Page 104

How to Water a New Lawn

It’s easy to understand that a newly created lawn space will need water. However, many people don’t understand the specifics of how, when, and how much to water after spreading their grass seeds. This chapter will answer those questions so that you can be sure that you water your newly seeded lawn the right way.

How Often to Water a New Lawn

New lawns need more water than lawns that are more established. You should give your new lawn water at least once a day. Often, it is even better to provide water multiple times during a day. At no point should you allow the soil to dry out, as this will inhibit the grass seeds’ ability to germinate.

How Much Water to Give a New Lawn

As you’d expect, with such a high watering frequency, your new lawn needs to receive a relatively high volume of water. While a mature lawn typically needs around one inch of water per week, new lawns need at least three inches of water per week. To achieve this volume, consider watering for about five to ten minutes each time you water your lawn.

When to Reduce Water for a New Lawn

Eventually, there will come a time when you are ready to reduce the amount of water you give to your lawn. Your goal in watering frequently is to encourage your lawn seeds to germinate. Once your lawn seeds have germinated and grown grass blades that are more than one inch tall, it is safe to start watering less.

Usually, it takes about a month or more for your new lawn seeds to grow to more than one inch of height. Once that occurs, you can reduce your watering schedule to about one to two times per week. This rate is quite similar to what you would need to do for a lawn that is fully established.

How to Make a New Lawn With Sod

Using sod is the most immediate way to create a new lawn space in your yard. Laying sod is also quite easy to do, as the simple steps in this chapter will reveal.

1.Prepare the Soil

Whether you make your new lawn by laying sod or by other means like spreading seed, the quality of your soil will determine how successful you are. Start the sod-laying process by removing existing vegetation and any large rocks in the area.

When your future lawn space is entirely clear, you can use a rake to smooth the surface of the soil. Creating a consistent surface will allow each sod piece to sit more evenly and will result in a more consistent final product.

2. Place the Sod on Top of the Soil

Laying the sod itself is about as easy as it sounds. Place each piece on the exposed soil until you have covered your entire desired lawn area.

Sod typically comes in rectangular pieces or in rolls that are easy to unroll on the ground. Ensure that you place each piece so that it is touching another to prevent any gaps in your lawn.

3. Trim the Sod

As mentioned above, sod is typically rectangular, which means it may not fit perfectly into your preferred lawn shape. If you hope to have a lawn space that shows curves or has any shape other than a perfect rectangle, you’ll need to do some trimming.

Find places where the sod covers beyond your intended lawn area. Then, use a sharp tool, such as a garden knife, to cut the extra sod at the edges of your lawn. After you finish trimming, your lawn space should be the exact shape that you imagined in the planning stage.

4. Use a Sod Roller

A sod roller is an essential piece of equipment for anyone making a new lawn out of sod. Sod rollers are heavy and useful for pressing down the sod after you have laid it. Rolling the sod with a sod roller helps ensure that the roots of your sod have contacted the ground below so that they can continue to grow healthily in their new location.

5. Water the Sod

No matter what method you use to make a new lawn, you’ll want to finish the job with watering. With your new sod lawn in place, use your hose to give it some much-needed moisture and get it off to the right start.

How to Seed a New Lawn

Seeding is one of the two main ways to create a new lawn and is not difficult to do. Follow the five easy steps in this chapter, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a healthy new lawn.

1. Prepare the Soil

Soil is essential to nearly all plants, grass included. As such, your first step is to prepare your soil to ensure it is ready to receive seeds.

Begin by removing any existing vegetation and large items like stones or roots. Next, you should rake the area until it is smooth. While you rake, you should also focus on grading the area as needed to allow water to drain rather than stagnate.

At this stage, it is also wise to amend your soil with some organic matter such as compost. Adding compost will increase the amount of nutrients available for your grass to feed on.

2. Spread the Seeds

When you are done preparing the soil, you are ready to begin spreading your grass seed. The type of grass seed you have will determine how much you should spread per square foot of lawn area. You can use your hand to spread the seeds, or you can use a seed spreader, which may be more efficient.

3. Rake the Soil

Once the seeds are lying on top of the soil, it is time for you to rake the soil once again. Raking at this stage will cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil. The seeds will have a much easier time germinating if they have some soil coverage rather than sitting on top of the soil.

4. Cover the Seed with Straw

Now it is time to give your seeds some protection while they germinate. A layer of mulch in the form of straw will cover your seeds so that they do not wash away in a rainstorm. Straw also serves as a visual cue to prevent people from walking on your new seeds.

It’s important that you use a straw that is entirely weed-free for this part of the process. Any weeds or weed seeds present in the straw will likely germinate in your nutrient-rich soil and begin competing with your grass.

5. Water the Seeds

The last step when seeding a new lawn is to water it. There are several details you’ll need to learn later about how to water a newly seeded lawn properly. However, for now, you can rest assured that your lawn seeds will appreciate a nice drink.

Practical Considerations When Planning a Lawn Space

Planning a lawn is about more than just creating an attractive space in your yard. There are many practical considerations you need to make regarding how you will use and care for your lawn area. This chapter will highlight a few of the most important of those considerations.

Anticipate the Key Lawn Maintenance Tasks

The first practical matter you should be aware of regarding lawns is that they require a considerable amount of ongoing maintenance. Without such maintenance, you cannot realistically expect your lawn to look healthy for even a single season.

Creating and caring for a lawn requires more labor than you might expect, which is why you should be mentally, physically, and financially prepared to complete these essential lawn care tasks on an ongoing basis:

Along with those key tasks, there may be other lawn-related chores you need to uptake to keep your lawn looking and growing its best. Those tasks can include seeding, aerating, and managing common lawn problems as soon as they arise.

Understand How You Plan to Use Your Lawn

When planning a lawn, you should also have a clear idea of how you intend to use it. While some lawns are nothing more than something lovely to look at, others have specific purposes.

Some lawns are great for playing games with children and other family members. Other lawns serve as a gathering place for friends to relax and catch up.

The intended use of your lawn impacts its size and shape, what type of grass you should use, and much more. For the best results, be sure to have a clear idea in your mind as to how you hope to use your lawn once it grows in.

Make Sure Your Lawn is Easy to Access

Accessibility is vital for your lawn if you wish to get the most out of it and have the easiest time maintaining it. Your lawn is a place that you’ll need to reach with your garden hose and your mower, and clear access makes doing so significantly easier.

Similarly, if your lawn is hard to get to, it will be far less likely that people will use your lawn for its intended purpose. Clear access, both visually and physically, will also help you remember your maintenance tasks and recognize any lawn problems as soon as they arise.

Choosing the Size and Shape of Your Lawn

There are many decisions to make when creating a lawn space, and choosing the size and shape are as important as any other. While these traits may seem inconsequential overall, they are more impactful than you might think. This chapter will show you why.

Selecting a Shape for Your Lawn

The shape of your lawn can be regular or irregular, and the option you choose will have a significant impact on the overall character of the space. Let’s begin by considering the effect that regular forms can have on your lawn.

Using Regular Shapes

Regular lawn shapes are nothing more than the simple shapes that you have been familiar with for most of your life, including:

These shapes are consistent and predictable and give your lawn a neat appearance. Regular shapes are often the best choice for those who want a more formal or classic look. Combining multiple regular shapes gives you more freedom while maintaining a strong sense of order.

Using Irregular Shapes

Irregular lawn shapes are less predictable than regular ones and are usually more complex. These forms can consist of either straight lines, curved lines, or a combination of both. The defining feature is a lack of consistency that creates a more amorphous form.

Irregular shapes are best if you want to achieve a more naturalistic look rather than a neat and formal appearance. These shapes may also be the only option for you if you are trying to fill leftover space in your yard with new grass.

Sizing Your Lawn

No matter what shapes you choose to use for your lawn, the size will matter as well. From a design perspective, you should choose a size that allows your lawn to remain in a good proportion to the other garden elements in your yard. Sizing your lawn with that in mind allows your lawn to fit neatly into the landscape rather than standing out more than it should.

Lawn sizing is also a matter of maintenance. As you would guess, smaller lawns are easier to care for, resulting in much less ongoing maintenance. Larger lawns require more labor and materials to upkeep.

What Is Winter Burn and How Do You Treat It?

Winter burn is a common problem in many evergreen shrubs, brought on by dry conditions and a lack of moisture. More specifically, it is caused by desiccation brought on by freezing temperatures and cold winter winds stripping water from the shrubs’ leaves. The most common symptoms are yellowing, bronzing, or browning of the foliage.

How does Winter Burn Happen?

Plants continuously lose water to the atmosphere through openings in their leaves in a process called transpiration. Usually, this water is replenished from the soil. However, in the winter, roots can’t pull moisture from the frozen ground. When transpiration is coupled with harsh winter winds removing additional water from the plant, the leaves dry out and die.

How to Treat Winter Burn

Unfortunately, there is no way to treat or repair the damage once winter burn occurs. When severe enough, it can kill the entire shrub. Because of this, prevention is critical.

How to Prevent Winter Burn

For a long time, it was recommended to wrap evergreen shrubs in burlap for the winter to protect them from winter burn. More recent research has shown there are much better ways to protect the plants from harsh, dry winter conditions.

Prevention also includes caring for your plants properly through the growing season.

Plant the best shrubs for your hardiness zone. Some varieties are more cold tolerant than others, offering natural protection.
Continue to water shrubs well through the fall and into the winter until the ground freezes.
Layer a few inches of mulch around the base of your shrubs to help insulate the soil and increase the moisture it holds. Make sure to spread the mulch out a few feet from the stem to protect the root system since they spread through the soil as they grow.
In the late fall, apply a slow-release fertilizer to your shrubs to help encourage root growth before winter.
In areas prone to high winds, create windbreaks using plastic or burlap about 18-inches from the shrub on the windward side.
Ensure good soil drainage during the growing season to prevent root rot or fungal problems. Stressed plants are more susceptible to winter burn.
Spray your shrubs in the early fall with an anti-desiccant product. It helps retain moisture in the leaves, so you’ll see less damage when spring rolls around.

Why Are the Leaves on My Shrub Turning Yellow?

Yellowing leaves on your shrub are usually a cause for concern, but the problem may have you scratching your head in wonder. Unfortunately, there are many reasons the leaves may yellow, and it isn’t always easy to determine the exact cause.

The following are some of the most common reasons for yellow leaves on your shrubs.

Is It Nutrient Deficiency?

All plants need specific nutrients for growth and produce the energy they need to drive metabolic processes. These essential nutrients all have different roles in the plant and are required in varying amounts. Because some nutrients like nitrogen are critical for producing chlorophyll, a nutrient deficiency results in the leaves turning yellow.

If you are experiencing a nutrient deficiency, it’s best to apply a quick-release, water-soluble fertilizer to your shrub through soil or foliar application. Always use per the label recommendations and choose a micronutrient formulation if possible.

Is It Fertilizer Damage?

While fertilizer is often necessary for plant growth, you must be careful when using synthetic formulations. These products are made with chemicals salts that can cause problems when too much fertilizer is applied. As these salts build up in the soil, they “burn” the roots and make it hard for plants to take in water. The salts can also be toxic at high levels in plants.

To prevent fertilizer burn, always follow label recommendations when applying fertilizers regarding the correct application rate. Periodically flush the soil with water to leach the salts out of the root zone.

Is It Drought Stress?

One of the most common abiotic stressors in shrubs is inadequate soil moisture. When there isn’t enough moisture in the soil, plants can’t take in water and nutrients through their roots leading to a nutrient deficiency.

To prevent and treat drought stress, keep the soil around the base of your shrubs consistently moist, without overwatering to the point the ground is soggy, and there is standing water.

Is It Salt Damage?

Beyond fertilizer damage, shrubs often experience salt damage when grown close to sidewalks, driveways, and roadways in areas with heavy winter snowfall. These surfaces are usually covered with ice melt or salt for safety during the winter. As they make their way into the soil, they can cause toxicity in the plant, and the leaves may be yellow.

Flush the soil with clean water as the weather warms and spring arrives to correct salt damage from deicers.

Is It Winter Burn?

Unfortunately, there is no way to treat or repair the damage once winter burn occurs, so prevention is critical.

Why Isn’t My Shrub Flowering?

One of the most aggravating things about flowering shrubs is when they aren’t flowering. If you are experiencing this, you’ll need to investigate to figure out the cause—check for possible problems, correct as many as you can, and hope the shrub bounces back and starts flowering.

Here are some of the most common reasons your shrub isn’t flowering.

Incorrect Pruning Has Affected Blooms

There are two ways incorrect pruning can result in a lack of blooming, both over-pruning and insufficient pruning.

When pruning your shrubs, timing is essential. You need to know if blooms develop on old wood or new growth. If they bloom on old wood and bloom early in the spring before the plant starts growing, you can’t prune them in late winter, or you’ll remove all of the flowers.
Not pruning your shrubs enough can cause plants to become woody with minimal new growth, so new buds don’t form.

Incorrect Fertilizer Applications are to Blame

Under fertilizing and over-fertilizing can both affect your shrub’s ability to bloom.

Your Plant Could Be Juvenile

An important thing to consider is some woody shrubs take a few years before they begin blooming. Young, juvenile plants are directing energy toward the vegetative growth of stems, leaves, and roots. They may not bloom until their third season or longer.

Winter Temperatures were Too Cold

Low winter temperatures are another culprit, especially for early spring flowering types. Harsh winter conditions may trigger cold injury that damages or destroys tender flower buds that developed in the fall.

Not Getting Enough Sunlight

Another common reason for not blooming is being planted in the wrong place in your landscape, usually in a spot that is too shaded. Some plants will bloom in a site with part to full shade, but their plant tag needs to classify them as shade plants. Shrubs that require full sun will not bloom in the wrong location; they need at least six to eight hours of direct sun daily.

Your Shrub is Under Stress

Lastly, shrubs that are under stress may not flower. Any stressor can cause the plant to direct its energy and attention to protecting itself and healing versus developing flowers. Common stress causes include recent transplanting, planting too deeply, disease or insect problems, drought, over-watering, and even air pollution.

Why and How to Feed My Shrubs?

The shrubs in your yard are living investments that need care and attention to grow in value. This care includes correct watering, pruning, and fertilizing to promote optimal growth.

Fertilizing shrubs in your landscape is different than taking care of flowering ornamentals or garden vegetables. They are on a schedule similar to the larger trees in your yard, but there are extra considerations to take into account when figuring out when to feed them.

Why Do Plants Need Regular Fertilization?

Plants need specific nutrients to live. These nutrients don’t give the plants energy directly but aid in metabolic processes like respiration and photosynthesis that drive growth. The essential nutrients are also components of important plant parts such as cell walls, amino acids, and chlorophyll.

Most of these nutrients are taken in from the soil as needed. The challenge is that suburban and urban landscapes are very different from native soils in forests and woodlands. Landscaped areas have little nutrient content because the ground’s thick layer of nutrient-rich topsoil was removed or altered during home construction.

Over time, plants pull nutrients from the soil, reducing levels, often to deficient levels. If you don’t reintroduce some of these elements back into the root zone, you will see negative impacts on your plants. They may have smaller leaves, discolored foliage, or poor growth overall.

Do My Shrubs Need Fertilizer?

The first step is determining if your shrubs need fertilizer. One of the best ways to determine this is by having your soil tested to analyze its nutrient content.

However, you also need to consider where your shrubs are growing.

How Often Should I Fertilize My Shrubs?

It is commonly recommended to only fertilize your shrubs every two to three years. This loose guideline should be followed as a bare minimum.

The best practice is to fertilize your shrubs in early spring, as they begin actively growing for the season. There isn’t any need to fertilize them again until the following spring.

Whatever you do, make sure you aren’t overfertilizing them. Too much fertilizer can decrease their growth and leave your shrubs susceptible to insect pests and diseases.

The Best Type of Fertilizer for Shrubs

Unless a soil test reveals adequate phosphorus and potassium levels, look for a fertilizer higher in nitrogen. A 12-4-8, 12-6-6, or 16-4-8 nutrient ratio is appropriate, whether in an all-purpose formulation or a shrub-specific fertilizer.

How Does the Soil Affect Your Shrub?

The type of soil you plant your shrub in and the characteristics of the soil affect your shrub in many different ways.

What is Soil Texture, and Why is It Important?

Soil texture is determined by the combination of sand, silt, and clay (in percentages) that make up the uppermost soil layer known as topsoil. Ideally, you want your soil to be a blend of all three, or what is known as loam. Loam soils drain well while holding onto a suitable amount of water and nutrients.

Soils with a higher percentage of clay don’t drain well. The water stays trapped between the soil particles, and the ground stays way too wet. One of the benefits of clay, though, is it also holds onto nutrients well.

Sand has the opposite characteristics of clay. It doesn’t hold onto water or nutrients, but they drain very quickly.

What is Organic Matter, and Why is It Important?

Soil organic matter is the fraction of decomposing or fully decomposed plant and animal matter. It helps prevent soil compaction, improves water retention, improves soil fertility by holding onto nutrients, and helps buffer soil pH changes.

What is Soil pH, and Why is It Important?

Soil pH measures how acidic or basic (i.e., alkaline) the soil is, just like the acidity we are familiar with regarding liquids like vinegar or lemon juice. Knowing your soil’s pH is important because it directly influences the nutrients in the ground. If the pH value is too acidic or basic, it can make nutrients unavailable to the plants or create toxicities.

Ideally, you want the soil to be neutral or slightly acidic—most plants like a pH value between 6.0 and 7.0 because it has the best nutrient availability.

Testing the Soil to Determine Its Characteristics

Commercial soil testing labs will analyze a soil sample for a small fee to determine its texture, organic matter content, and pH value. Along with the results, they will often provide recommendations on how to amend the soil before planting.

To collect a soil sample, collect some small shovelfuls from where you are planting and mix them in a bucket. After collecting a sample, spread the soil out on newspaper to dry overnight.

Amending The Soil Before Planting

The best way to amend the soil for shrubs is to work on an area slightly larger than the holes you need to dig. If you are planting a hedgerow or numerous shrubs in one bed, work the entire area.

The following amendments, or additions, help improve the texture, organic matter content, water holding capacity, soil pH, and fertility.

If your soil is high in clay or sand, add finished compost or fully decomposed cow manure to increase the organic matter.
If your soil is acidic, you can add lime to raise the soil pH.
If your soil is alkaline, you can add sulfur products to lower the soil pH.
If your soil is deficient in nutrients, add the recommended amount of fertilizer based on your soil test results.