Lawn Follies

If you’ve never checked out Mary Gray’s garden blog, Black Walnut Dispatch, do it today. Just do it. No, of course you don’t have time, but do it anyway. Smart and funny—really, really funny, Mary Gray is a landscape designer in Burke Virginia, who just happens to have a creative writing background, too.

Her most recent post, “So I’ve Ripped Out My Lawn, Now What Do I Do,” takes turf grass re-purposing to a whole new level. And here I’ve been recommending people just flip old turf over to create berms.

Springtime tips

I haven’t done a spring tips column in a long time, and after the long, snowy winter we’ve had I figured now is as good a time as any to do so. We all try to push it and get out and garden as soon as the first sign of spring comes but, honestly, that’s a bad idea. Tromping around on wet soil does more harm than good.

And though I’ve seen a lot of people doing it, you definitely should not be raking your lawn when the soil is still cold and soggy — even if you are grossed out by all the horrible snow mold everywhere.

What is Snow Mold?

Snow doesn’t always lead to snow mold, but this year’s heavy, lasting snowfall that started before the ground froze in many parts of the country means it will definitely be showing up in a lot of yards this year.

If you haven’t heard of snow mold, it’s a fungal disease that becomes visible in spring as the snow melts. There are a couple of different types of snow mold. Gray snow mold is caused by a fungus called Typhula blight, and pink snow mold is caused by the fungus Microdochium nivalis. The fungi overwinter in infected plant debris—though gray snow mold can also survive in the soil—and they start growing during the winter underneath their cover of snow.

You know you have snow mold when you see circular, beige-colored patches in your lawn in the spring. As long as the grass stays wet and cold, those patches will keep getting bigger. These patches will look matted and may have patches of fungal growth. Gray snow mold can be anywhere between white and gray and pink snow mold will be white to pink. You may even see some mushrooms popping up in spots.

Though it looks horrible, damage from snow mold is usually just temporary. Gray snow mold stops growing once temperatures reach 45°F or the soil surface dries out. Pink snow mold, though, may flare up in wet weather if temperatures are between 32°F and 60°F.

If you have snow mold in your lawn, rake the affected patches gently to help loosen up matted areas and promote drying. Those areas should green up fairly quickly as the weather warms up.

Mulch

When we think about gardening, admittedly, mulch isn’t the fun part, the part that you just can’t wait to dig into come spring. But mulch is worth giving some thought to and there are lots of reasons why. Not thinking about mulch, for instance, could easily lead you to make the dreadful mistake of picking any old thing like, say, gravel or decorative rock — possibly even white rock —which, as I may have ranted about before, is definitely the most hideous mulch imaginable.

Rock not only makes an ugly, completely unnatural-looking mulch, it also creates an inhospitable environment for plants since it’s usually spread on top of a sheet of black plastic. The plastic is there to keep the weeds out, but it also ensures that water and air don’t reach the soil so you can say goodbye to earthworms and all of the microorganisms that help keep soil healthy. Even if more porous fabric is used, it doesn’t solve the problems caused by all those rocks heating up in the hot sun and baking the plants and surrounding soil. 



Eco-Friendly Lawns

In the past I’ve aired my worries about the herbicide 2, 4-D, which is found in many lawn care products (and used by services that spray and then leave those little “Keep-Off-The-Grass-Until-Dry” signs). While it’s true, the FDA has deemed the product safe, studies have shown the chemical may pose some cancer risk, particularly for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (even when dry for a period of time). That’s why many countries have banned its use, and even the local lawn care companies I called (You’ve seen their trucks. You know their names.) told me that they were “trying to phase it out” even though it does an excellent job of killing certain, annoying weeds. I know many people, me included, don’t like the look of a dead, brown lawn. But if these studies are correct, there may be a heavy price to pay for golf-course green.

Lawn Removal Tips

They say a good friend is someone who helps you move. I want to revise that to read – a good friend helps you tear up sod. If you’ve ever tried to dig up your lawn to plant a garden you know what I mean. Yet a couple of weeks back my friend, Elizabeth, just up and volunteered to come over and help me get rid of the grass that covered half my front yard. (I tore the other half out last year.)

I’m telling you all of this because I learned some really useful things during this most recent sod-removal experience that I wish I’d known a long time ago. And I want to share them with you so you never have to go through as many tins of Tiger Balm (that’s hippie Bengay) as I have. Helpful tip number one: rent a sod stripper. Before this, I’d never tried one but I’d seen one used before by a former neighbor, a voluptuous, chatty young woman who gardened practically in the nude. (Weird.) I figured if she could use the thing, anyone could.