Love Your Landscape – May 2014

Most of us in Jacksonville love having a thick, lush and beautiful lawn! This is a great time of year for planning, preparing and implementing turf care. Here are a few spring tips that will make your grass healthy, green and lush.

Most of us are familiar with natural fertilizers and the need to conserve water. This is a great time of year to check your irrigation system and consider changing-out sprinkler heads for more water efficient ones—it can cut your water usage by as much as a third and provide superior coverage.

The style and type of sprinkler head is probably the greatest factor in the amount of coverage and control you have in irrigating turf areas. The most common type of pop-up sprinkler is the spray head, which usually applies way too much water in a short amount of time. The turf and soil usually can’t take in this much water and there is a lot of run off. If you have this style of pop-up in your yard, it’s best to give your turf a short watering time a few times a day, ranging from 4 to 8 minutes at a time.

My best suggestion is to change to another style of head and get better coverage and use an average of 1/3 less water use.

Hunter Industries makes an irrigation head for pop-up style sprinklers called “MP rotators.” I like these for several reasons: They use less water, have superior coverage, are user-friendly, adjust easily and use on average 1/3 less water than traditional spray heads. They cost a little more but are worth the investment.

Water your grass early in the morning and if you change to twice a day during the hottest part of the summer, water late in the afternoon as your second watering time. Watering too late in the day is not as healthy for your turf.

If you have a ‘drip zone,’ it’s a good idea to open up the end of the drip run, turn on the valve and run the zone for 10 to 15 seconds to clean out sediment that may have gotten into the line over the winter. This will help prevent clogged emitters and misters.

If you don’t have an automated in-ground sprinkler system, think about using a hose with an automated valve to water your yard and plants. Consider a valve system that hooks right on to your hose bib. “DIG Irrigation Products” makes great user-friendly valves that are available at most local hardware stores. These products save water and since they shut-off automatically, save you the worry of running all night!

If it’s been several years (or never) since you aerated your lawn, now is the time. The benefits of aeration are many—aerating frees up hard, compacted soil and gives it a chance to ‘open up’ and take-in needed nutrients and water that otherwise can’t reach the roots. This will also help the over-seeding process. In most situations aeration is beneficial once every 2 to 3 years.

I hope these suggestions help you have a beautiful, healthy lawn all year round!

Adam Haynes is the owner of Artisan Landscapes, Inc. Contact him at 541-292-3285, adam@artisanlandscapesinc.com, or visit his website at www.artisanlandscapesinc.com.

Posted May 2, 2014