back to being healthy and vigorous?

A: In my 40 years of this column and radio talk shows, this has always been my No. 1 question. You have done a great job of listing all the things people think might have caused their grass to die out. But, as almost everyone does (Me included for a year or two way back when!), you neglected the most obvious one. Over those three years, your trees have grown larger and their shade has become denser. Look at the shadow patterns on your grass in the photo. Even St. Augustine needs 4 to 6 hours of direct sunlight in summer, and when it doesn't get it, it starts to die away just as your grass is doing. New sod has yet another disadvantage, because not only is it trying to get itself established, but it also has lost much of its root system as it was being dug. You'll either have to remove some lower branches from your trees to get more sunlight to the grass, or you'll have to switch over to a shade-tolerant groundcover. I went the latter route beginning 15 years ago, and I'm really glad that I did. Sure, I don't have turfgrass, but it's allowed me to develop an attractive and functional landscape.

Dear Neil: We have Texas mountain laurels that are probably around 18 feet tall. Our gutters are somewhere in the 12-foot range, and the mountain laurels clog them up with leaves and debris. Can I trim them back to stay below the gutters? (They are basically bare in their bottom 6 feet.)

A: Probably not. Hopefully they're out away from the house by several feet, and if they are, you might invest in a type of gutter guard that allows leaves and other litter to wash off the roof and fall to the ground. I don't think you're going to like the look of whacked-back mountain laurels. Plus, they'll just regrow.

Link:
Milk jugs, 2-liter bottles good for worry-free irrigation

It might be 90-degrees right now, but some in Warrick County are still feeling the effects of the cold. The Tri-State experienced an exceptionally long and cold winter which is causing some problems now on athletic fields. In just six weeks football players will hit the fields again. And the Warrick County School Corporation's maintenance staff certainly has their work cut out for them. One thing they won't have to worry about is cutting the grass because, well, there's not much to cut. "All of our athletic fields that have Bermuda Grass sustained some damage due to the long cold winter" Warrick County Superintendent Brad Schneider says it will cost about $30,000 to resprig six athletic fields. While some maintenance is needed after each winter, this year will take a little extra work to get the fields ready in time. "We still feel very confident that when August rolls around and when football season starts we're going to have a nice stand of grass. Our athletic fields whether it be soccer or football are going to be in excellent shape," said Superintendent Schneider.

The corporation considered laying down sod instead of spriging, but grass experts told leaders that was no longer a viable option. "Just as the golf courses and athletic facilities that have Bermuda Grass were damaged this winter so were the sod fields," said Superintendent Schneider. Other neighboring counties have switched from grass to turf fields. Superintendent Schneider says they've considered that before, but is confident sticking with traditional grass is the right thing to do. "We feel confident that right now that Bermuda and the real grass is a little bit cheaper in the long run and I think our kids prefer playing on real grass." Bennett Field may be 80% brown at the moment, but Bermuda Grass grows very quickly. It could be green and lush within the next six weeks. All it needs is heat and humidity.

More here:
School Corporation Still Feeling Sting from Harsh Winter

Some Wiggins residents are concerned that the new sod at the baseball field is turning brown.

During the meeting of the Wiggins Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Wiggins Town Administrator Jim Musgrave said he is looking for some conditioner for the grass, and trying to get the sprinkler system back into shape.

Apparently, the sprinklers settled once the ground thawed and water softened the ground, and they will need to be rearranged to make them work right, he said.

When the Wiggins Fire Department recently practiced, firefighters sprayed the field with their water, rather than just put it anywhere, said Wiggins Police Chief Leroy Dilka.

This field is part of renovations at the park, and the Great Outdoors Colorado officials have been pleased with the latest report, said Wiggins Town Clerk Jessica Warden-Leon.

She said concrete work has begun at the fields, and the backstop and fencing have been taken down to allow work. Gravel was ordered for the playground, and workers are getting ready to put sprinklers in at the other fields.

After that, workers will look at laying new sod in other areas, Warden-Leon said.

One hitch in the plans is that one of the public works employees was injured while working on the park, and will likely not be able to work for some time.

Beautification

Wiggins is trying to beautify the town to get ready for the Pedal the Plains bicycling event, which will begin in town.

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Town working on beautification

I wish I knew all the names of the types of grass that grow here. Certainly I recognize them, and could describe them, (theres one that has spiky roots and one that has long, long roots) but other than witch grass, my father never taught me the names.I guess he felt like most people; why bother? Theres so much grass and its so ubiquitous that it doesnt really matter. All you have to do is recognize it.

My gardens are ready for planting, and today I decided to plant zinnias, which Im going to use for my daughters September wedding. As I sowed the seed I pulled up the bits of grass that were already taking hold in the tilled earth. As any gardener knows, grass is relentless and if you leave even a bit of root it will come back with renewed vigor.

Once the flowers were planted I moved over to my potato patch, and dug up some encroaching sod around the edge. I got on my knees and grabbed each clump of lawn with both hands so I could pound it against the ground and loosen the dirt around the roots. Then I gathered up the clumps and placed them on the bank by the river, to help forestall erosion.

I spend a lot of time fighting grass, and like most people, I take it for granted. But today, for some reason, I am thinking about how vital it is to us. Other than water and sun, grass is probably the most important thing on Earth. If some calamity overtakes our planet and every plant but grass dies we might still make a go of it. After all, barley, corn, millet, oats, rice, sorghum, bamboo and wheat are all grasses. Thatch, fuel, baskets, alcohol, paper and clothing can be made out of grass. The grass family, technically called graminoids, is the most versatile of all plants. It has adapted to every environment, and is the dominant vegetation in grassland, marsh, swamp and steppe. For many animals, including some omnivores, it is their main source of food.

Walt Whitman is not my favorite American poet, and I sometimes think he could have used some editing, but he made a brilliant choice when he called his first book Leaves Of Grass. Although it was apparently a pun, because publishers called minor works of literature grass and leaves is another name for pages, to me it has another, deeper meaning. The poems are as dense, ornamental, varied, ordinary and vital as grass. There is a section in Song of Myself that I always return to when someone I love dies.

After my mother died, when I was sixteen, my father kept her ashes on a bureau in the living room. They sat there radiating sorrow, and I used to make a wide arc around them as I walked through the room. One day I gathered up my courage, and my sister and I opened the box. I had expected something like stove ashes, but instead found pebbles of clean, porous bone. Perhaps my father knew how hard it was for us to have the ashes there, becuase eventually he spread them on the garden and lawn.

Through some bit of serendipity, I was studying Whitman in high school. I found a section in Song of Myself, which spoke to my very heart, and copied it out and pinned it on the wall in my bedroom. Heres an excerpt:

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;

How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it

is any more than he.

More here:
Life Here: Grass Is Persistent, Ubiquitous, Essential and Oddly Comforting

I love lawns. Not big lawns, and they dont need to be pure Kentucky bluegrass, either. I love a little bit of mowed green that has some grass and clover; it can have a few dandelions or bluets or violets, too. I can live with Creeping Charlie (also called ground ivy or by its scientific name, Glechoma hederacea). Overall my philosophy is this: If its green and you can mow it, its a lawn. Only thistles and other sharp things need to be dug out, but never nuked with chemicals.

Despite that philosophy, people often remark on how lush and thick my lawn is, and how nice it feels underfoot. Having a nice lawn is easy if you follow a few simple rules.

First, stop worrying about it. And certainly never add any chemicals to it. Weed-n-feed formulas not only kill off the broad-leafed plants like dandelions, they also diminish the biological activity in the soil. I want a healthy soil full of microbes (including bacteria and fungi) and know that many microbes are killed or adversely affected by chemicals.

Chemical fertilizers are made of salts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These have the ability to dry out and kill microbes. And of course, if your product includes chemicals for killing moss, weeds, fungi or insects, all those chemicals add to the killing power. Your soil cringes when you load up the spreader with weed-n-feed.

If you want to have a good healthy lawn, you need good healthy soil. It needs about 6 inches of reasonably good soil that drains well (so as not to drown the lawn grasses), but is not so sandy that it dries out in an afternoon. Cut and peel back a one-foot square piece of sod after a rainstorm, and look at the soil. Grab a handful of soil. Does it form a cylinder in your hand when you squeeze it, and hold its shape when you open your fingers? If so, you have clay, or a clay-based soil.

If you perform the squeeze test on sandy soil, it will crumble apart when you open your fingers. When you rub the soil between your fingers, you will feel sharp grains of sand. But if you have a nice loam, the soil with be dark and the cylinder will fall apart if you touch it with a finger.

If you are not happy with your lawn, I suggest getting your soil tested. The Extension Service in most states will have online instructions on how to take a soil sample, and where to send it. Some garden centers have kits for sale. Find out what kind of soil you have, what it needs, and if your soil pH is in the right zone.

Soil pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline your soil is. Lawns do best when the soil pH is near neutral (which is 7.0) or slightly acidic. Our rain is acidic, and neglected soils including most lawns have soil that is pretty acidic. You can fix this easily by adding limestone to the lawn, and a pH test will tell you how much to add to balance it out. If your soil is too far from neutral, some soil minerals will become unavailable to the grass plants, even if the minerals are there. You can add limestone at any time, though most lawn experts recommend the fall so that it will have time to do its work before spring growth begins.

The other additive that helps an anemic lawn is compost or organic matter. Good crumbly compost can be flung around the lawn with a shovel and then raked out to provide even coverage. Doing that now would help. Earthworms in a healthy lawn will be more than willing to eat that compost and then excrete the nutritious ingredients into the soil.

Earthworms, fungi and bacteria also will help you improve your lawn by breaking down your grass clippings. Those clippings will add organic matter and enrich your soil. So cut your lawn regularly, avoiding a thick layer of clippings that needs to be bagged or raked.

See the article here:
Notes From the Garden: Take It Easy When Taking Care of the Lawn

Maybe your first sighting of a sod webworm invasion is moths flitting about through your landscape. What are they doing and are they affecting the grass, shrubs or even your cloths? These brown dingy moths could give the cat something to chase and may set a few new residents in a bit of a tizzy but for most gardeners they are a well-known start of the summer lawn pest season. By the way, they do not affect shrubs or clothing.

Actually the arrival of sod webworm moths appears early this year. They are more likely Fourth of July arrivals but they are already here. You might blame it on the warm winter. Maybe they did not die back to South Florida as they normally do or maybe they just over wintered here.

First signs of these insects are the moth stages that move about in the yard in the late afternoon. They can be numerous and are about impossible to catch without a butterfly net. They flit about laying eggs that could produce the grass feeding larvae we call webworms. I say they could, because many eggs and young larvae are consumed by natural controls of bugs and spiders living in your lawn. So, you may never see the webworms or their damage.

Only when you notice the grass starting to disappear might you become a bit concerned sod webworms are at work. Now here is some good news. They like to feed in crabgrass the most. Just think they might only eat the crabgrass and leave the St. Augustine alone. Well that is wishful thinking.

If you do have sod webworms feeding, dont get too nervous. The voracious larvae seldom kill an otherwise healthy lawn. Still, most gardeners do not like to see their grass chewed down to nubbins. If you have sod webworms feeding, some natural controls are available as Dipel or spinosad containing insecticides found at local garden centers. Where needed many other good insecticides are ready to use too. Just follow the label for the product you choose. One treatment should be all you need.

Sod webworms are easy to control. There is no reason to let them mow down your lawn.

Follow this link:
Sod Webworms Are Back In Town

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SACRAMENTO (CBS13) Do you let the grass turn brown, or keep watering the fields and hope the plants make it through the summer?

Thats the balancing act maintenance crews at local parks are going through during this years drought.

The iconic Rose Garden at McKinley park may be safe, but the fields are fading fast.

We are not going to let the roses die, said Sacramento parks director Jim Combs. Two days of water is not enough to keep the parks green. They will go brown but they shouldnt die because they are still going to be getting water.

The city is left deciding which plants, trees and grass get more water than others.

The important thing is yes they are going to be stressed, they probably arent going to be real healthy but they should still be recoverable, Combs said.

Park goers like Greg White say the choice is easy.

I think if you had to make a choice is go for the trees its hard to renew those, he said. Grass you can seed and sod and bring back pretty quickly.

Read the rest here:
Trees Or Fields? Parks Directors Face Tough Choices In California Drought

Proper mowing of your lawn can kill weeds and chinch bugs, cure disease, save water and provide fertilizer. However, improper mowing can be harmful.

Mowing is stressful to grass because it is meant to grow tall, mature and make seeds. Man decided that lawns look good when freshly mowed and most people feel the shorter the better. But a close cut doesnt do much for your lawn or your water bill.

Grasses are basal-growing plants. The growing point is at the crown (the area between the root and the blade) of the plant near the soil line. The tips are the oldest part of the blade which means you can cut off their tops without killing them. When you cut the tips, new growth pushes up from the crown. When the mower cuts off those grass tips, it causes severe shock to the grass plant.

Grass lives primarily on food manufactured in its blades not on what is drawn up through the roots. Cutting the blades reduces the ability of the plant to manufacture food. That food is used for both top and root growth so the shorter you cut the grass the less root growth you will have.

A plant with deep roots will be better able to withstand drought, fight off disease and insects and store food manufactured in the leaves. So the longer the root the healthier the grass. Every time the grass is cut the root system is weakened to some degree. When cut too severely, the roots stop growing. Mowing tears the plant and creates ports of entry for disease. Sharp mower blades give a cleaner cut which heals faster.

Mowing has actually tamed the wild grasses of our past. Mowing grass before it sets seeds prevents sexual reproduction and many grasses respond by reproducing asexually by spreading stolons and rhizomes creating a thicker lawn. How high you mow will also influence the spread of the grass. A higher cut makes healthier grass with deeper roots, more mass for photosynthesis and more stolons and rhizomes for a thicker sod which means less weed invasion.

You should also take into account that grass grows at different rates throughout the seasons. The summer months require more frequent mowing than our cold winter and dry spring months when you should not cut as often. The cold weather will slow the growth and bi-weekly mowing will be all that is needed. Some lawns could go three weeks or a month without mowing during a really cold winter. If the grass doesnt need to be mowed save it from the extra stress and dont mow it. Then we move into the dry spring months and grasses will be stressed by heat and drought so care must be taken to properly irrigate to help ease the stress of mowing. We are now moving into the growing season of summer when weekly mowing will be needed again.

In past years drought required the city to reduce our allowed watering to once a week. The fact is our lawns could easily survive on this schedule and be healthier for it. We should practice horticultural practices every day which produce deep-rooted lawns that dont require excessive water to keep them green. All lawns, properly cared for, could be conditioned to require no more than once a week watering all year. The exception would be during the cold winter months when once every two or three weeks will do.

Check your irrigation system to be sure of proper coverage. It may seem that the sprinklers are reaching all areas but if you have dry spots on the edge of your sprinkler pattern you may not be getting adequate water at the edges of the sprinkler pattern.

It was once believed that grass clippings were the cause of thatch accumulation in the lawn. It is now known that they do not accumulate unless the clippings are exceptionally long. They break down soon after they hit the ground. In the process they return a lot of nitrogen to the soil.

See the original post:
Gardening: A lush, green lawn is a beautiful thing