Mowing techniques and tips
Keep your lawn small: Minimize the size of your lawn to save time and money on mowing and watering. By mowing a smaller area you will encourage a natural buffer to re-establish itself between your managed landscape and the Bay.

Select a drought and disease tolerant grass seed. Red fescue and chewing fescue are drought-tolerant; tall and fine fescues require less nitrogen and need less fertilizer, if any. Fine fescues can tolerate both sun and shade. Endophytic grasses are pest resistant. Avoid Kentucky bluegrass since it requires regular watering and high fertilizer applications.

Set your mower at three inches: Grass at a height of three inches creates a healthier root system and decreases the need for water and fertilizer. Grass kept at three inches shades the ground, preventing most of the sun-loving weeds - such as crab grass - from growing. Longer grass is more drought-tolerant and insect and disease resistant.

As a general rule of thumb, do not cut off more than one third of the grass’ height in any one mowing.

Leave the clippings where they fall: Grass clippings left on the lawn reduce water evaporation and keep the soil cooler during hot weather.

Clippings don’t cause thatch buildup. Overuse of fertilizer and over-watering causes rapid and excessive growth and can cause thatch buildup. Clippings are 85 percent water and five percent nitrogen. When left on the lawn, they return water and nutrients to the soil. Clippings can provide up to 30 percent of your lawn’s fertilizer requirement. A mulching mower cuts the clippings smaller for quick decomposition

Watering tips:
Just say no to H20: Native coastal plants and rye and fescue lawn mixtures do not need watering to survive the dry summer months.

Most lawns in New England will survive without watering. Healthy, well-established lawns that turn brown during hot dry periods are dormant, not dead. They will green up again during the wetter fall season.

If you must water, morning is better: Watering in the early morning (before 9 a.m.) reduces evaporation and prevents sun scalding. Don’t water at all if the day is cloudy or humid. Any water that does not evaporate off the grass blades during the day can help speed fungus and other diseases. Lawns and plants watered in the evening remain wet longer, promoting diseases such as fungus.

Don’t over water: Over watering can cause any fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides to flow into the Bay or leach into the groundwater.

If you chose to water, do so no more than once a week with an inch of water. Place a rain gauge in the sprinkler zone to measure the right amount. If it has rained in the past week, only water enough to make an inch.

Avoid frequent watering. Water slowly and deeply to help develop the depth of your lawn’s roots versus frequent light watering which encourages shallow, more vulnerable root growth. Using soaker hoses or drip irrigation in landscape plantings will get water more efficiently to the plant’s roots and will reduce evaporation.

Articicle compliments of Narragansett Save the Bay http://savebay.org/bayissues/backyardbay/sect_three.htm

Pruitt Chiropractic
88 East Main Road
Middletown
(401) 847.8889
www.pruittchiropractic.com