Question
Hi,
I live in Collin County and have a few questions...  we have a yard with a lot of trees, with mostly Bermuda grass but I've planted some fescue this spring in the shady spots where the Bermuda won't grow.  Our lawn is patchy, with lots of bare spots, and the soil is that North Texas heavy clay.
Where do you buy molasses and gypsum?  I haven't seen them at the local Home Depot or Lowes.  Is molasses any better than plain sugar?  Any experience with gypsum?
Do you recommend core aerating?  I'm thinking of aerating first, then adding the molasses and gypsum.
Any advice on making the soil lighter or looser?

thanks,
Paul

Answer
Hi Paul;
I haven't been able to find the granulated gypsum in about 10 years here in Irving.
That pelleted gypsum just is not worth anything, I think.
I don't aerate.
the only reason to aerate is that you have tight soil, and don't have any earthworms or other insects tunelling through the soil, keeping it loose.
All those chemical treatments kill all the beneficial stuff, and the aerating and other things that are recommended are just bandaids on aslashed artery.
Watering deeply and encouraging a deep root system prevents thatch, so you don't ever have to dethatch, even if you are still using chemicals.
I had thatch when we bought this house, 42 years ago. I dethatchged, and have always watered very deep, at least 6 inches deep. the roots grew deep, so there was moisture down at the ends of the roots, wheh they top few inches were dry. The roots jever had to come clkose to the surface to get water, .
They come to the surface to get water, get exposed to heat and air, and die, and trap other debris, and that is what causes thatch.
I used chemicals until about 10 years ago, but I never had to dethatch again, because of the deep roots.
Now, if core aeration puts good sized holes, not teeny little ones, that you could apply lava sand over and it would fall into thiose holes, that would help get that clay looser.
It would at least help some, and let the roots get through a little bit, and let water get into the soil.
Switching to organics and getting earthworms and cock roaches tunneling through the soil, would work very fast too.
Cockroaches ( the state bird of Texas.LOL) believe it or not, are beneficial insects.
The make larger tunnels so they aerate better.
They normally live in the soil, and feed on harmful insects. We put insecticides for the harmful insects, kill off their food supply and threaten them, so they come inside our houses to find foor and safety.
I use rosemary inside the house to keep cockroaches out, and it works, and they stay in the soil, tuneling and eating insects, and enriching the soil. Earthworms do the same thing, only they eat microscopic insects. The castings of these two little workers, and their decaying bodies, when they die, help nourish the soil.
If your yard isn't too large to make thios possible, you can take a garden fork, stick it into the gound and work it back and forth a little bit, and make some pretty good sized holes. Toss lava sand, or enen lain old sand, over these places so it goes into the holes, and that will eventually be the same as tilling it up. You will get looser things in the soil. Your organics, witll aven out the soil PH, and composition, so in a few years it will be pretty goor, rich soil, that will grow just about anything, and you don't have to till up and start over.
Putting 4 or 5 inches of cedar bark mulch down, and tilling it into the top 4 or 5 inches of your soil is a lot faster. That gives you 8 or 10 inches of good loose soil right away.
Some of your grass may come back up, but best to lay in od, and that gives you a lawn in just a few weeks.
The aerating with a garden fork , you can do a section at a time, so it isn't one huge back breaking job.
Lava sand is full of nutrients, and so is alfalfa meal.
You will have to go to a feed store to get alfalfa meal, probably. Calloways carries products that have some alfalfa meal in them, but to get pure alfalfa meal, I have t go to a feed store.
Lava sand you can get at Calloways, Walmart and lots of places.
The fescue will be a problem this summer.
It is a cool season grass, and North texas is just too hot for it.
There is a variety of burmuda that takes a lot more shade.
Bermuda tif, I think it is.
I don't agree with mowing bermuda to 3/4 ths to 1 inches high, and mowing every three days.
That is WAY too much lawn work for people who have jobs and lives outside of working in their lawn.
When I grew bermuda in my home lawn, I mowed it to 3 incjes high.
I set my mower on the lowest setting and mowed more often until the grass had a couple of months to thicken up, because they helped it put out more runners and thincken up fast, but when the temp got up in the upper 80s, I set the baldes to 3 inches.
The taller blades help shade the soil and grass roots from the heat.
We mow once a week. We have St. Augustine now, and mow it to 3 inches. Since I have gone to organics, it thickens up fast enough by itself, and stays thick.
The organics build rich soil, and weeds do not thrive in rich soil, so if they come up, they die out right away. No weeds seen in my yard for at least 7 or 8 years.
Maybe you can trim out a few tree limbs to give those areas enough sun to grow grass, or consider planting shade living ground covers and/or plants.
There are many ground covers that will take full to partial shade, and are evergreen, or produce flowers.
I have asian jasmine in a raised bed under the huge trees in my friont yard. It is evergreen, and is thick. It has small waxy leaves, and it covers a large area of my front yard, so most of my front yard is green all year.
I have planted ferns up against the house in front, where there is too much shade to grow much else.
I had burfordi hollies that had established before the tree got big enough to cup oiff all the sun, so it stayed green and nice, but it required too much pruning, and I am getting too old to do that.
I put woodland ferns out there, because they are evergreen.
There are several varieties of ferns that are evergreen in our area.
I live in Irving, so I am in zone 7B.
We have such a long growing season here, that we have more choices than people in many parts of the country. EWe can grow almost anything here.
I am answering your questions out of the order you asked them, but it is late.LOL
Hope I get them all in.
I like sugar better than the dry molasses.
I couldn't get dry molasses for the first few years, so I had to use sugar. When the nursery here gort dry molasses, I tried it for a few seasons, but frankly, I liked the results I got with sugar better, so I went back to sugar.
You use 4 to 5 pounds of sugar per 1000 sq.ft, and 10 pounds of dry molasses per 1000 sq.ft. They cost about the same poer pound, so the sugar costs half as much.
I can buy it when I shop for groceries, so I don't have to go to the nursery to get it, and I don't come home with a car full of plants that i don't have the energy to get planted.LOL
I used granulated gypsum about 30 or 35 years ago, and it did loosen up that clay a lot. I would put down about an inch all over, and when it was all disolved, in a coule of months I would do it again. I did that for a couple of years, and it did loosen the clay up about 3 or 4 inches down, which was better, but then we just gave up and put down a lot of cedar bark mulch and tilled it in.
Then we layed new sod. That worked a lot better.
If you aerate, I think I would put about an inch or two of sand down first, so that as it is being aerated, the sand would go into the soil. then water well to wash it in.
As far as where to buy dry molasses.
Probably Calloways has it, also probably feed stores.
If you have no chemicals still in the soil, And you can find them, buying a load of earthworms would be a good idea.
I haven't bought any. I have a ton of them in my soil, but you could water the soil, have them dumped on your yard, and they will scurry into the soil and start working.
I personally think they will looses that clay faster than the granulated gypsun will.
I love the organics.
I used to spend 10 to 20 hours a week working on my yard. I did the mowing then too, but now, my hubby does the mowing. I can't do it anymore, and I spend about 1 to 2 hours per week.
I lay my soaker hioses and do the watering, some of the planting. I apply the sugar, alfalfa meal and lava sand. If he tills up a veggie or flower bed, he adds them as he builds the bed.
He mows, edges and digs the holes if I have new rose bushes. He keeps the compost pile, and he spends an hour or two per week too, and we have the most beautifu yard we have ever had.
No weeds, no harmful insects etc, just dark green, thick grass and great shrubs and flowers. The little toads, lizards and grass snakes do all the work.
I have a lot of anoles, and some of the aligator lizards.
I think last summer's heat did my toads in, because I have snails year.
I told my grandchildren that live on some acreage out in Caddo Mills, that I will pay two bucks apiece for toads.
Toads love slugs and snails.
Thse little anoles eta all the aphids off my roses. Lizards, toads and grass snakes all eat ants.
I put cedar bark mulch all over in the spring when it is time for termites to swarm, and a trail of it against the foundation of the house and detached shop, about 3 or 4 inched wide and an inch or two deep. No termites ever bother our house.
Cedar bark mulch repels a lot of insects, including fleas and ticks. We have 4 dogs.
I hope I covered all yopu asked.
If you have more questions, write me anytime.
Charlotte