Home Lawn Tips

As the snow melts and your lawn starts to show again, you may notice that the grass looks funny.  It is probably matted and look like it has a gray or brown appearance.  For those of us in the North, it is most likely caused by Gray Snow Mold, a fungus that is enhanced by extended periods of snow or leaf cover.

Aggressive raking to break up and remove this dead leaf tissue will allow more sun and air to get to the live portions of the grass plant and promote quicker recovery of both the health and appearance of your lawn.  Sure it is hard work, but your lawn will thank you later. 

I like to follow this up with a good rolling.  I roll for two reasons: #1, and most obvious, is that it smooths the lawn, and #2 it gently pushes the crown of the turf plant back into the soil where it will be better protected from some of the harsh conditions it will face throughout the year.

Think green!

It's still March

Last week we enjoyed a brief stint of warm weather and saw most of the snow leave the course.  Some areas snuggled up to the tree line, like #15 Lake and #7 Hill still had a lot of snow, but most other greens were open.

This week March has let us know it is still here with a few inches of snow and temps staying below 30*.  Stay warm and know that warmer times are close.

When the snow finally goes we will be out to clean debris off the course, get it rolled, and get in our first mowing of the year.  I was thinking that we were going to get that done before April 1st like we did last season, but with the snow and cold we are looking at a typical start up in the first or second week of April.

I SEE GRASS!!!!!!

We're finally starting to see some turf as the rain melts the snow.  From what I have seen so far, we have come through the winter pretty clean on all areas treated with snow mold fungicide.  I was a pretty nervous on how much snow mold fungus we were going to have this spring after losing our traditional funicide to the EPA last fall and, by necessity, using a new combination to get us through to April.  From what I have seen to this point, I am cautiously encouraged that we came through very well, maybe even better than in the past if the rest of the course looks like the portions I can see now.

I expect to much more bare ground by this afternoon and hope to make it out for a quick sloshy inspection tour.  Don't get too excited, though, by tomorrow afternoon we'll be back under 2-4" of snow again.  Let's hope for no more than that.
 

Snow Melt

No, don't get too excited. While we had a nice round of thunderstorms and rain come through very early Monday morning and a nice warm day yesterday, we still can't see any significant grass.

Flooding was the theme for the day yesterday. Road ditches, streams and ponds were all flooding. So far we managed to escape any major damage, but there is still a lot of snow to come off and we may see some by the time it is done melting.

the only real set back from the heavy runoff is that the irrigation pond filled up faster than the drain line could take it away and we were not able to start digging the pond dike to install the intake line for the new pump station. Hopefully by the end of the week or the beginning of next.

Stay dry!