Don’t Forget About Your Lawn!
I just emptied our rain gauge at the office. Three and a half inches over a 72 hour period. Our late summer and early fall have been unusually dry this year. A slow, soaking rain was exactly what our lawns and landscapes needed. Many people in North Mississippi start to lose interest in their lawns as fall approaches, but fall is a critical time for your lawn. Plants of all types-grass included- are building up reserves to survive the approaching winter months. Drought stress takes the plant’s focus away from building up reserves and causes it to focus on survival. Our lawns that have bermuda, zoysia, centipede and St. Augustine grasses are reaching their dormancy period and losing their dark, green color, so we don’t always recognize the severity of the drought stress. Our lawns in this area had reached their limit, and this rain fell just in time to provide some relief.
While your lawn is readying itself for winter, there are some needs you can address to help your lawn. Fall is the ideal time to conduct soil testing for your lawn. If your soil is deficient in critical nutrients, or the pH is out of balance, lime or specialty fertilizers can be applied now to provide better growing conditions for the spring. Soil testing is the only way to determine your soil’s deficiencies. Perhaps annual bluegrass or lawn burweed are problems for you in the spring. If you do battle these weeds, a pre-emergent application now will prevent those weeds among many others.
We focus so much attention on our lawns each spring, but remember a little attention now will result in a better looking, lower maintenance lawn next spring.
