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

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

Every single 7 days, I chat with an marketplace pal to deal with your property improvement questions. We’ll share professional guidelines and sensible advice to assist you be successful! In addition, there’s normally a special or humorous story together the way.

Now we are talking about lawn care and sodding, with Sid Sexton. Sid is the founder of Sexton Lawn & Landscape in Daphne, Ala., and is licensed in turf and ornament spraying, landscape style, and location of landscape crops.

About Sid Sexton

As the founder of Sexton Garden & Landscape, Sid is a down-to-earth, honest businessman with a like for garden care, landscape style and design, and providing the greatest goods to his clients.

Commencing at age 16, Sid invested his summers doing work for a local landscape firm and the community place club and golfing study course in his hometown of Muskogee, Okla.

Immediately after earning his bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration with a small in horticulture, Sid joined the U.S. Coast Guard and was stationed in Hawaii, the place he satisfied his foreseeable future spouse, Jourdan.

He was honorably discharged following two a long time and commenced doing the job as an account supervisor for a landscape firm. In January 2004, he founded Sexton Garden & Landscape.

Sid is licensed in turf and ornament spraying, landscape design, and setting of landscape vegetation. He is also a Certified Landscape Professional and continues his training by way of workshops, on the internet classes and other gatherings many instances throughout the calendar year.

Preserve examining for his guidance on prevalent garden complications.

Controlling Weeds

“We laid sod in our yard a couple decades back and it’s held up properly right until just lately. We’re setting up to see a ton more weeds than usual. What should we do?” 

Sid: The most effective weed command is a wholesome lawn. Grass desires a few major matters to prosper — daylight, drinking water and vitamins, and in that purchase.

See if the sod is getting more than enough sunlight. Trim any branches that could be casting as well a lot shadow onto the grass.

Also, imagine about the form of grass. Some sorts of grass thrive in one particular spot and fall short in one more. The type of sod could not be shade-tolerant. There’s no serious shade-loving turf, but there are some that tolerate a specific volume of shade.

Subsequent, think about irrigation. Are you watering far too much or also minimal? The appropriate stability relies upon on the form of turf you have.

The previous action need to be fertilization and weed management. If weeds are the concern and you really feel like you have ample solar, water and vitamins, call a qualified for a weed manage method.

Garden Aeration

“Should all people aerate a garden, or is that in a situation when you suspect the floor has gotten additional compacted?”

Sid: The remedy is dependent on how significantly targeted visitors you have on your garden.

Do you have some experienced trees and are these roots are obtaining bigger and more substantial and using up far more house down below the grass. Do you have dogs or children? Is there a soccer match in the yard every single weekend? This will lead to compaction.

If this is the case, you need to core aerate. If it is a athletics turf, you should main aerate 2 times a calendar year. 

For standard owners, when a 12 months, if that, is ample. 

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

Prepping for Sod

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

Sid: Right before laying sod, choose five or six soil samples from the front and backyard.

Label them so you’ll know what space of your lawn requires soil modification. Seek the advice of with your nearby extension business office to see what remedies you must do.

Just after your soil is amended and you’re all set to lay the sod, start off prepping. There’s no need to have to do away with all vegetation, but you do need to have to get rid of the weeds. 

Right before laying the sod, crack up the soil with a until. This will produce a delicate transition layer of soil that will make it much easier for the grass roots to consider keep. 

Then, add some natural and organic make any difference to produce a residing soil for your sod to thrive, like Black Cow. (This is an affiliate hyperlink. If you obtain this product or service, we will receive a smaller fee at no added cost to you.)

Sid Sexton’s Mowing Recommendations

• Sharpen your lawn mower blade at minimum as soon as per period. A sharp blade will make a pleasant clear cut and will not tear the grass blades.
• Improve up mowing designs. Really do not mow in the similar path each time every 12 months. It aids the grass to develop a diverse way and lessens the probability of ruts in your property.
• Make confident you know the mowing top for your turf sort. Various grasses increase most effective when at specified heights. For illustration, the recommended peak for St. Augustine grass is 3-4 inches, while Bermuda grass wants to be minimize at an inch and a half. 

Sid’s Face with the Elusive Floor Pearl

During the class of his horticulture reports in higher education, Sid acquired about an insect referred to as a floor pearl. Floor pearls reside in the soil, feed on turf roots and search like a pearl, as their identify implies.

About the many years, he’s listened to about ground pearls in seminars and examine about them in textbooks, but he experienced in no way noticed a person in serious existence. 

“I believed it was the Loch Ness monster — a thing you claimed when you could not determine out what was improper with a garden,” Sid suggests.

This modified, although, when he bought a household in 2012. For 9 months, he struggled to locate the bring about of why the grass’ overall health was declining. The solution turned apparent when he was digging to plant a tree and pulled out a significant wad of soil.

There had been white and pink dots almost everywhere! Lo and behold, it was the elusive floor pearl.

Now, he sees them everywhere!

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