Hello gardening friends.
Welcome to Backyard Basics.
Today we're going to include the front yard in the backyard basics segment.
You know, we're seeing a lot of diseases in the lawn; it's rather dramatic as a matter
of fact.
Brown patches out there, that's somewhat manageable; but take-all that's one that's really stressing
the lawns and actually killing the lawns, so we'll talk a little bit about those two
today.
The City of Austin recommends that you read these pamphlets and really anybody in central
Texas and other cities would benefits from this kind of reading too, maybe your city
has some.
This helps you diagnose lawn problems they also give some good information on lawn care
and how to manage leafs, and they do this with organic alternatives in there.
You know, these diseases are just devastating in the lawn, and I think prevention is really
the key.
You know, when we are treating them and they're active we've got to do a lot more work and
we do lose a part of the lawn.
So, prevention is really important and this little pamphlet right here helps you to identify
the diseases with the pictures in there so you'll know what you're dealing with.
Not everybody knows all of the science about these things, so these are very beneficial.
You know, sometimes the lawn gets really stressed and that makes them more susceptible.
The droughts in the summer time really can lead into these problems.
Another thing is the use of herbicides and real strong chemicals out on the lawn.
This distresses them too because the soil becomes unhealthy.
Here in central Texas the extension service and the grow green program from the City of
Austin is recommending that you do not use atrazine, these weed and feed products are
getting into the creeks and streams, even Burton Spring has atrazine in it.
This is a big problem.
And so, the extension service and the city say, "Don't use the atrazine anymore."
You know, we don't normally feed the spring garden until the middle of April.
Anything earlier than that will run-off the grass can't take it, even with organic fertilizers
that are some release.
So, keep those things in mind.
But as we get under way in the spring or in the fall one of the things we want to do is
apply some compost out there.
Compost brings life to the soil, it really makes it richer, it makes the soil absorb
moisture better.
And so, the life in the soil is critical to the health of the plant, any plant including
your lawn.
And what we also do with this is, in order to prevent disease we add a little bit of
cornmeal to it.
Cornmeal feeds a beneficial organism that lives in the soil or in the compost.
And this is very important when you are try to fight disease out there and some warm moist
springs and moisture in the summer time can sometimes lead to these diseases.
Some of the traditional things for just trying to stop it quickly are potassium bicarbonate,
this is an natural fungicide.
This is a new product on the market called Serenade, this one only works on the brown
patch and not the take-all, but this is a real good product if you identify brown patch
out there.
Usually the lawn is dying but the runners are still green, but the leaves have died
on it.
This is a product that I really think is great, it uses a preventive technique, this is Actinovate
and this is an agricultural Streptomyces that will colonize the root system giving it protection
from the invading disease.
The disease may still be there but it can't get into the plant, but its only good when
you use it ahead of the problem.
Now, keeping the soil alive, if you can't afford a bunch of compost, at least use one
of the aerobic compost teas [sp?] that are now available.
Aerobic compost tea [sp?] brings in the beneficial organisms that are in the compost, and it's
a really good thing on all of the plants: black spot on roses, diseases out on the lawns;
this is another way to keep the soil healthy out there.
Now, the extension service is recommending peat moss, they did some research up in the
Dallas area using some different things out there; including the chemical fungicides and
that they found was that a little bit of compost certainly does a good job out there but by
reducing the pH of the soil with peat moss this seems to be a real advantage at suppressing,
specifically the take-all.
By having that lower pH around the roots of the plants and right around the rizones [sp?]
in there, it seems to suppress the take-all rather dramatically.
So, when you're using peat moss out there, it would be something like one pound, one
cubic foot bag, would cover about 263 square feet and the 3.8 bag usually is the most common
one available out there, and that particular one covers a thousand square feet.
I think it's an economical way to try to prevent it.
We do whatever we can to prevent these things because replacing the lawn is really expensive.
So, some good soil building practices and some prevention techniques are the key to
controlling diseases in the lawn.
Make sure your mower is clean too, don't let someone else come into the yard and inoculate,
and also your tools need to be clean, your gloves also and your shoes.
All of these things are components of preventing diseases in the garden.
For Backyard Basics, I'm John Dromgoole.
I'll see ya next time.