Hire Muscle To Kill Your Lawn
In this case the muscle is in the form of a mechanical sod cutter. These can be rented at places like Home Depot for less than $100 a day. You will probably need to rent ramps and have a truck to transport it. Using the sod cutter is a lot like mowing the grass except you are going to stop every few feet and roll and remove the strips the cutter has made.
Finally, remember to make changes to your irrigation. Prior to the turf removal also be sure to mark your sprinkler heads with small flags. This will ensure you dont create more work for yourself by breaking lateral lines and heads. The time to do this is right after you kill the turf. Most turf areas are irrigated with sprays and this is the ideal time to change those sprays to drip or something else much more water efficient than sprays. I am sure you have other effective methods as well and I look forward to hearing your best practices for removing turf.
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Richard Restuccia
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Lawn Pests And How To Fight Them
Having a perfect lawn is one of those American dreams that just about everyone strives for, even if it carves out a hefty chunk of time from our busy schedules.
While managing all the basics, including watering, mowing, landscaping and fertilizing, is fairly straight forward, theres one aspect of lawn care thats less easy to control the insects and wildlife that make it their home.
These pests are numerous and varied. Underground, your grass could become a meal for white grubs and billbugs. Other insects, including armyworms and fiery skipper caterpillars could attack the stalks of your favorite turf grass. You also have to watch out for the ants, mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, snails and slugs that simply live in your lawn and make life difficult for you elsewhere. If all those bugs arent enough of a problem, then you also have to deal with the wildlife drawn to your yard by the presence of such tasty treats.
Through it all, though, you know that you want to address these problem pests as safely as possible. With that in mind, you can deal with many of these insects and animals by using OMRI Listed® products, which are listed as compliant for use in organic gardening. You can use these products with confidence, knowing they wont persist in the environment.
Wondering what pests may be the problem? Check out our list of 20 common lawn pests and solutions to get rid of them!
What Pests Could Be Destroying Your Lawn
There is quite a variety of pests that can do damage to your lawn and yard, some of which include moles, voles, and grubs. Each do their own unique kind of damage to your lawn.
Grubs can be common pests that will feed on the roots of plants and grass. These can be dangerous to both your lawn and garden as they can eat roots in both areas.
Moles are responsible for creating tunnels around your yard and can destroy your lawn. Moles dont eat your lawn like other pests, but they do feed on mainly earthworms, but also insects and small rodents. The damage occurs from the lawn being lifted upend separated from nutrients and hydration. If you kill one food source for moles, they will feed on something else, so mole control should be directed toward the moles specifically.
Voles on the other hand do actually eat plants and grass around your yard. These critters also do damage by tunneling through your yard or simply surface feeding lengthy trails into the lawn.
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Other Factors That Could Be Killing Your Lawn
We briefly mentioned that too much fertilizer can cause your lawn to become damaged, and too much herbicide is another thing that could end up killing your lawn.
Proper aeration of your yard can be another reason why your lawn might not be as green as you want. Aerating your yard will cause nutrients and water to properly get deep into the soil and can cause your lawn quality to improve.
On top of that, you may also have bugs, grubs, or other pests that could be destroying your lawn as well.
Effective Lawn Pest Control
Lawn pest damage often goes unnoticed and unchecked until major damage occurs. Fortunately, you can quickly and efficiently control and prevent pests such as cutworms, armyworms, sod webworms, grubs, and chinch bugs with the help of GardenTech® Sevin® brand insecticides.
Sevin® Insect Killer Granules kill more than 100 insect pests by contact, working above and below the surface. This highly effective answer to lawn pest problems won’t harm plants, blooms or lawn when used as directed. Use it on fruit and vegetable gardens, ornamental and flower gardens, and around your home as well. Plus, it keeps killing insect pests and protecting for up to three months.
Sevin® Insect Killer in ready-to-use, ready-to-spray and concentrate liquid forms also treats more than 500 types of lawn and garden pests, including damaging moths and beetles. Tough on pests, but gentle on gardens, these liquid forms also work by contact and provide up to three months of continuing protection.
A pest-free lawn is a pleasant place for family and friends to gather and enjoy your outdoor spaces. Keep an eye out for these common turf nuisances and act promptly when they strike. With the help of GardenTech® brands and Sevin® garden insecticides, you can control common lawn pests and stop them in their tracks.
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Other Tips To Prevent Dog Pee Spots On Your Lawn
The effects of dog pee on grass are very similar to that of nitrogen-rich fertilizer. A reasonable amount of this fertilizer is useful for your lawn, but using too much of it will kill the grass. Therefore, controlling the amount of nitrogen that stays on the grass can help you solve this problem. Doody Calls suggests that the following tips can help you to minimize the damage.
Digging Up Live Lawn Method
If you decide to dig up your lawn without killing it first, you will need specific power equipment, and a plan for where youll dispose of your old sod.
You should have a tiller, preferably a rear-tine, heavy duty type rototiller. Look into renting equipment thats a bit on the heavier side, and I highly recommend that you rent a sod cutter. This tool will be able to cut beneath the turf and cut your old lawn sod into strips. This is a necessary part of the process and will make the whole process go faster.
Removing the Old Lawn Turf
After taking a pass with the sod cutter, roll the strips up and dispose of them.
I like to use old sod to fill the bottom of my raised garden beds. I turn them upside down so the grass dies, and then cover them with a 50/50 blend of compost and loam from my local nursery.
If you arent adding a garden to your property, see if someone in your neighborhood could use the old sod, or find a brush dump or composting facility nearby.
If you dont rent a sod cutter, you can use a sharp, flat shovel to remove the grass manually.
I dont recommend this method for large lawns. It is a very difficult process and is really only practicable for a small area of lawn.
Replacing the Topsoil Youve Removed
When you remove all the sod, youre also removing organic material.
This must be replaced.
Failing to do so will result in a weak lawn that struggles to grow and which could be even worse than it was before.
Planting Your Grass Seed
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How To Identify The Cause Of Brown Spots In Your Lawn
Brown spots in lawns are frustrating to deal with! Just when you think youve done everything right, suddenly theres a patch of grass thats dead or dying. There are a number of causes of brown spots in lawns, from insects to disease to human error.
To get to the bottom of the situation, youll have to do a little old-fashioned investigating. Heres a checklist to help you determine the cause of brown spots in your yard.
The Easy Way To Kill Your Lawn Poison
To Kill your lawn by applying a nonselective herbicide, such as glyphosate, over the entire area is one of the easiest methods. Glyphosate is a post-emergence herbicide that effectively kills turf and weeds in the turf.
Glyphosate spreads rapidly in actively growing plants. For best results spray your turf when your lawn is actively growing. Do not water after treatment, the grass will absorb the herbicide rapidly. Depending on the type of turf you have it may take up to a week after the application for the grass to show signs of dying.
Temperature plays a role as well and it might take as long as two weeks for the entire lawn to die. In some areas you may have to repeat the application.
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What Exactly Is A Fall Armyworm
Rebek said there are two kinds of armyworms: the true armyworm and the fall armyworm, the latter of which is the scourge homeowners are now facing. The fall armyworms, which are indigenous to the U.S., are the larval stage of the fall armyworm moth.
The caterpillars grow up to two inches long and can be green, brown or black in color. They can be identified by an inverted white “y” on their head capsules, Rebek said.
The fall armyworm also has two strains: the corn and rice strain, he said. The corn strain feeds on corn, sorghum and cotton while the rice strains eats rice, alfalfa and millet, as well as the pasture grasses and lawns.
Solarizing Your Lawn Before Starting Over
Solarizing your lawn is a good way for homeowners to kill grass and weeds without using harmful chemicals and without the heavy labor of removing living grass/sod.
Essentially you use the heat of the suns rays to cook the plants, weed seeds and more in the upper layers of your soil.
There are different approaches you can use, but laying plastic over your lawn is probably the most popular method.
Summer is the best time of the year to solarize your lawn, and fall is the best time of year to plant a new lawn in most parts of the country.
This works really well solarize in August, plant your new lawn in September, enjoy a brand new green lawn in the spring.
How to Solarize Your Lawn
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How To Control Moss On Hard Surfaces
Moss will also grow on hard surfaces, especially in shady, damp areas of the yard. While they wont damage the surface theyre growing on, they can make patios, steps, porches, and sidewalks slippery. Apply a product that is safe for use on hard surfaces, like Scotts® MossEX 3-in-1 Ready-Spray®, which kills moss, algae, and lichens without staining.
Your Grass Is A Real Creep
Creeping grass varieties spread through underground rhizomes and aboveground stolons, and, if not effectively held in place by landscaping borders or hardscapes, they may creep into areas where you never intended to have a lawn. When this occurs, you may need to kill the grass to keep it from spreading.
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What Is This Killing My Lawn
What is this? it’s killing my lawn fast. What can I do about it?
Background information: We applied Scotts Turfbuilder with Summerguard Fertilizer recently, don’t know if that’s related. The lawn is located upstate NY at Albany. We don’t have a sprinkler system, but it has frequent rain recently.
—-UPDATE—-I show the image to local stores, no one can give a certain answer.At this moment, I personally guessing the culprit is grub.
- @pnuts, there weren’t rain within 24 hours of application, but there is rain every now and then recently. MorioJul 9, 2017 at 2:29
- If you’re in the US you might try contacting your county agricultural agent . They may be able to help get you closer via email. If not, they may ask for some samples.
This could be any number of fungal diseases: Snow mold…but the solution is proper maintenance and management practices of your lawn. Chemicals for ‘Turf Building’ are not the answer.
Please send or tell us the product more closely, what it says on the product bag…this is most certainly a fungus. You don’t want to use band aids on this problem.
Mow your lawn HIGHER. 3inches plus no lower. Train your grass to grow deep roots and to only need once per week watering…1 inch of water per week. Fungus will only grow if you are watering daily, watering at night. Let your lawn dry out.
Fungus is easily spread by shoes, mowing . Fungicide is rarely helpful.
Are Your Pets To Blame
Ever wondered why your pets urine seems to kill your lawn? Well there are a lot of different myths and remedies out there, but the major cause of this phenomenon is from excess nitrogen in your pets urine.
This is a similar effect that can occur if you put too much fertilizer on your lawn. The reason your pets urine kills the grass is that their urine has such a high concentration of nitrogen, not that their urine is acidic and burns through the grass or anything like that.
For example, if your pet was overly hydrated, the urine wouldnt be so concentrated with nitrogen and it would cause less issues. Some remedies that are suggested include feeding your pets different things which sometimes can work, but its more from them drinking more water than any special food or liquid you may feed your pets.
You can make things worse if you have pets and are fertilizing your lawn in addition to your pets brand of fertilizer. A solution that could help would be to water grass spots after your pets go to the bathroom to thin out the concentration of nitrogen.
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Whats Killing My Grass 5 Common Pests That Call Your Lawn Home
Insects love your lawn almost as much as you do, and if you arent careful they can do a lot of damage thats challenging to repair. Unless you are an entomologist , insects may not be your thing. However, its important to know a little about them so you understand what steps you should take to keep them at bay.
Lawn-eating insects can be broken down into two major groups according to where they feed: surface-feeding insects take their meals on the surface of the lawn and are easily visible when you inspect your lawn subsurface insects favor the roots of your grass, making detection and control more difficult.
Why Dog Pee Is Killing My Lawn
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The chemical composition of the urine is responsible for damaging the grass. According to The Spruce Pets, acknowledging this fact and reacting accordingly will help you to keep your lawn fresh. The high concentration of nitrogen in dog pee is the most damaging component. Its quite an irony given the fact that an optimal amount of nitrogen is essential for keeping the soil healthy.
You may have noticed that the grass around dead patches is always very lush. Thats because they get a safe amount of nitrogen from dog urine, which boosts their growth. Other than nitrogen, some salts and other compounds in dog pee are also killing your lawn. They affect the grass by altering the pH of the soil.
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How To Prevent Winter Kill
When it comes to enjoying a fresh, green lawn each spring, one of the most important factors comes down to keeping your grass healthy before winter begins. Fertilize the yard in the early spring when grasses start actively growing, or after the last frost . It’s also recommended to fertilize a second time in the fall, but be aware that fertilizing too late can cause snow mold if you live in a region that experiences heavy snow cover early in the winter. If your grass is prone to winter kill, it’s also helpful to aerate your lawn during the growing season to prevent the soil from becoming compacted before cold weather sets in.
Ways To Kill Your Lawn
Everyday I read about the benefits to kill your lawn and converting turf to a more drought tolerant landscape or better yet, food. However, even my friends who claim to have no green thumb at all still have a hard time killing turf. So if you are ready to channel your inner Norman Bates and kill your lawn, this post provides four ways to help you. Just remember it might resist more than you expect, and what we need is turf reduction not turf elimination. Reduction will be much more palatable to most property owners.
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