HOME & Garden
APril 20, 2012
Long live your lawn Continued from page 11A
yet. It may take four to six weeks for sod to lock into the soil. Sprinkler savvy
Sometimes installing an irrigation system or tweaking an existing system can give a lawn a new lease on life. “The design is absolutely the crucial part of the irrigation system,� said Boes. “You need to know how to design a system for the amount of slope, and for sun and shade factors. You need to separate the lawn from the shrubs and high water-need plants.� Even though it may seem more complicated, said Boes, the more zones you have, the better. Not only will you be able to control the frequency and duration of the watering in each zone, but you will be able to choose what types of sprinkler heads deliver water to different areas of the garden. If you have put in a flowerbed where you used to have lawn, and you already have a sprinkler system, the sprinkler heads delivering water to that part of the property should probably be changed because flowers and shrubs have different water needs from grass lawns. Expect to reset your sprinkler system a few times during the growing season. If you have your sprinkler system set up by your irrigation company when they arrive this month to turn it on for the season, the system does not need to be delivering as much water now as it will in the heat of the summer. It may seem like a pain to keep resetting the system when
The RECORD-REVIEW | Page 13A
the weather changes, but it’s necessary, unless you invest in a controller that is weather-sensitive. These are newest generation of irrigation system controllers. They adapt to the weather conditions and continually change the program for each zone, so the homeowner never has to touch it. Not only can this kind of controller do away with changing the programming several times a year, it also prevents your lawn from being soaked with water the day after a major rainstorm. Don’t undo your hard work
Once you’ve done everything possible to get a gorgeous lawn, don’t let that hard work be undone. • Don’t over-irrigate in shady areas where grass is thinly established; these areas will tend to become flooded after watering, and they’ll turn into mud pits when you run a mower over them. • Be sure the lawn mower blades you or your gardener uses are nice and sharp. If the ends of the grass look jagged, the blades of the mower are dull. Blades of grass that are injured this way will put out a clear, sticky liquid. If this happens, the lawn should be watered thoroughly. • Is your gardener’s mower contagious? If he is not cleaning off his mower blades from his last job before he comes to your property, his mower could be transferring weeds to your pristine lawn. • Don’t cut your lawn too short. Let it grow to 3� to promote dense growth and healthy roots. • If you see weeds emerging, leave your grass a little longer, about 3 1/2 inches, to choke out the weeds and deprive them of sunlight.
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