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303 North Saddle Creek Road    Omaha, NE 68131   P (402) 558-5900  

Don’t Miss the Boat

Fall is best for lawn renovation

By: Scott Farrington

Did the summer heat cause your lawn to brown and dry?  Are you tired of those thin spots?  Do not fear, it is the perfect  time to improve, renovate and seed your lawn.  The cooler days of fall and more frequent rains are good news for your turf.  

Now is the time to greatly increase the quality of your existing grass with just a few simple steps.  Apply Natural Guard Soil Activator.  This is a product that will help your lawn by decaying grass clippings and returning the nitrogen in those clippings naturally to your turf.  Soil Activator will also give your lawn greater drought tolerance, disease resistance, reduce thatch and increase natural microbe activity in the soil.  Once you have applied Soil Activator, Fertilome Winterizer should be spread to thicken, feed and give your grass a rich green color.  Fall is the best time to feed your lawn.

Late August through early October is a perfect time to over seed if your lawn is thin or has bare spots.  Rake the dead grass out, aerate, spread a quality seed mix and then feed with Fertilome New Lawn Starter.  Water lightly each day to keep the seed moist.  You will have new seedlings in 10-21 days and a dramatically improved lawn this fall.  

There have recently been new advancements in turf grass.  Blade Runner is a new turf-type tall fescue.  Tall fescues have good drought tolerance, disease resistance, durability, and grow well in sun or shade.  Historically tall fescue was a clump grass and did not spread with rhizomes.  If the lawn became thin during the heat of summer it could not thicken up on its own but needed to be reseeded.  Blade Runner is an improved tall fescue that spreads with rhizomes thus giving it the ability to repair itself after a time of stress.  Usually available in mixes with other tall fescues, Blade Runner is a great choice to give you a turf that requires less fertilizer and water while maintaining a dark green color.

The extreme heat and humidity that we experienced this past summer set the stage for fungus to be a problem in area lawns.  You can do two things right now that will help the problem.  Fertilome F-Stop is an effective control that can be applied to kill and prevent many different diseases. In addition to treating the disease, Soil Activator will eliminate the conditions that cause fungal diseases to develop and flourish.  If you have a history of disease trouble in your lawn, use Soil Activator in spring and fall, consult the experts at Indian Creek Nursery about proper fertilizing and watering practices, and begin to over seed with disease resistant grass seed.

September 2011