We all want our lawns to look like a golf course but the battle with our turf can be a bit overwhelming. Erik Helland with Landscape Garden Center in Sioux Falls has a few tips on how to make your lawn look great. Erik says your lawn is no different than any other plant in your yard or garden. It needs water, sun, fertilizer and a bit of maintenance.
According to Erik, mower height is the first step to having a healthy lawn.
“Right now, everybody should be mowing their lawn at about four inches or even higher, if you can,” Helland said. “If you have an irrigation system, you might be able to drop it down maybe by half an inch to three and a half, but I would really stress to you that that four-inch, or even four and a half inches will save your lawn. Because if we do go into a drought or a long period without rain, what that will do is, the taller grass helps shade itself. What I mean by that is when grass is growing, it's shading the plants right next to it, which keeps the root system cooler. Bluegrass, which predominantly is what everybody has in their lawn, doesn't like to have soil temps of over 72 degrees. If it has that for a long period of time, you will notice that it'll go into dormancy. So that is why we say mow it long because that will help (prevent) distress.”
Erik also says watering is important, but it depends on what type of soil you have.
“If you have heavy, heavy soil then you're going to want to water for long periods of time and just let it sit and soak,” said Helland. “If you are on that same type of turf or that same soil structure, where it's a heavy soil and you're on a slope, what you're going to want to do is kind of... we call it a cycle soak where you water it for maybe 10, 15 minutes and let it all soak in and then water it again for another 10, 15 minutes and cycle soak. That way you're not having all the water run down to the bottom where it'll be greener than anything that's up higher. That works the best. If you have sandy soil, you're going to want to be watering again for more frequent periods of time, maybe up to two or three times a week, whereas watering for something with really heavy soil, I would water for an hour on each spot once a week, because that way that water will soak down to the bottom of the root structure and that makes the root system search out water. If you keep on watering every single day, the root system has no place to go and it's not going to do any work for you. So, make those root systems search out water and penetrate, go down deeper. That'll give you a good base. So then, that way, if water must be turned off for a long period of time, your grass will be able to survive through those stressful periods of time.”
Summertime is maintenance time for lawns and any larger projects like de-thatching. Aerating or seeding should be done in the spring or fall. If you have questions for Erik Helland, send them to: [email protected]. He may answer your question on-the-air during the South Dakota Home Garden segment, Wednesdays on SDPB Radio's "In the Moment."