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Lawn levelling....
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Author:  LovetoLearn [ Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Lawn levelling....

I know this subject has been covered many times as I have looked back on the pages for about 10 pages but I just want to clarify things before I start.

First problem: I have alot of dallisgrass in my St. Augustine yard. Today my parents came over and we spent all day pulling what was not being successfully taken over by the St. Augustine. To get control of the dallisgrass, I have been letting the grass St. Augustine try to grow thicker but before the dallisgrass go to seed, mow the lawn.

Should I put CGM in the holes to prevent new weeds from sprouting? Or put compost/whatever to fill in the whole and put CGM over that? Or some other technique?

Second problem: My St. Augustine grows about an inch above the soil in many spots. I have read, on the forum, that this is the result of too much H2O in the soil therefore the grass does not need to go into the soil to get it.

I was thinking about levelling using compost or humus or something like that to bring the soil back up to the grass level. I would try a plugger to open the soil up but, as I have mentioned before, there is not a plugger for at least a hundred miles of my house, and believe me I have checked, and they are industrial and nothing to use on a yard.

Author:  sandih [ Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:39 am ]
Post subject: 

According to Howard (and I got this info by clicking the "dirt doctor" then going to "library" on the left side) you put out CGM thru March 15th. If you put it on now it acts more like a fertilizer. Regarding the Dalisgrass

"Physical removal is probably the best approach followed by filling the holes with compost. Dallisgrass can also be rotted to death with a heavy (at least 1/8" across the entire clump) treatment of sugar, dry molasses or cornmeal. It can also be sprayed with full strength vinegar. Add an ounce of orange oil and 1 teaspoon per gallon of vinegar for even better results"

Author:  LovetoLearn [ Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:00 am ]
Post subject: 

Quote:
It can also be sprayed with full strength vinegar. Add an ounce of orange oil and 1 teaspoon per gallon of vinegar for even better results.


I think that there might be a typo in that. It should probably say "It can also be sprayed with full strength vinegar. Add an ounce of orange oil per gallon of vinegar for better results." or "It can also be sprayed with full strength vinegar. Add a teaspoon of orange oil per gallon of vinegar for better results." or "It cannot be sprayed with full strength vinegar. It should be sprayed with an ounce of orange oil and once teaspoon of vinegar per gallon."

So, I use the "It can also be sprayed with full strength vinegar. Add and ounce of orange oil and a teaspoon of dishwashing soap for even better results."

But the question about lawn levelling persists also. Anyone have any ideas?

Author:  user_48634 [ Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:54 am ]
Post subject: 

The reason grass grows above the lawn is watering too frequently. I'm going to guess that you water it every day. What you need to do is wean it off of daily watering and toward deeper, less frequent watering. Start by watering twice as long as you are currently watering for a couple days and then skip one day. If the grass roots are truly living above the ground, this might stress the grass. Watch it carefully because it if dies, it is dead and won't come back. If it does not stress the grass, then water twice as long again and skip to watering every other day. This will give the "thatch" on the surface time to dry out and force the roots to look lower for someplace to get moisture. You'll have to watch everything carefully but eventually you want to be watering only once a week to allow the soil time to dry out completely at the surface. It might take you all season to get to that point, so be patient. I water my lawn once a week for 1-3 hours per zone depending on recent rainfall, heat, and humidity. And my zones overlap by 50%.

I would not suggest you do anything to relevel or change the soil surface until you have the watering under control.

Also if you have not already done it, set your mower to the highest setting. St Aug NEVER needs to be mowed at any other height. It definitely never needs to be scalped.

Dallis grass will overrun out St Aug, not the other way around. It has to be pulled. It pulls best when the soil is pretty moist. I wouldn't worry about seed from the dallis. Once you get your watering and mowing height fixed, dallis won't be a problem for you. Dallis is only a problem once it gets established. Water and mowing will keep it from getting established.

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