Lawn Care
Lawn – Aeration
Anyone who has wielded a shovel in Atlanta knows that the soil usually contains a lot of clay. The tiny clay particles are easily packed tightly together by rain and foot traffic. After a hot Southern summer, the earth can...
Bluegrass (Thermal Blue) – Homeowner Comments
When turf companies market a brand new grass without submitting it to long-term University trials in Georgia, I’m at a loss to know whether to recommend their grass for use by homeowners. In the summer of 2005 I asked for...
Lawn – Choosing the Best Grass
The first and most important question to ask is how much sun will be available to the grass. It is much better to use a grass that will grow in the conditions available rather than fighting the environment year after...
Mowing Height – Calculating
When a homeowner complained that his bermudagrass was showing lots of scalped areas in fall, I turned to Dr. Clint Waltz, my turf specialist friend. —————————-“There are several things working here but the primary issue is mowing frequency. In the...
Take All Disease
I am very pleased with my St. Augustine lawn. Despite dire predictions, it has not yet frozen in winter but it has spread handily in moderate shade. A problem that was discovered in 1991 by folks in Florida and Texas...
Soil Temperatures – Apply Pre-emergent
Summer weeds, like crabgrass, must have several consecutive days of temperatures above 55 degrees before they germinate. If the seed is right on the surface of your soil, it becomes warm quickly. If the seed is buried a bit deeper,...
Weeds – Identification with Pictures
Weed control in the landscape is a tough business. You have to know a lot about the weed in question just to get started! As in most situations, a picture is worth a thousand words. Websites Preen has terrific weed...
Nutsedge (Nutgrass) – Identification
Nutsedge is one of the toughest weeds to control in a lawn or landscape. To further confuse matters, there are two kinds: purple nutsedge and yellow nutsedge. The kind of nutsedge you have might determine how you’ll control it. Here...
Brown Patch – Diagnosing
You have brown patches of dead grass in your lawn. Is it the common lawn disease ‘brown patch’ or is it something else? The answer is important: if it is brown patch you probably need to spray with a fungicide....
Reveille bluegrass
When a radio listener asked me about a new bluegrass for Georgia, I had to admit I’d never heard of it. Fortunately, I rely on scientists, not marketers, to help me make judgements on whether a grass will grow in...
Chamberbitter (Mimosa Weed)
In order to respond to the many garden questions I receive, I’ve assembled a crack team of Master Gardeners to help me. Theresa, Stacy, Caryn and Shannon have myriad different garden skills and interests and I can count on them...
Lawn – Choices Before You Plant
I was recently asked by a writer for Publisher’s Weekly what trends I saw in the local gardening arena. I replied that I sensed homeowners are beginning to realize that they don’t have to have the biggest lawn in the...
Violet Control – in Lawns
I have been keeping a secret. I have known for two years how to kill violets in fescue lawns. I just haven’t been able to give you the information – until now. (This was written in 1999) You see, I...
Lawn – Basic Maintenance
The sweet young couple seated in front of me at a recent home show appearance wore matching worried looks. “We just moved into a house in a gorgeous neighborhood and we know NOTHING about landscaping. What should we do to...
Thermal Blue – Installation Photos
It’s not often that we get to see the process of renovating a home lawn from start to finish. A garden friend recently sent these shots. See his notes at the end too: ——————— Walter – I completely renovated my...
Lawn – Beer for Fertilizer
One of the most ill-informed decisions of my life was to major in chemistry in college. Sure, I had excelled in the subject in high school. I could make my own gunpowder from ingredients bought at the pharmacy in town....
Bermudagrass – How is it Spelled
I have long fought editors of my books and newspaper articles about the correct spelling of turfgrasses. Here are the thoughts of Dr. Clint Waltz at UGA: “Bermudagrass is one word and only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence,...
Lawn – Fall Chores
For the first several months of new fatherhood I frequently felt like an idiot. Every time my son spit up a little cereal his mom and I assumed it was projectile vomiting and fearfully called our pediatrician. If he cried...
