Gold Coast Gardener

July 30, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

Maintaining good healthy turfgrass is important to most people because that constitutes the largest portion of the landscape that’s highly visible and if it’s not in good condition or is poorly maintained it can lower property values as well as give your home an unattractive appearance.

Lawns come in many different types, but the most popular type of grass for our area is St. Augustine and occasionally you’ll see bahia. Grass should be maintained regularly with proper mowing, watering and fertilizing and depending on the type of grass that can be slightly varied. This time of year unfortunately with the rapid growth, most people try to mow lawns on a weekly basis.

If you’re not doing it yourself and are having it contracted out with a maintenance firm, make sure that they don’t go too long between mowings, otherwise unsightly accumulations of clippings may develop and the grass also will be more stressed. Ideally lawns should be mowed between 3 and 4 inches and this is true for both St. Augustine as well as bahia.

Watering may not be required as often this time of year because of our rainfall, but it we go more than 3 days without rain make sure that the lawn does get irrigated. Don’t be guilty of watering too often though since this often can set up conditions favorable for disease, particularly with our warm night temperatures.

Pest problems can also occur at any time and many people will get grubs, mole crickets, or above ground pests, too, which require some treatment. If you see areas begin to brown or discolor, don’t ignore it thinking that it will solve itself. In many cases the problem only worsens and you may end up with large dead areas that have to be re-sodded or replaced.

Local pest control companies offer reasonable lawn spraying contracts if you wish to have it done professionally or you can buy products if you know what the problem is at your local retail garden center and treat the area yourself.

If you’re wanting to restore or replace your lawn, this is a good time of year to do that and most nurseries and retail centers that sell sod have good inventories this time of year. Make sure with new sod that it is watered at least once a day for the first 3 to 4 weeks until it becomes well rooted. Also it’s not necessary to fertilize new sod until at least 3 or 4 weeks have passed and it’s well established.

Weeds can also be a major headache during the summer months with all the rainfall and warm temperatures. There aren’t a lot of products though that do a good job when we have high temperatures in controlling most weeds. Generally spring and fall are the better times to apply weed control products and probably the best thing to do this time of year is simply manage the lawn as good as you can by proper mowing, watering and fertilizing and hopefully it will be thick enough and aggressive enough to keep weeds from overtaking it.

If you’re new to Florida or haven’t had a lot of experience in lawn care, the Palm Beach County Extension office has a number of free pamphlets on turfgrass management that can be picked up at their office during normal business hours. You can also take samples of lawn problems to the Extension office for free diagnosis of the problem. If you can describe the problem over the phone, you can call the Extension Service, too. Dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.