Clover and Yarrow Lawns Along With Lawn Watering
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Transcript
Taun Beddes 0:04
Hello, and welcome back to the homegrown horticulture podcast. I'm with Savannah Peterson. And we've been talking on and off all day about diagnostic calls coming into the USU. Extension office and just what to talk about on the podcast. So Savannah, how are you doing?
Savannah 0:20
I'm doing great.
Taun Beddes 0:21
So what calls have you been taking commonly over the last several days?
Savannah 0:26
A lot of it's been specifically about lawns. Why is it turning brown? What is? Is this a pest? Is it a disease.
Is it drought? Is it fertilizing any of those?
Taun Beddes 0:37
Well, when I look at a brown lawn, people email pictures in. And sometimes you can easily tell it's drought stress by the pattern, the lawn underneath trees, you know, or where there's a lot of shade is still green, and the lawn is brown, where you get a lot more sunlight, that's pretty easy to tell if it's drought stress. Or if you look at the sprinkler patterns on the lawn. And, you know, a lot of times you'll see concentric rings that almost look like a target that you throw darts at. You know, that's pretty easy to tell. But I think the bigger concern is just sudden brown spots in lawn. So how do you tell people? Is that brown from grubs? Or is it brown from drought or fungus?
Savannah 1:21
Well, usually, when we get pictures like that, it usually just means that you have to do some further investigation. So you could start by looking at like the root health or the root depth, you can check to see if you can see any physical insects underneath any kind of mold spots or anything like that will be good indicators to,
Taun Beddes 1:44
You know, what I like to do with those and those are all good suggestions is to go get a screwdriver that has a shaft that's six inches to a foot long. And if I have a brown spot, I will go out the day after my sprinklers have run or I've irrigated, and just stick it into the soil. And as long as your soil isn't rocky, that screwdriver should slide right in and have a little resistance and it should go at least six inches to a foot. And if it's going into that brown area quite easily, then it's not drought stress, and you shouldn't water any more. But you need to be looking for fungus or possibly insects. And so the other thing that's really easy to look for are insects, because on the brown areas, especially that are new, or just try pulling the grass off, you don't want to rip the lawn for everything you're worth. But just grab a couple of handfuls of grass and gently but firmly tug. And if that grass comes out really easily, probably insects. So if the grass is brown, and it's watered well and it's routed, the next thing I look for includes disease. And at that point, there's a few diseases you can identify over pictures are just looking at it. But a lot of times you need to send it up to the USU past lab for further diagnostics because those fungal diseases can be quite hard. You know, that's not the main thing I wanted to talk about today. Just from our calls, it's more managing lawn in drought situations. And so as far as lawn management, what calls have you been taking?
Savannah 3:22
It's mostly been calls about am I irrigating correctly? Or should I be fertilizing differently? Those are the two big management questions.
Taun Beddes 3:30
So we're going to be talking to Kelly Kopp in a couple of weeks in depth about both of these, but especially irrigation. So we'll cover irrigation first, but maybe leave some of that for Kelly to cover in the future. So what have you been telling people as far as irrigating their lawns,
Savannah 3:48
Mostly that if your lawn is brown, and it's from drought stress, that's totally normal. The cool season grasses that we grow in Utah are built for that. They're meant to be green in the spring and in the fall. And just to protect themselves, they stop growing in the heat of the summer. And when there's a lack of water, they put more energy just into staying alive. So as long as you can keep the crown of the plant alive, which is the growing point that's right at the soil surface. You don't need to worry about your lawn actually dying. It's just gone dormant.
Taun Beddes 4:23
So in areas where these lawn grasses are native to, Kentucky Bluegrass, even though we call it Kentucky Bluegrass is native to Europe in North Africa. And its strategy to deal with summer heat is to go dormant because there's not a lot of rainstorms where it's native and it stays green in the spring and fall. So it's actually completely natural for these long grasses to brown out and we artificially keep them green by irrigating.
Savannah 4:56
And one other thing is that the indicators it uses to tell us to go dormant, are things like temperature and water. But after a certain point, adding water will keep your grass greener longer. But after a certain point, your grass is going to say, Please stop, I'm going to go dormant no matter what you are doing. So it's not really worth it to keep irrigating
Taun Beddes 5:19
when you hit that point to where you're going to let your grass go dormant, or it has how much water monthly during the growing season does your lawn need to keep those crowns and roots alive?
Savannah 5:32
I was actually surprised by this, it's really only about an inch. It doesn't need more than that to keep in survival mode. And it should bounce back in the fall, even just with that much water during the summer should bounce back within a couple of weeks of getting regular irrigation again.
Taun Beddes 5:50
So I would probably put that water down instead of doing one inch all at once. I would probably least go a half inch every other week, to spread it out a bit by an inch a month is pretty incredible.
Savannah 6:02
But you can still water your lawn to keep it greener longer. And there's a couple ways to do that.
Taun Beddes 6:11
So where I live, my city, for whatever reason hasn't implemented drought restriction watering yet, but I've been trying to follow state recommendations. And so I've been running my pop up sprinklers for 20 minutes each. And then I've been running my rotary sprinklers for about 40 minutes and I water on a Tuesday Friday pattern in the evenings and then in the morning to get everywhere watered. And what I've been finding is that my lawn, even on that amount of water is still pretty dang green.
Savannah 6:45
They really don't need too much.
Taun Beddes 6:47
They don't. And I almost feel bad because we're in a drought, my lawn still pretty green, but I am following those recommendations. And I think what this translates to, though, is if you have a good irrigation system that has good coverage, and you've been watching it to make sure that you don't have leaks, and you've been checking your filters, that even these drought restrictions twice a week, your lawn will still be pretty darn green.
Savannah 7:14
The other management question we've been getting Well, now that we've established, it's most likely drought stress. The other question that we've been getting a lot is, is this fertilizing problem? And it's probably not, but we should talk a little bit more about that.
Taun Beddes 7:29
So a lot of times we get calls in the office, that people are like, Well, yeah, it's even about trees and shrubs, but even lawn, there'll be my lawn browned out, can I fertilize it to make it green again, you know, without knowing what's wrong. And that's just the total wrong approach. You know, and I've used this example in the past, but when you call your doctor and tell your doctor that you have a headache, and just s hould I take aspirin, well, aspirin might alleviate it a little bit, might not, you need to know why that headache is there. And so when you have these brown spots, fertilizer isn't a miracle cure. And I think that goes further on what you should actually be using as fertilizer and how often. So one thing I'm asked quite a bit is what's the ideal fertilizer. And I can't tell people this is or you know, the 16-16-16 or 19-26-5, the only way you can find out what fertilizer you should be using is soil testing. And in Utah, both Utah State University Extension, and BYU have soil labs that are relatively inexpensive that can tell you if you have any soil nutrients, and for USU, you would use what's called the routine test. And you can access the soil lab website, at usual us ua l.usu.edu.
Savannah 8:58
Usually, we'd recommend that you get a soil test about every three years just to make sure that your nutrient levels are correct. But in general fertilizer recommendations would usually be just in the spring in the fall when your grass is actively growing. So the months that you would usually fertilize are April, early June and October and most of your fertilization should be in October. So that means that you shouldn't be fertilizing in the heat of summer, not just because it's the heat or anything or because of a drought but just because your lawn isn't actively growing then even when we have plenty of water growth slows down in the summer so your plant doesn't need the nutrients and you'll end up just offering more food to weeds that are actively growing during that time.
Taun Beddes 9:46
I often get phone calls people will ask why is spurge or why is crabgrass going crazy in my lawn in July and August is because those plants are adapted to growing in summer heat. Much more than your lawn. And if you're fertilizing in the middle of the summer, and especially if the only time you see traffic on your lawn is when you mow it, you actually are just fertilizing the weeds and helping them out compete your lawn grass.
Savannah:The exception to that rule would be if your lawn or if you're a business owner, if your commercial property does see a lot of traffic, so some place even like a football field, that would be something that could get some extra fertilization in the summer because the grass would need a little more help to repair itself after that activity. But other than that, you don't need to be fertilizing.
Taun Beddes:So to sum this whole thing, I think the take home at least as far as fertilization is to more fertilize. According to the situation. 80% of the lawns out there will do fine, especially in a drought year without summer fertilization. Savannah, what were your thoughts on the irrigation,
Savannah:your lawn probably doesn't need as much water as you're giving it since it would rather be dormant right now anyways, follow the water restrictions for your area. Even if you aren't on restrictions, you could probably cut back. But if you want more information on this, you could go to conserve water.utah.gov. They give weekly updates about watering situations and recommendations on how to irrigate your lawn.
Taun Beddes:One other website I found as far as drought resources is from Utah State University who I work for, they do a pretty good job at this stuff, but you go to extension.usu.edu/drought, and not only does it give you tips on your yard and how to conserve water, but also in the house and an agriculture in another situation. So thank you again. Appreciate it.
Savannah:Anytime happy to be here
Taun Beddes:I am with Liz Braithwaite, who is a USU extension graduate in horticulture and she's currently working on a master's in landscape architecture. Liz is a former intern from my early days and extension is extremely smart. And an extremely astute horticulturist. So Liz, how are you doing?
Liz B,:I'm doing great.
Taun Beddes:One thing I've noticed is you like to experiment. And I was fascinated. We were chatting on Facebook that you have a lawn that in areas is primarily just clover without a lot of grass.
Liz B,:Yep. So about five years ago, we had just had a blank slate. And I kind of had heard about clover lawns and wanted to try it out and see if it would work. My soil back there is really Rocky, if anyone's from Brigham city, you know, we've got super rocky soil. So I was gonna see if I could get clover to grow. And if it would dwell on it did. I've got still back there and it's doing pretty well.
Taun Beddes:How did you plant it?
Liz B,:I just seeded it, I see a different part different hairs. But mostly it was just cutting the weeds back, I didn't worry about removing any annual weeds, I just cut them back all the way got rid of any perennial weeds, those have been a problem. So just making sure the perennial weeds are done, and seeding it and just making targets water, we actually have flood irrigation back then. So, I would just sit it down and let the flood irrigation go and it come up. So it's pretty easy to get started. It does take a few years from seeding it to get it really filled in and pre but it's pretty easy to establish.
Taun Beddes:So it did not establish as fast as say traditional Kentucky Bluegrass lawn.
Liz B,:It depends like a lot of times if you're hand seeding Kentucky Bluegrass, and I've seen people do that. If you don't get a good coverage, it still takes a few years. So that's my comparison is more like if your hand seeding it, you just don't necessarily get the good dispersion, then if you're doing something like hydroseeding, so I think it's more an issue regards to that problem and necessarily, it takes longer than long established.
Taun Beddes:So now that it's established, what are some of the advantages to the clover lawn that you've noticed.
Liz B,:So it grows really well I it's not great soil, the clover doesn't mind it grows, grows great. I love it because I can plant trees and I've got a lot of fruit trees back there. And I'll just plant them in the clover, I don't have to worry about any problems without competing as much. So in the freezer and mom they tend to get really out competed by the lot. And I haven't noticed that near as much when the freezer in the clover. So it makes a really good ground cover around all my fruit trees. And it doesn't take as much maintenance as long I still mow it on a regular basis and that just but I don't have to I've had times when you get busy and you just let it grow bigger and it's fine. And then there's no fertilizer at all back there.
Taun Beddes:So you don't fertilize at all?
Liz B,:and not where I've got clover. There's no fertilizer and it stays just as great as my lawn that I am putting fertilizer on.
Taun Beddes:So you have some other things mixed in with your clover lawn. You said you had Yarrow and fine fescue. And so when you see to this, did you do all three at once or individually or how did you go about that?
Liz B,:There were different times that I've seen it in the clover one time, it was just straight white clover. Another time I did a combination of fine fescue, clover and yell and there are a few more things. I think I tried to seed in there that didn't actually come up. So those are the three that I seeded that did come up.
Taun Beddes:Do you have an even distribution of all three? Or what's the growth habit?
Liz B,:It's pretty patchwork II, there are definitely like some locations that the fine fescue is taking over. And that's basically what I have. And other places that's more somewhat combination. And then other places that are just yarrow. So I've noticed the the fine fescue tends to do better. When the soil is better when it's getting more water, the yarrow does really well on the places aren't getting as much water. So I fled here date, that means there's not necessarily even water distribution. And those areas that are dry, that's really where they are. I was taken off the clover itself, people want to grow it, it seems because they assume that it's drought tolerant is compared to Kentucky Bluegrass or other common turf grasses.
Taun Beddes:Have you found that?
Liz B,:So I have not found that at all. I've heard that a lot. But in my own experience, my clover shows drought, just as soon as my Kentucky Bluegrass. The one benefit I do find is once I get water again, it does green up much faster. So where is it Kentucky Blue Grass lawn tends to when it gets drought stressed and goes dormant, it takes a while to get it back up and green. The clover A week later after you water it. It's growing. It's green again. So in some ways, it's not. It's drought resistant, but not necessarily drought tolerant. So you will see the effects of drought. But it recovers very rapidly once drought is gone.
Taun Beddes:So how long have you actually gone without it having water?
Liz B,:twice a week, my one time in May we don't have irrigation yet. So it's been two or three weeks, in May without any irrigation. And it'll pop back just fine. So I've never let it go much more definitely not on a month and not in the summer because I've got the flood irrigation coming in. So...
Taun Beddes:as far as using this alternative lawn that you have for kids playing on it foot traffic, maybe garden parties, how is it held up?
Liz B,:So it does like traffic just fine. I don't see any problems. When there's light traffic, more than moderate to heavy traffic. It'll take it out, I have a place by my basketball court. And it'll definitely you'll see where where the kids have been playing there. But that's getting pretty heavy traffic, all the trails that the kids are making through the lawn are just fine. And you don't notice it. I have a separate lawn area that the kids do much the plane. So they're not necessarily playing sports there. It's just more foot traffic back and forth. And that's just fine with that.
Taun Beddes:I thought it was interesting that you had yarrow, which others I've seen mentioned once in a while that they leave it in their lawn. But it's the first time I've seen somebody let it go. Just I don't know if you're just wanting to see what happened or what but how is yarrow mowed, and how has it done.
Liz B,:So you can just mow it like a regular lawn. When you mow it very different than a traditional perennial yarl. So this is just a normal yarrow that you would normally get. I think I forgot the variety, but it's just a normal landscape yarrow. And so it would get Paul, but when you mow it just stays nice and short. It grows fine. It's soft underfoot, and I really like the yarrow. And the one really the biggest benefit I see is it's doing well on the places that don't get a lot of water. So that's really been very drought tolerant.
Taun Beddes:Have you done any reseeding?
Liz B,:I've added areas but I haven't needed to go back and receded any existing areas that I already did.
Taun Beddes:For the three components of this lawn. How is it against as far as weeds and baiting.
Liz B,:So that's the one problem I fill with clover, it outcompetes most things but there's definitely weeds and unlike a lawn that you can just spray out the weeds, it's a little bit more difficult to get rid of weeds. A lot of times I just ignore them because they're there. But most of the annual weeds out compete just fine. I have some perennial stuff. I've got alfalfa back there and some grasses, I just mostly ignore because I don't mind too much. But weeds are more of a problem with clover. That's one of the reasons I do mow on a regular basis as well is it just keeps the weeds down so they don't take over as much.
Taun Beddes:Well, Liz, I think that's everything. Do you have anything that I missed?
Liz B,:I think that's it.
Taun Beddes:Well, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
