Planting Guide
Planting A New Lawn
Selection of Lawn Type
Kentucky Bluegrass is by far the most common type of lawn grass
grown in Western Colorado. There are many different varieties
of Bluegrass, and they vary in their fertility needs, reaction
to weather conditions, disease resistance, and other characteristics.
It's best to plant a mixture of varieties to take advantage
of each of their strengths. At Bookcliff Gardens, we carry a
mixture of premium varieties of Bluegrass which are proven to
thrive here. Bluegrass is a creeping type grass, has deep green
color and soft, fine texture. It requires regular watering and
fertilizing, at least weekly mowing, and can be prone to a variety
of insect and disease problems. It can also form thick thatch
layers unless properly maintained by aerating regularly.
Perennial Ryegrass is often mixed with Bluegrass. The turf
is identical to Bluegrass, and it can impart better salt and
traffic tolerance to your lawn. It also germinates very quickly,
helping to stabilize the seedbed until the lawn is established.
It can be used alone as a lawn grass, but it requires more maintenance
(fertilizer especially) than Bluegrass. Generally best used
in combination with Bluegrass, Ryegrass is a bunch type grass
that generally does not form thick thatch layers.
Turf Type Tall Fescues have also gained in popularity in recent
years. Newer varieties will be just slightly coarser and a little
lighter green than Bluegrass, but otherwise difficult to tell
apart. Watering requirements are another reason to consider
Tall Fescue. While they require the same amount of water as
Bluegrass, their deeper root system allows for less frequent
watering. However, Tall Fescues can fail to deliver expected
water savings in heavy clay soils because the plants cannot
develop a deep, water conserving root system due to poor aeration
in the deeper levels of these heavy clays. Soil preparation
can overcome this problem, but only if done to extremely deep
levels (16"-20"), well beyond the reach of any rototiller.
Though less prone initially to insect and disease problems,
we're starting to see more of them crop up as more Fescue is
planted. Tall Fescue is a bunch type grass, which is nice because
it doesn't tend to invade adjacent beds the way Bluegrass does.
However, if a dead spot develops (those of you with female dogs
know what I'm talking about!) the grass will not fill in by
itself the way Bluegrass will. You will have to reseed the area
to fill it back in.
Buffalo Grass is an excellent choice where using less water
is of paramount importance. It will not survive in the Grand
Valley without supplemental watering, but it requires much less
water than the other common types of lawn grass. Buffalo Grass
is a warm season grass, greening up in mid May, and browning
out in late September into October. It is a creeping type grass,
grayish green in color, reminiscent of a dwarf Bermuda Grass.
It looks its best if watered two to four times a month during
the summer. It can be mowed as a traditional lawn, or allowed
to grow to produce a short, meadow-like lawn.
Other types of grass such as Creeping Red Fescue, Alkalaigrass,
and Bermuda Grass may or may not be better suited to your particular
situation - come in and talk to us about it.
Soil Preparation
Poor soil conditions are a leading cause of lawn failure. The
only time significant changes in the lawn soil can be made is
before the lawn is planted. Once the lawn is in, soil improvement
can be made only gradually and with considerable cost and difficulty.
Good soil preparation needs to be done whether you are seeding,
sodding, or hydroseeding your lawn. A thoroughly decomposed
organic material like Composted Manure, Barkmulch, Compost,
or Peat Moss all work well in improving our soils. Three to
four cubic yards of material should be spread out per 1000 square
feet and thoroughly rototilled into the top 4" to 8"
of soil. Coarser organic materials (like barkmulch) tend to
break up our heavy clays better than finer
materials. If your native soil is high in soluble salts, avoid
using salty organic amendments like manures.
Using topsoil or sand to prepare the soil is usually not recommended.
Topsoil can be used to fill in low spots or to adjust grade
before normal soil preparation is done as described above. It
requires a VERY LARGE amount of sand or good topsoil (a 3"-6"
thick layer placed on top of the bed and mixed in) to effect
anything but a negative change in our heavy clay soils, which
quickly gets prohibitively expensive as well as raising the
existing grade substantially.
Planting The Lawn
Once the soil has been properly prepared, level and smooth
the area with a rake, removing any rocks or clods over 1"
in diameter. If the soil of the seedbed is still soft after
raking (If you leave footprints more than half inch deep when
you walk across it), firm the soil of the seedbed by going over
it with a water filled lawn roller.
If seeding your lawn, carefully broadcast the seed using a
whirlybird seeder at a rate of 4 pounds of bluegrass plus 1
pound of perennial ryegrass per 1000 square feet or 13 pounds
of tall fescue per 1000 square feet. It's best to make two passes
over the area, spreading half the seed on each pass. Make your
passes at right angles to one another to spread the seed more
evenly. An application of Bookcliff Gardens Choice Winterizer
and New Lawn Starter should then be applied (the fertilizer
can also be applied during soil preparation and tilled in.)
Cover the seed by pulling a leaf rake over the seedbed twice
at right angles or by applying a quarter inch layer of composted
manure or peat moss over the seed.
If you are sodding your lawn, use freshly cut sod. Lay it as
quickly as possible, especially in hot weather. Lay the first
row of sod in a straight line. Thereafter, the sod should be
tightly butted together and laid in the manner of bricks in
a wall, staggering the joints.
Watering
A seeded lawn will require frequent, light waterings (as many
as four or five a day in hot, windy weather) until the seed
has germinated. Germination may take two weeks or more, depending
on weather conditions. A helpful gauge to determine when to
water your newly seeded lawn is to watch the color of the seedbed
as it dries. The seedbed will be dark in color when it's wet,
turning lighter as it dries. When the seedbed is half dark and
half light in color, give it a watering, being careful to turn
the water off before it begins to run off and wash out the seedbed.
After the grass is up and growing well, the frequency of watering
should be reduced, but the amount applied at each watering increased.
Sod is usually laid on dry soil, and then should be thoroughly
soaked as soon as it is laid. Look under a few strips of sod
to make sure that the soil beneath them is thoroughly soaked.
Water often enough to keep the ground moist (not soggy wet).
As the sod "knits" down, you can decrease your watering
frequency while you increase the amount of water applied each
time until a normal watering schedule is reached.
Weeds
It is not uncommon to have a lot of weeds germinate with your
grass if you seed a lawn. Don't panic! Once you start mowing
your lawn regularly, most of those weeds will die out. Those
few that persist can easily be controlled with weed killers
or simply pulled out. Resist the temptation to spray too quickly;
weed killers can hurt grass seedlings. Most broadleaf weed killers
cannot be applied until the lawn has been mowed three times
(about six weeks after seeding on the average). There are some
tough, perennial weeds such as Bindweed and Bermuda Grass that
are best controlled before starting soil preparation for your
lawn. If you have these weeds, or are just not sure, bring in
a sample to us a Bookcliff Gardens and we can recommend your
best course of action.
Mowing
How soon you begin mowing your new lawn will depend on the
growing conditions of the lawn as well as the weather. However,
the first mowing shouldn't occur until the initial frequent
watering schedule has slowed down some. This means that the
soil of the seedbed has dried out to be firm enough to support
the weight of the lawnmower and you without leaving ruts. Don't
let the lawn get too tall before mowing. It's common for a germinating
lawn to be "patchy" with some areas taller than others,
but you should try to mow when the tallest areas are no more
than 3" or 4" tall.
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Bookcliff Gardens
(970) 242-7766
755 26 Road (North 1st at I-70) • Grand Junction, Colorado 81506
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