Busting Some Myths About Lawn Care

By the time you read this week’s column, I’m hoping spring will have actually arrived. Real spring, not the one at the bottom of the March 20 box on the calendar.Real spring, for me, is confirmed by days that reach 60 degrees, sounds of the red-winged blackbirds and the end of the crocus blooms as the daffodil flowers swell and need just a day or two more to open and fill the air with the scent of … SPRING!

While many of us began our spring gardening weeks ago with seeds sown indoors, it’s getting outdoors and getting dirt under our nails, cleaning the few leftover leaves off the lawn and picking up the twigs, limbs and branches that have fallen all over the place, that confirms spring. But there’s more to do, lots more, and it should follow a logical progression based on logical seasonal changes, not the order that we want to do the work in, or the way it’s most convenient and profitable for our professional gardeners and landscape contractors.

If you grow fruit trees or roses, or a range of other trees and shrubs, one of the most important early spring jobs is getting an application of dormant oil on. There are a few types of dormant oils, but they all have the same function: to smother the early stages of insects, scale and mites before they can mature, feed and reproduce.

These oils should be sprayed when the daytime temperature is around 40 degrees (or higher) and the nighttime temperature isn’t below 32 degrees for the 24 hours after application. There are also precautions on the application to fruit trees with relation to the maturity of the buds and flowers, so read the label and keep tabs on your over-eager tree company or landscaper.

Dormant oils should not be used on Amur maple, Japanese maples, redbud and sugar maples, and the oils will change the needle color of Colorado blue spruce to green. Other plants that may show sensitivity include junipers and cedars, Alberta spruce, hickories, cryptomeria and black walnut. If you have a small property, you can use a trombone sprayer to reach up to 20 feet or so and a small compression (as in pump) sprayer to treat smaller trees and shrubs, but a commercial applicator can do this spraying pretty quickly and efficiently.

I see so many landscapers come onto properties and sanitize them. They rake up and remove every leaf, twig and grass blade they can find, because they claim that’s what their clients want. Do you?

I’ve got a couple of thoughts on this. First, ask your landscaper if they’re using mulching mowers with mulching blades. And if you cut your own lawn, are you using them? The right combination of mower and blades can not only eliminate the need for picking up the clippings, it also reduces your need for fertilizer by as much as 30 percent, since the grass blades left behind decompose and turn back into nitrogen. And, no, this doesn’t cause thatch. No, it doesn’t leave ugly grass clippings behind (unless it’s cut too short or fed too much).

And if for some reason the clippings do need to be removed, why can’t these clippings, the leaves and twigs be put in a compost pile somewhere on the property? Surely you have a spot where this can be done. It doesn’t take a lot of space, it actually shrinks as time goes by, it doesn’t smell, and it won’t attract rodents. It will result in a great source of garden humus for future planting and top dressing.

Next, you’re going to want to feed that lawn. The Scott(ish) guy on TV is telling me, “Feed your lawn! FEED IT!” And you’re going to want to do it tomorrow, because you want your lawn to be lush and green. DON’T! Scotty says you should do it twice in the spring. DON’T! He obviously has profit sharing at Scotts but otherwise, doesn’t have a clue.

And don’t let your gardener or landscaper do it now, either. Early feeding stimulates the grass blades to grow at the cost of root growth. You pay for this later in the summer when it gets hot and the grass roots are shallow and unable to draw moisture from deep in the soil. You’ll also need to start mowing sooner.

Your first lawn fertilizer application should be in May—even as late as mid-May or later.

Ah, but Larry the landscaper shows up and tells you that you have to get down that pre-emergent herbicide to keep the weeds at bay—and, oh, Larry adds, he can do the lawn fertilizer and weed killer at the same time. Tell Larry to hold off on both. It’s a cold spring, and weeds will be emerging late. Besides, the later you put down a pre-emergent (within reason) for something like crabgrass, the longer it protects you into the summer.

Here again, you can probably hold off until early to mid-May. And if Larry’s been putting down a pre-emergent herbicide every single year for the past 10 years, why do you still need it? Where are all these alleged weeds coming from? Take a year off. See what happens. You may be surprised—and if a few weeds pop up, Larry can do a simple procedure called “spot treatment,” killing the weeds where and when they pop up instead of treating every square inch of the property with chemicals.

Larry may also tell you that he needs to put down grub control. The guy on the TV is telling you the same thing. They must both be right. WRONG! Grub control should be applied only when there is evidence of grub presence and grub damage.

If Larry’s been putting down grub control every year for the past 10 years, don’t you think your grubs should be dead or under control by now? Skip a year. Ask Larry to do a grub survey later in the spring and see how many he finds per square foot of your lawn. Three, five—none? No need for grub control.

And if you do find you need grub control, I really don’t have an issue with chemical controls every third or fourth year, unless there’s damage that supports more serious control measures. And even then there are alternatives to the chemicals: for example, milky spore and nematodes. Neither is foolproof, and both need to be applied at the proper time at the proper rates. They aren’t inexpensive, but they are not chemicals that will poison you, your neighbors and the rest of the earth.

Talk to Larry.

Speaking of herbicides, Roundup (glyphosate) has been in the news again, with an arm of the World Health Organization saying that they now consider glyphosate to be a Class 2A “probable human carcinogen.” Now, there’s been an ongoing debate about this for years, with one camp saying this herbicide is safe, and the other saying it isn’t. But the change in the way glyphosate is used should be a cause for concern.

Years ago, it was used to control weeds by spraying the weeds. But in commercial agriculture, corn and soybeans have been genetically altered to be insensitive to this herbicide. So now a farmer can spray his entire crop with the herbicide and only the weeds are killed. But the amount of glyphosate being used is just incredible. The fear is the effect it’s having on farmers and farm workers. But what about us?

No, I’m not in a panic, and I still judiciously use Roundup as a spot treatment—but not like I did 30 years ago, to clear fields and edge borders. PBS did an interesting piece that will give you plenty of food for thought, and you can find it online.

Keep growing!