A TOUCH OF GRASS

“...Behold, a sower went forth to sow;” (from Matthew 13:3)

For the past few weeks, my blog has been featured on the “Protestant Blog Directory” at
http://www.blogged.com/directory/society/religion-and
spirituality/christianity/protestant

I hope they don’t remove it when they read this piece because it's not directly and overtly about “spiritual”, “Protestant”, or “Christian” issues. Some of you who’ve read my blog for a long time know that especially in the early days I wrote about a wide variety of issues such as rental car companies, the history of carbonated beverages, the “Lost” television program, the benefits of vinegar as a weed killer, etc. My wife feels that I should strictly write about pastoral/Christian issues, while other people like when I write about secular issues. In the past few weeks, 80% of what I’ve written about has been “spiritual”, but today I decided to talk about grass...not marijuana, I mean GRASS as in a lawn!

Mary Ann is into vegetable gardening and flower gardening. I don’t get too involved in that stuff, but I AM one of those guys like “Hank Hill” on “King of the Hill” who really likes to have a nice looking lawn. I’ve already been out patching some bare areas of my lawn this year- in fact I did that over a week ago. On projects like lawns, timing is EVERYTHING. In Massachusetts, the very best time to plant grass, whether a full lawn or just patching and repairing, is September- preferably between September 1 and September 15 but you can usually get away with planting as late as September 26 or 27. It takes about three weeks for the lawn to “take”. Once it does, it will be fine for the winter. The snow is actually good for it...something about the nitrogen. Then, you’ve got some great grass in the Spring.

In Massachusetts, the second best time to plant grass is April- preferably between April 15 and April 30. Newly planted grass doesn’t need the temperature to be too cold or too hot...moderate to slightly warm temperatures are best, and sunny days alternating with rainy days are best. Lawns that are planted between June 15 and August 15 generally DON’T do well because it’s just TOO hot and there’s not enough rainfall. The rainfall that generally DOES happen at that time of year is the torrential rain of thunderstorms which actually doesn’t do a whole lot of good.

There are a number of things to remember when you’re planting grass, and you should be able to find some great information on-line, but one tip I’ll share is that the PARTICULAR VARIETY of grass is important. I learned this from listening to Paul Parent, a gardening expert on the radio. Everybody loves Kentucky Bluegrass, but it’s NOT necessarily the best variety to plant. Kentucky Bluegrass tends to have broader, thicker blades and a dark green (sometimes almost forest green) color. It LOOKS great. The problem is, it has a very shallow root system. Kentucky Bluegrass is especially hard to grow in very sunny areas. Due to the poor root system, many a hot and dry August has just about killed a lawn full of Kentucky Bluegrass. There’s a variety called Red Fescue which is heartier than Kentucky Bluegrass, and in fact some bags of grass seed are a mixture of Kentucky Bluegrass, Red Fescue, and Perennial Ryegrass.

The BEST variety of grass to produce a healthy lawn is Tall Fescue. It’s roots go about ten times deeper into the earth than the roots of Kentucky Bluegrass. It’s really HARD to kill Tall Fescue. Tall Fescue grass has a thinner blade and a somewhat lighter green color, but it’s very dependable. Something I’ve been known to do is buy a bag of just Kentucky Bluegrass and a bag of Tall Fescue and mix them and plant them together. That gives you kind of a nice color, but will ensure a heartier and healthier lawn. Incidentally, there are some varieties of grass seed that are “annual”. They’ll give you a lawn for one year and THAT’S IT! Stay away from that stuff!

If you’re actually putting in a whole lawn, you’ll need to roto-till the land first, then you’ll need to add in some good quality loam, rake it all in good, and then add your seed and tamp it down. After that you need water, water, water, and more water. Ten years ago, my wife and I completely redid my parents’ lawn in Canton. I will always remember that I was working on that project on the day of the Columbine High School massacre. It was a tough job. 1999 was one of the DRIEST years on record. It killed many lawns. My mother watered every day for three weeks, and NOTHING happened. She was getting discouraged with it, as was I, but suddenly the lawn burst forth and she had a fabulous lawn. A challenge that year was that there was a crabgrass invasion. That’s why experts say it’s better to plant a lawn in September, but my experience in Canton tells me it CAN be done. Incidentally, when you plant a lawn you need to put down some starter fertilizer, but NEVER put down REGULAR fertilizer. It’s too much for the new lawn and it can kill it.

Well, maybe this is more about lawns than you’d care to know, but I’m really NOT an “outdoorsy” person, and yet I’ve gotten pretty good at this lawn stuff.
If I can do it, anybody can!