Crisp blue skies and coloring sumac spell many things—the heady aroma of an evening campfire, football around the corner, and glorious, less encumbered weekends to putter outdoors.
For the Midwest, gardening is mostly under a continental climate of hot, dry summers, and this is, above all else, during the lawning season.
From August in the north and the high plains to September at St. Louis is the time to get good bluegrass started—whether one is beginning a lawn or remaking an old one.
Basic Practices For Lawn Making
The ABCs of lawn-making change little. Basic practices have stood the test of time and promise lasting satisfaction without miracles.
Briefly:
A. Till the soil to at least 3″ or 4-inch depth, adding fertilizer.
B. Hake or drag level, rolling only if “fluffy,” breaking clods but not pulverizing to dust.
C. Sow quality seed of reliable brand, compounded mostly or entirely of the basic grasses (Kentucky bluegrass, fine fescues, bentgrasses, “Poa Triv.”)
D. Mulch, if possible; avoid nurse grasses except on slopes.
E. Soak slowly to avoid surface run-off (await a soaking rain if you wish; dry soil will not harm unsprouted seed).
F. Once soaked, keep the surface moist with frequent, light showerings. Sprouting can occur in as little as a week if moisture is constant.
G. As seedlings grow, reduce watering frequency but keep deeper soil moist. Mow when the grass is two to three inches tall. A light feeding to month-old grass might prove helpful.
Now for some details.
Soil Preparation
Usually, we must live with the soil we have. “Topsoil” is becoming increasingly scarce and expensive and may be of dubious value.
(Weedy; possibly of no better structure or fertility; unmixed with the original soil, can form a discontinuous quick-drying layer).
Flourishing grass builds topsoil. That’s how rich prairie soils were formed. So we can follow nature’s method on the lawn, quickened by regular feeding.
Some of the best lawns are on foundation subsoil, weed-free (because there were no weed seeds that deep).
But ample fertilizer is mixed in before planting, and supplementary feedings are made every few weeks through the growing season.
Most midwest soils contain clay and silt that hold fertility and moisture. In autumn, even clays should be workable.
Soil Tillage
Soil tillage is preferably custom done to a several-inch depth with large equipment—tractor-drawn disc or rotary tiller.
For small lawns, a declining but still feasible art is hand spading. Newly tilled soil must be raked or dragged level.
A light rolling can point up soft spots resulting from rotary tiller stops and starts. Re-rake until firmly level.
Tillage can be overdone. Soil pulverized to a dust-like consistency may cake into imperviousness after the first watering.
Soil Lumps
Soil lumps from pea to golf ball size make quite an acceptable surface into which small grass seeds lodge without requiring raking and rolling.
First, rain or watering effectively plants the seeds, and the ‘dumpiness” gradually melts to insignificance. Seeds sprout well around the edges of protecting soil clusters.
After leveling is a good time for fertilizing—20 or 30 pounds of lawn fertilizer for every 1,000 square feet is a good time for fertilizing.
Unless the soil test indicates special practices, a complete fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash, the analysis listing in that order) would be suitable for most soils.
Analysis might be 12-12-12, 10-6-4, or something similar.
Sowing Of Seeds
The lawn can be no better than the choice of grass. Kentucky bluegrass (including such varieties as Arboretum, Delta, Merion, and Park) has traditionally been the mainstay of seed mixtures for climates from Tennessee northward.
Red fescue (including Chewings, Illahee, Pennlawn, and other varieties) lends good support for dry shade and poor or sandy soils.
Colonial bentgrass and Poa trivial are for damp shade and may be blended for special purposes.
No matter the price per pound, choosing seeds high in temporary, short-lived, or coarse grasses such as ryegrass is not economical.
Look for the required listing on the package, which should read high in bluegrass and other permanent species.
Ryegrass, Timothy, redtop, and so on, sometimes dubbed “nurse grasses,” will compete with good grass at the critical seedling stage, holding back the establishment of permanent turf.
Incidentally, bluegrass contains over two million seeds to the pound, and ryegrass only about one-eighth as many.
So quality blends, the seed for seed, are cheaper and go farther. Two pounds of high-quality seed to 1,000 square feet is ample if it can be uniformly distributed.
Well-designed seed spreaders will achieve even distribution at this rate, or for hand sowing, seeds might be extended with dry soil, sand, cornmeal, or even fertilizer.
Hand Sowing
In hand sowing, distribute half the seed in one direction and the second half crossways over the same area to ensure good coverage.
Quick flicks of the wrist, with seeds held loosely between the fingers, will toss seeds in a wide arc that settles thinly to the seedbed.
As mentioned earlier, seeds will settle among the crevices on a pebbled surface, and no raking-in is needed.
With finely pulverized soil and the seeds perched on the surface, dragging an upside-down broom-type leaf rake will imbed seeds the desirable ⅛” inch or so.
Mulching Of Lawn
Mulch consists of any loose covering that helps protect against drying or puddling and washing during watering.
Usual mulch materials are clean straw or soaked sphagnum peat moss, although grass clippings, tobacco stems, ground corn cobs, or even pebbles can be used.
Mulch should be only a fraction of an inch thick, say three or four intertwined straws deep, so that sprouting grass has no difficulty emerging.
It can be left in place to decay and will soon be obscured by the young grass.
Best Assurance for Lawns
Mulching is the best insurance for a quick, complete lawn start. It helps protect the soil against wash and, unlike fast-sprouting nurse grasses, contributes to the well-being of good grass instead of competing for water and food.
A mulched and frequently showered new lawn will probably show some green fuzz in a week if the weather stays warm.
Permanent grasses are a bit slower than nurse grass, so don’t become impatient if the neighbor’s “cheap seed” looks better at first; next summer, you’ll have the last laugh.
Moreover, each bluegrass plant can enlarge underground by rhizomes, unlike the bunchgrasses of the poor mixtures.
Watering of Lawn
Nature is capricious, and some parts of the mid-continent suffer a lack of rain every autumn.
A soaking rain replenishing soil moisture is a big help for starting a lawn. Then light sprinklings will maintain the necessary moist environment.
But sometimes, that soaking rain doesn’t come soon enough. The only alternative is thorough sprinkling.
On the heavy soils generally characteristic of the Midwest, sprinkling devices which apply a slow, gentle spray are most appropriate.
This permits good soaking without slaking the soil to a mud-pie surface which resists further water penetration.
Sprinkling Program
Carry through fully any sprinkling program (check water pressure, coverage, and capacity of hoses and sprinklers).
Although seeds can lie indefinitely in dry soil, the seedling becomes very vulnerable once it is sprouted.
Sprinklers placed on the edge of the new lawn and spraying into it will prevent tracking the soft soil.
If necessary, try a hook on a long pole to retrieve sprinklers from the muddy seedbed. Or have duplicate apparatus so that the watered area can be let dry a few hours before you fetch the sprinkler.
The New Turf
As the roots of seedling grass grow deeper, watering can be shifted from a once or twice-daily schedule to intervals of a week or more.
A dryish surface is imperative at first mowing—when the seedlings reach nearly three inches—to prevent making wheel tracks and pulling up seedlings. I prefer to keep the mower set high year-round, at 2” inches or so.
Booster Feeding
Mid-autumn is a good time for booster feeding, especially in middle latitudes. There, where summer forcing can hurt lawn grass, it helps to promote all the autumn and early spring growth possible.
Fertilizer applied after soil temperatures drop to 50° degrees or less will not be lost, but will stay in the soil and grass stems for ready availability next spring.
There is some grass growth, at least underground, all through winter during the occasional warm spells.
Weed Killer
Feeding during this season encourages tillering, the branching that makes fullness.
Autumn is the season for low, tight growth, so don’t be disappointed if the seeding looks thin. However, each little plant is husbanding resources for a big spring push.
On lawns, start early. There may be time for weed control. However, a weed killer is best not applied to new grass until it is old enough to have had a few mowings.
An herbicide containing 2,4-1) will kill cresses, dandelions, probably chickweed, henbit, and other winter weeds, if used on a warm day—although the results may not be fully apparent until spring.
44659 by Robert W. Schery