JanisMurray's Blog

Hi Everyone,

It's great to be back from vacation enjoying these cooler  temperatures!

These temps are part of what makes Sept. the perfect month to renovate your lawn. Here are the steps:

1) Cut your existing lawn short, about 1-2 inches.

2) Run a core-aerator over your lawn. This is a machine you can rent for about $40 and it pokes holes in your yard and pulls out plugs of soil. It looks like it's really tearing up your lawn, but that is good because the holes allow air to flow into the soil which is necessary for new grass growth. Just leave the plugs of soil on top and they will disintegrate on their own.

3) Then run a slit seeder over your aerated lawn. A slit seeder can also be rented for about $40 and it cuts groove lines into the yard and deposits the seed right in the grooves at the same time. This is much better than simply sprinkling seed which can travel in the wind or be eaten by birds.

Choose a grass seed for your light conditions. Do you have a sunny yard or a shady one? There are mixes for both. Also, in general, a good grass for our area is a tall turf fescue mix.

4) The 4th step is to broadcast a starter fertilizer over the entire seeded area. You will want to do this two more times this fall . . . a month from now in Oct., and again a month later in Nov..

5) Then (and this is optional) sprinkle straw over the seeded and fertilized area. This will act as a blanket that holds the seed in place and retains moisture which is necessary for seed germination.

6) Finally, YOU MUST WATER A NEWLY SEEDED LAWN 10-15 MINUTES  TWICE A DAY FOR THE FIRST TWO WEEKS. Good times are once in the morning and once in the early evening. This way you lose less to evaporation by avoiding the hottest times of day.

When people lose a newly seeded lawn and are disappointed, it is usually because they forgot the ongoing responsibility to water. Be careful not to drench the area either. This could cause run off of the seeds.

If you follow these easy steps, you will have a beautiful lawn by mid-fall and it will pop up thick and lush next spring without work. And it is always great to have the lawn all ready and done at the busiest time of year for gardening in our beds....spring.

If you can't or don't want to do this all yourself. Simply call a reputable lawn service to do it for you. But call early because most are very busy with lawn renovations in Sept..

And about that new battery powered reel lawn mower we debuted on the Morning Show today, it is by a company called MANTIS. You can get more information at www.mantis.com.

The mower is not sold in stores in our area. But you can order it. It takes about a half hour to assemble, and you have to charge it for 24 hours before the first use. It will cut a lawn size of 2500 sq ft on one charge. It has a 24 volt NiCad battery. The push style reel mower does a clean scissors cut on lawns and at 25 lbs. it is easy to push. When finished just plug it into the charger to be ready for next time. Plus it is quiet for close neighborhoods and non-polluting because it doesn't use gasoline. The cost is $379. We're going to keep testing ours through this fall and will have more on the results later on.

Happy renovating!

Janis Murray