Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
uscjusto

Bad habits paying off

uscjusto
10 years ago

My neighbor has a 2 year old established fescue lawn.
He waters twice a day (morning and night) and he "hits it" (fertilizes) it synthetically every month.
He has the greenest most lush lawn on the whole block!!

Not fair. Bad habits are definitely paying off for him.

Comments (4)

  • grass1950
    10 years ago

    Not at all suprising really. If he can afford a high maintenance lawn, he's going to have the best lawn in the hood. Most of us don't have the time nor the money to water daily, fertilize monthly and mow twice a week or more. Yes, the common advice is not to fertilize during summer as it it is thought to increase the incidence of disease. But, then again, how do you explain all the threads on every turf forum about summer disease from people who religeously follow best practices? If someone told/showed him that he could get 90% of the quality turf he has now with less fertilization, mowing and watering, he'd still probably opt to spend twice as much for that extra 10%. More power to him.

    This post was edited by grass1950 on Thu, Jul 25, 13 at 1:36

  • uscjusto
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    He's a rich retiree who pays for lawn service, and I'm sure he doesn't think twice about his water bill.

  • nykenny
    10 years ago

    It's strange that all you ever hear about is the proper way to water(deep and infrequent) and then you see something like this. I also drive past a home every morning that waters every other day and it also has one of the best lawns this summer!!! Whats up with that????

  • dchall_san_antonio
    10 years ago

    The appearance of the grass itself is not normally the issue for frequent, shallow watering. The basic problem is the soil surface is continually wet. When this happens you have an increased probability of getting a fungal disease and having weed seeds sprout. Also if you water for a few minutes every day or two the soil deeper down never gets a good soaking. That results in the death of the soil microbes below just the shallowest levels. You end up with a hard soil covered with mud. All the grass roots live in the mud. If the mud ever dries out, which can happen in a few days with no water at all, then the grass roots can die.

    We have not seed the problems much recently but we used to see people going on vacation and returning to a dead lawn because the kid they hired to water it forgot one or two times. Or one sprinkler head on the automatic system broke off and nobody noticed. When you are watering more deeply, the roots and moisture are very deep in the soil. The deeper soil does not give up the moisture to evaporation as easily because the temperature is cooler deeper under the surface.

    Frequent fertilizing is not a problem if you have bermuda. It is also not a problem if you use organic fertilizer. For other grasses, it is best to limit the apps to 3x per year with one in late spring and two in fall.

    Here is a picture of a Kentucky bluegrass lawn in Eastern Pennsylvania taken in July 2010. This guy waters once per week.

    {{gwi:100977}}

    To be fair he also has a select blend of Elite KBG cultivars, pays meticulous attention to soil testing, and at the time was fertilizing with Milorganite and soybean meal every weekend. But with all that he only watered once per week.

    The other lawns in his neighborhood are "contractor grade" KBG. Here is a picture of a lawn this same guy cares for which is the contractor grade stuff.

    {{gwi:103345}}

    Just kidding...here's the real picture.

    {{gwi:103346}}

    That is what contractor grade KBG should look like with weekly watering, soil testing, and organic fertilizer.