QuestionQUESTION: I had a lawn service spray my lawn with herbicide. The deal fell through and now my grass is dead. How do I repair my lawn? I tried adding fertilizer and watering it, but it is dead. How do I self repair without calling in someone (cost too much here in Hawaii)
ANSWER: Trouble in Paradise -- I was feeling very sad until I got to the last word in your question, Hawaii. I've always wanted to live there. Haven't we all? Here you are, living in the most beautiful island in the planet, and you have this problem with of all things the front Lawn. OOOOO KKKKK, here we go.
Even though you live in Hawaii, I am very sorry to hear about this mess with the lawn service, my friend. But like that old Gardener's saying goes, into every life some rain must fall.
Given that I do happen to know the cost of living in Hawaii is totally out of control, I can see how you would want to correct this economically.
But you are in a tropical zone and I have to know what kind of Grass you were growing before this Lawn service walked in with its WMDs and wiped out the yard. Please tell me you did not pay them to do this. Or correct me if I did not understand this correctly -- was the Grass in trouble already, requiring the herbicide you asked for? What was the big picture here you were working with?
rsvp and we will solve this, then I'll get on a plane and we can go surfing.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I'm not sure since I just bought the home. The previous owner did have some bad patches. I believe it was rye grass or bermuda grass. It was long stemmed. I hope this helps. Since the grass was killed, it is hard to tell. I would be ecstatic if you could assist me since it is very costly living here in Hawaii. No,I did not pay the for the lawn service. He never showed up as scheduled and when I called to terminate the spraying, he had already sprayed (on his own schedule). Yes, it is lovely here but a fine looking home with a horrible lawn is a eye sore. I have started racking up the old grass just to make it look a little presentable. A lot of hard labor. Help
ANSWER: Here抯 a website just for you, my friend: the contact info for University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture at Manoa Cooperative Extension Service:
http://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/extout/extout.asp
and their Soil Testing info:
http://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/tpss/research_extension/rxsoil/soilsample.htm
Soil testing falls under their 'Analytical Services'.
Test DIRT? Why should YOU do that, Mickey?
Drumroll please.... Because, Mickey my friend, a Soil test will SAVE YOU MONEY!
Because, my friend, if you know what you HAVE in your Soil, you won't BUY any more of it.
Funny how no one thinks about that. 'Fertilizer' means different things to different people. You can't run out and buy anything they have on the shelf just because the label says it's Fertilizer, right? You have to know what's in the bag -- and in fact there is a law on this, a law that says all Fertilizer companies have to spell out the N-P-K content of the stuff inside the bag. That抯 how important it is.
Why would you want to spend money on Phosphorus if your Soil is LOADED with Phosphorous? Why put Lime down if your pH is 6.8? Why WASTE your money AND your time AND your energy?
We homeowners have enough to pay for without throwing money out the window. LIG Lawn Care Tip Number One: Get a Soil Test.
Now, Soil testing is not on most people's list of things to do when it comes to the Lawn. There抯 a reason for that. Most homeowners learned everything they will ever know about Lawn care from one place: Scotts. Scotts ads, Scotts TV commercials, Scotts glossy four-color product literature -- Scotts ad department ne plus ultra when it comes to sales. Now they抮e doing product placement in the movies, and on TV programs. These guys are smooth -- which is why they more or less own the Lawn Care business ALL OVER THE WORLD. And they tell everybody the same thing: Put down Nitrogen, Put down Lime, Buy our Grass Seed, sprinkle your Lawn with our Weedkiller, our Bugkiller, our Grubkiller, now they have this stuff they call 'Wintergard' to WINTERIZE YOUR GRASS and 'Summergard' to SUMMERIZE it! This must have come up when they were planning to advertise around NASCAR races, then they just rolled out the whole concept everywhere. They do play this like a violin.
So we have LIG Lawn Care Tip Number Two: Do not take ANYTHING the Scotts Miracle-Gro Companies tells you about Lawn care seriously. Not one word. The product literature is beautiful and they paid a ton of money for it. They are happy with their ad program, so happy that they jacked up the budget by millions last year. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. It's just that in a free country, you can pretty much tell anybody anything you want. They are in business to make a profit. We have a responsibility as consumers to educate ourselves. It's our job to know Grass. But they make it real easy when they sell it as the 'Scotts 1-2-3 Program'.
So here you are, your vanishing Lawn Care Service has done something -- we don't actually know WHAT -- to your new Lawn, in your new house, and since you have only recently spent your life savings on closing fees and taxes and initial house payments, you are strapped for cash. But you want to work on your Lawn and make it look nice. I understand. I was a new homeowner once. You and me, we are the half of America that takes care of its own Lawns (yes, that marketing magazine mentioned above notes that a just under half the U.S. pays other people to do the Lawn care).
Get some money together and get a soil test. While you're over there in Maui or wherever dropping off the soil sample, bring a few sprigs of your Grass with you to confirm the Bermuda i.d.. Because different Grass needs different care, different Soil, and different TLC. In Hawaii, most people grow Bermudagrass. Bermuda is a 'Warm Season' Grass that is at its bubbliest in egg-frying, sweat-generating, skin-scalding HEAT. Plus Bermuda is aggressive to the point of being invasive -- a single sprig grows up to half a dozen ft in just one year, and rolls right over any Weed that happens to be in the way. Which is another reason I think you are growing it ('It was long stemmed').
Yes, Bermuda is ALMOST perfect -- IF you can give it a full day of Sun, IF you can water it and mow it on schedule, and IF your Soil is in tiptop shape. You need a pH between 6.0 and 7.0 for best results. A soil test will tell you what the pH is. And I will tell you what, if anything you need to do to get there. You might of course NOT be growing Bermudagrass. Maybe you ahave something else. The list of 'other' Grass could be Zoysia, Seashore Paspalum, Centipedegrass or Carpetgrass. They all have their tricks that make them unique and once in a while grow better than Bermuda under the Hawaiian Sun. But it's probably Bermudagrass. And if it wasn't, it probably should be.
I have a retired friend with a house in Hawaii, and from what I understand, Hawaiian Soil is pretty much pulverized volcanic rock. It抯 NOT going to be the kind of Soil that reacts chemically with the tasty vitamins and minerals that your Grass needs. There are a few exceptions. Red-brown volcanic cinders with a very low pH high in Clay, organic matter and minerals on Maui and Hawaii. You can grow Pineapples on plots like that. But for most of the region, any fertilizer washes right through the soil as soon as it rains unless you are very good at soil correcting. And by the time we are done here, you will be an authority on that.
Some regions grapple with toxic levels of Sea Salt. The Salty Pacific ocean spray rides the breeze and settles on your Soil. How bad is that? Read down a few of this week's AllExperts Lawn answers and you'll see a question from one guy who wants to turn a Weedy area into a flat, dry patch of dirt. I told him to mow and pour Salt on it for a quick fix. Nothing can grow in Salt. You can mix organic matter into your Soil until the cows come home. But if Salt levels are toxic, you are up a creek. Gypsum -- Calcium Sulphate (CaSO4) -- solves this problem. But why buy Gypsum if you don抰 have high-Salt Soil? A Soil test will tell you what you need.
So here, let抯 recap: You want a Soil test and you want to confirm the Bermudagrass i.d., or correct it if needed. You will not buy ANY Lawn care products until you get the results of that Soil test back. You will get price quotes on Hybrid Bermudagrass Sod and find one that is fairly affordable. If this is sounding pricey, remember that although seeding is cheaper, Hybrid Sod SPREADS OUT. You don抰 plant it like ordinary Sod. You plant it and expect it to cover a LOT of territory. Plus Hybrid Sod offers other advantages -- the plants are sterile and DON扵 produce pollen. And High-Density Hybrids (a few: 慣ifway? 慣ifway II? 慣ifSport? 態ob-Sod?and 慡anta Ana? are very, very pretty. This is how to grow an absolutely, positively beautiful Lawn in the corner of Paradise where you, you lucky duck, own real estate.
I sure would like to know what that guy with the free Lawn treatment was doing to your Lawn and why.
Please keep in touch and we will proceed with Lawn Care Tips 3, 4 and 5. Any questions, of course, I抦 here. Brushing up on my surfing.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: How can I be assured you will be able to give me tips 3-5? I want to make sure I send you the soil results so we can go from there.
Mahalo
AnswerThanks, Mickey. I'm not going anywhere. I was getting an enormous number of questions and it was totally out of control. I was backed up so much it was ridiculous. But in the next few weeks I will be a little more free and maybe I'll be able to open up for more answers. Keep me posted and I'll be watching for your Soil Tests. Don't forget to i.d. the Bermuda. Should be interesting.
