Ask Danny | Ep. 1: Improving Your Lawn’s Health

Welcome to the initially episode of Today’s Homeowner’s new podcast, “Ask Danny.”

Every 7 days, I chat with an industry buddy to tackle your dwelling advancement queries. We’ll share professional tips and useful tips to enable you do well! Moreover, there is normally a exceptional or funny story along the way.

Right now we are chatting about lawn treatment and sodding, with Sid Sexton. Sid is the founder of Sexton Lawn & Landscape in Daphne, Ala., and is certified in turf and ornament spraying, landscape design, and placing of landscape plants.

About Sid Sexton

As the founder of Sexton Garden & Landscape, Sid is a down-to-earth, straightforward businessman with a enjoy for lawn care, landscape style and design, and offering the very best products to his purchasers.

Starting off at age 16, Sid put in his summers working for a neighborhood landscape organization and the nearby place club and golf program in his hometown of Muskogee, Okla.

Soon after earning his bachelor’s degree in small business administration with a slight in horticulture, Sid joined the U.S. Coast Guard and was stationed in Hawaii, where he achieved his upcoming wife, Jourdan.

He was honorably discharged soon after two many years and commenced doing work as an account manager for a landscape business. In January 2004, he founded Sexton Garden & Landscape.

Sid is certified in turf and ornament spraying, landscape style, and environment of landscape crops. He is also a Accredited Landscape Skilled and continues his education and learning by way of workshops, on the web classes and other activities various occasions throughout the 12 months.

Keep examining for his advice on common garden challenges.

Controlling Weeds

“We laid sod in our lawn a number of years in the past and it’s held up very well until eventually not too long ago. We’re setting up to discover a large amount much more weeds than standard. What ought to we do?” 

Sid: The best weed control is a healthy lawn. Grass desires a few important points to thrive — sunlight, water and nutrients, and in that order.

See if the sod is getting enough sunlight. Trim any branches that could be casting too significantly shadow on to the grass.

Also, think about the style of grass. Some varieties of grass prosper in 1 location and are unsuccessful in another. The form of sod could not be shade-tolerant. There’s no authentic shade-loving turf, but there are some that tolerate a selected amount of shade.

Future, take into consideration irrigation. Are you watering much too substantially or far too small? The proper stability depends on the type of turf you have.

The very last stage ought to be fertilization and weed regulate. If weeds are the situation and you come to feel like you have adequate sun, drinking water and vitamins and minerals, contact a skilled for a weed regulate application.

Lawn Aeration

“Should all people aerate a lawn, or is that in a scenario when you suspect the floor has gotten a lot more compacted?”

Sid: The reply relies upon on how significantly visitors you have on your garden.

Do you have some experienced trees and are those roots are having larger sized and larger sized and having up much more house under the grass. Do you have puppies or children? Is there a soccer match in the backyard just about every weekend? This will trigger compaction.

If this is the circumstance, you need to main aerate. If it’s a sports activities turf, you ought to main aerate 2 times a yr. 

For regular homeowners, when a year, if that, is sufficient. 

And prior to you aerate, mark the spots of your sprinkler heads.

Prepping for Sod

“What should you do right before sodding your lawn?”

Sid: In advance of laying sod, consider 5 or 6 soil samples from the entrance and yard.

Label them so you’ll know what area of your lawn needs soil amendment. Seek advice from with your area extension workplace to see what cures you really should do.

Right after your soil is amended and you’re ready to lay the sod, start prepping. There’s no want to eradicate all vegetation, but you do require to get rid of the weeds. 

Right before laying the sod, crack up the soil with a until. This will develop a tender changeover layer of soil that will make it less complicated for the grass roots to consider hold. 

Then, incorporate some natural make a difference to develop a residing soil for your sod to thrive, like Black Cow. (This is an affiliate url. If you order this products, we will make a compact commission at no extra price to you.)

Sid Sexton’s Mowing Guidelines

• Sharpen your lawn mower blade at the very least the moment per period. A sharp blade will make a nice thoroughly clean slice and will not tear the grass blades.
• Alter up mowing patterns. Do not mow in the very same way every time each yr. It will help the grass to improve a distinctive way and lessens the chance of ruts in your garden.
• Make positive you know the mowing height for your turf style. Diverse grasses develop ideal when at sure heights. For illustration, the advisable top for St. Augustine grass is 3-4 inches, while Bermuda grass demands to be slice at an inch and a 50 %. 

Sid’s Experience with the Elusive Floor Pearl

In the course of the system of his horticulture studies in school, Sid learned about an insect referred to as a ground pearl. Ground pearls dwell in the soil, feed on turf roots and seem like a pearl, as their identify indicates.

Above the a long time, he’s heard about ground pearls in seminars and browse about them in textbooks, but he experienced never witnessed 1 in genuine existence. 

“I assumed it was the Loch Ness monster — a little something you stated when you couldn’t determine out what was improper with a lawn,” Sid claims.

This improved, while, when he bought a house in 2012. For 9 months, he struggled to uncover the result in of why the grass’ well being was declining. The response became crystal clear when he was digging to plant a tree and pulled out a major wad of soil.

There were being white and pink dots in all places! Lo and behold, it was the elusive floor pearl.

Now, he sees them just about everywhere!

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