Even here where the sun shine warm most of the year, the seasons are changing, It is a good time to take stock of the lawn; spend a little time in observation of your grass. Look for changes and investigate the causes. Are there patches of yellow? Maybe a few leaf blades are red at the tip. Are the weeds getting the upper hand? Make a few notes and then it is time to get on your hands and knees for a closer observation.
Weeds are symptoms of problems rather than a problem in and of themselves. Weeds indicate the turf is thinning; your job is to figure out what caused the loss of grass. Is the spot too shady? If so plant a ground cover instead of spending lots of personal and monetary capital to force grass to grow where it's not happy.
Off-color spots in the lawn may indicate soil problems instead of pests. If you have not had a soil test in the last five years, do so. Nutrient deficiencies can cause some of the symptoms listed above and a soil test may help you find those problems and correct them. Besides some municipalities are becoming very strict about applying fertilizer and a soil test is necessary for your "fertilizer prescription."
Taking a proper sample for a good soil test is simple; it's a numbers game many small samples are necessary. I like to arm my self with a small bucket and a sturdy, sharp trowel. The goal is to get a picture of the whole growing area through a series of random samples. Push the trowel into the turf to its full length, at least 10 to 12 inches and pull out a thin slice of the whole soil profile throughout the rootzone. Remove any grass or other debris and throw the soil into the bucket. Do this 10 to 15 time through out the lawn up to about 20 acres - large than that and you way want two samples. If there is an area in the lawn or landscape where the soil is extremely different or plants perform poorly, take a separate sampling of that zone. Once the composite samples are collected, mix well and spread out on newspaper to dry. There are many places which provide soil testing services including Land Grant Universities, nurseries and private labs, check with the Extension Service for local soil testing choices.
Pests can thin turf. This time of year be on the lookout for chinch bugs in St. Augustine, sod webworms, armyworms and mole crickets in most any grass. One of the best ways I know of to look for lawn pests is the use of a soap flush. You probably have all the equipment needed for lawn pest scouting already on hand - a 2 gallon bucket and lemon dish detergent.
Fill the bucket with 2 gallons of water and add 2 ounces of detergent. The goal is a solution and not suds. Pour this mixture over 1 square foot slowly. The detergent irritates insects and other critters and many of them move to the surface quickly where you can observe them. Chinch bugs, spiders and worms appear very quickly, less than a minute if they are present. Mole crickets may take 3 to 5 minutes and grubs, though irritated will not surface. Be sure to sample in the green areas of the lawn next to dead or dying spots, the pest like their salad green and be sure to test several spots.
Identification of the problem is three-quarters of the battle, once you know what is causing your lawn to look a little peaked; you are well on the way to a healthy thriving turf. The soap flush did not force any critters. This dose not mean chinch bugs or other insects are not present, but it does indicate that something else is probably causing problems in this weedy lawn.
