GB 139 Fall Organic Lawn Care. The Plant of the Week: Gaillardia.
29:17
SPEAKERS
Steve Zien, Warren Roberts, Farmer Fred
Farmer Fred 00:00
Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.
Farmer Fred 00:20
Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, you've come to the right spot.
Farmer Fred 00:32
If you live in a mild winter climate, mid-September through mid-October is the best time to care for or renovate your lawn. And we get organic lawn care tips from organic landscaper, Steve Zien. And we have the Plant of the Week. It's a dependable, blooming perennial from late spring through mid fall in warm climates. Warren Roberts tells us about the Gaillardia. It's Episode 139 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. And we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go.
Farmer Fred 01:11
Fall is for planting. Fall is also the time for lawn renovation. If you live in a warm winter area; or, if 40% or more of your lawn is in really bad shape, you may want to consider a lawn renovation in September or October. But again, that's for the mild winter areas, especially here in California. If you live in a cold climate, springtime is probably the best time to do it. What's involved in renovating your lawn? What can be done to perk it up? There's plenty. Let's bring in Sacramento's organic advocate, president of Living Resources Company, Steve Zien. And Steve, let's talk about fall lawn care from an organic gardening perspective. There's a lot of products out on the market that are 'Weed and Feed' products that people tend to put down in the fall, and are suggested for some lawns in the fall.
Steve Zien 02:03
And these are typically broadleaf weed killers. So it kills not grass, which has a very narrow leaf, but broadleaf weed,s like clover and things like that. And the problem is, it does not select what kind of broadleaf plant that it kills. And so, a lot of your shrubs and trees, in particular birch, Elm, hackberry, maple, Redbud, oak and ash are very, very susceptible. And if you're using (a product that contains the active ingredient) 2-4,D in the lawn, and you've got tree roots under there, realize that tree roots go well beyond the drip line, two to three times beyond the drip line or more, which is the outermost branches. So if you've got an average size lot, and you've got, you know, a tree in there, even though the lawn might be far away, the roots of that tree are probably there and they're taking up that 2-4,D and it will weaken them, make them more susceptible to pests and can Eve and might kill them. And so it's damaging to your your landscape, potentially damaging to your landscape plants.
Farmer Fred 03:16
Talk a little bit about two words people may see on these weed and feed products that bear definitions. And those words are pre emergent and post emergent.
Steve Zien 03:27
A pre emergent prevents the weeds from growing. And it's really important when you use a pre emergent, especially in mild season areas where we don't have a lot of frost and very little if any snow and things basically keep growing year round, although slowly, there are what are called winter weeds and summer weeds. And you need in the fall to make sure that your pre emergent weed killer, if you choose to buy one and I certainly don't recommend them. I recommend against using them. But if you insist on using one, make sure that it is for fall use because typically broadleaf weeds are annuals. They die every year at the end of their growth cycle. And there are summer weeds that germinate in spring and grow all through this summer and then they die in fall. And then there are the winter weeds that germinate in fall and grow all winter and die in the spring. And there are different weeds and the herbicides in many cases need to be different to kill those weeds. So make sure you're getting a pre emergent this time of year that's going to deal with fall (and winter) weeds.
Farmer Fred 04:29
And it's important, if you're applying pre emergent or post emergent weed control products, which we'll get into a second, that you also read on the label if it can be applied to the type of lawn you have. Because different products affect lawns differently. And there are just some, especially post emergent products, that you do not want to put on certain types of turf.
Steve Zien 05:07
Yeah, I always read and follow label directions, it's really important after you put the preemergent down, not to scratch or, or or do anything to the surface of the soil. If you, for example, take a rake or you dethatch or something, it will kind of eliminate the coating that these preemergents put over the soil surface. And it will allow the seeds to germinate. When you put down the preemergent, and then you water it in a little bit, it basically puts a shield over the soil surface. And as the seeds germinate, they come up and they hit this barrier and it kills them. If you scratch the soil, you put cracks in that barrier and the weeds will come up. There is an organic preemergent. I will say this, that I do recommend it. I know people who have had really good results with it. And it's corn gluten meal. And there are some organic fertilizers that contain corn gluten meal as either one of the ingredients or the only ingredient. Corn gluten meal also has a fair amount of nitrogen. If you look at the bags of fertilizers, nitrogen is the first number. And typically if it has corn gluten meal, it might have 10% or 9% nitrogen. If it's only a corn gluten meal weed n feed, and it's really not a weed and feed, it's a feed and weed preventer.
Farmer Fred 06:36
Right, it's a pre emergent. Now I have understood that corn gluten meal is more effective in areas that get summer rain like the Midwest. I've heard of great success with corn gluten meal as a pre emergent in the Midwest. I haven't heard much success of it here on the west coast.
Steve Zien 06:54
Yeah, it's interesting, because you know, University of California actually did some research. I don't know how extensive. And they found that, you know, it didn't work very well. Although I know of people who have used it, some in the professional horticultural industry, and have had great success with it. If nothing else, you're feeding your lawn, because it does have, that nitrogen in there.
Farmer Fred 07:20
Let's talk about post emergent herbicides, those weed and feed products that contain a product that's going to kill existing weeds. And I know this is going to raise your blood pressure. But why do people want to control dandelions?
Steve Zien 07:35
I think after World War Two, the chemical industry that was making bombs, there we go, there was no need for bombs anymore, and explosives. And so they had to figure out what to do with with all of those chemicals, and they decided they could, or they figured out that they can make weed killers out of them. And so there was this big huge campaign that everybody should have that perfect lawn. And to achieve that perfect lawn is very, very easy. You just put down these chemicals on your lawn, and it will eliminate dandelions and it will eliminate clover, all of these things that it used to be considered a regular part of the lawn, in particular clover. Before World War Two people used to add clover and I actually recommend adding Dutch white clover to the lawn. It is more drought tolerant, it has deep roots. So it breaks up clay soils, if you have clay soils that don't drain very well. And it manufactures nitrogen. Years ago when that when the park districts had money. And there wasn't the objection of using herbicides on public parks, you can see where they didn't use the herbicides, if you would look out where the lawn is. And if you could see green spots that were nice and green, you could walk over there. And every single time if you looked hard, you would see there's a lot of clover in that one spot because that's manufacturing the nitrogen and feeding the grass plants and making everything nice and green. And so it was really the chemical industry telling us after World War Two, you can have that perfect lawn. And it's very, very easy to do. And everybody you know, and everybody thought, well, wow, yeah, that's what we want. And so we were convinced that's the way to go. And in the case of clover, we were really eliminating what was considered and I still consider to be a very, very important part of a healthy lawn. You know, if you've got a golf course, you've got a putting green, maybe you probably don't want the clover there. But in your average home lawn, it's a good thing. And a lot of people say well, clovers got the flowers and attracts bees. And one of the things in maintaining a lawn properly is to mow it frequently. You never want to cut off more than 1/3 of the blade of grass or you will stress the lawn, make it more susceptible to pests. And if you're mowing so that you never cut off more than 1/3, you will be mowing that lawn often enough where the blooms of the clover will just be beginning to be opening up and, and then you'll mow them down and so you really don't see very many blooms if you're mowing properly.
Farmer Fred 10:30
We'll have links in today's show notes about the proper mowing height for various types of turf and it really pays to mow at the correct height. You're going to have a healthier lawn with a healthier root system. Most people tend to cut their lawns too short, or they're they have a mow and blow service that is cutting lawns too short. And if you do have a service that is cutting your lawn, made sure that they're mower blade height matches your turf, fescue, cool season. Fescues, for example, need to be mowed tall, they need to be kept much taller than what you normally see on a cut lawn for the overall health of a lawn. And that's how you get a healthy lawn is by treating it right to begin with.
Steve Zien 11:14
Yeah, and also you're going to have fewer weeds when if you're mowing properly, most of our lawns are cool season grasses that should be mowed at roughly three to three and a half inches high. And most people mow them much closer like almost like golf greens and mowing high, like you said, you're going to have deeper roots and it also will shade the surface of the soil. And so when weed seeds germinate if you have a thick, tall lawn, those seeds aren't going to get any sun and they will die. That's part of your pre emergent weed control system: it is having that tall lawn.
Farmer Fred 11:58
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Farmer Fred 12:54
Let's get back to our conversation with organic landscaper, Steve Zien, regarding fall lawn care. Okay, this is all sort of a scenic bypass to why we're here in the first place, which is sort of a fall lawn renovation, especially if it's looking poor and you want a good looking lawn here in the West. September-October is the time to do it, in the mild winter portions of the West. in the Midwest and back East, maybe in spring you would do this. You're going to cut your lawn as short as possible. Then you're going to water the lawn thoroughly to soften the soil. Wait a day or two. And then you're going to dethatch, aerate, fertilize, overseed, and add compost. And then you're gonna have the greenest lawn on the block.
Steve Zien 13:47
Yeah. And then I would also recommend in addition to the compost throwing some worm castings I love worm castings.
Farmer Fred 13:52
Yeah, okay, fine. All right. And the point of the fertilizer is it's a starter fertilizer, so it's going to have a different nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium content than others. And unlike what your local water agency may be advising, if you're starting a new lawn like that, or a rehabbed lawn, from seed, it's okay to water it every day lightly two or three or four times until it's up and growing. after a few weeks and then you can go back to a normal watering regimen or one that is legislated in your area. But for a new lawn you do want to keep it evenly moist and it may take seven or 14 days for the seed to germinate.
Farmer Fred 13:54
Yeah, also you know you would like the soil surface to be almost dry at the end of the day, especially when those seeds are sprouting. You don't want those leaves wet when the sun goes down. So your last irrigation should be a couple hours before sunset. If the blades of grass are wet, all night long, you're kind of encouraging disease problems.
Farmer Fred 15:07
We use the terms dethatch and aerate. Thatch is, the unseen enemy of your lawn. If you have a lawn that's looking poorly, there are brown spots, here's something you could do: you could cut off a square of lawn. Go down about eight inches or so in a perfect, small square, maybe eight inches or so square, and bring up that whole chunk. And you'll see the green grass on top, then you might see an inch or two inches or three inches of dead lawn, and then your soil. And that basically means that air, water, and fertilizer can't penetrate to the root zone of your lawn because of that thick layer of dead material, also known as thatch. And that's when you bring in a dethatcher. And it's amazing the amount of dead material you can bring up.
Steve Zien 15:57
It really is amazing how much you can have. And also, I will say that if you're using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides on that lawn, you are much more likely to have a thatch problem because you're killing the biology that normally keeps that thatch under control. You can go to your local nursery, if you have a small lawn they have what are called dethatching rakes. And basically they're like a garden rake. But instead of having thick tines, the tines are knives, and it just cuts through the thatch. I will say that hopefully you have a very small lawn if you're going to try and do it that way. Because it's a huge amount of work. It's really hard, back breaking work. You can also go to your rental yards, and they rent the thatch power rakes. It's kind of like a mower, a lawnmower, but instead of having the blade go parallel to the lawn, it goes perpendicular to the lawn. And they have lots of blades. And it just slices and dices your lawn. Well, it doesn't dice. But it slices up your lawn and it brings the thatch to the surface, which you've then have to rake off.
Farmer Fred 17:05
And that's why it goes much quicker with two people. You have one person pushing that power dethatcher also called a vertical mower, and then the person behind it raking up all that thatch into a pile off the lawn. And it's not uncommon to pull up what could easily be a cubic yard of dead material from a lawn that may be only a couple of 1000 square feet.
Steve Zien 17:30
Yeah, I mean, I've seen pictures where a person had an average sized lawn and the pile that he got was was almost as high as he was. And as wide as he was. Yeah, it was just huge pile.
Farmer Fred 17:44
And then you would aerrate. And aerating is not walking over your lawn in golf spikes. That is not aeration. That's compaction right? How does an aerator work?
Steve Zien 17:54
Well, an aerator works by using what's called a spoon. It's a tine that is hollow. It's basically a hollow tube. And depending upon what kind of aerator you have, you might have three or four tubes that work off part of a crankshaft, or it might have like a barrel with you know, hundreds of what are called spoons. They look like, just imagine, like a test tube that has an opening on both ends. And when it is inserted into the soil, when your soil is moist, it fills up with that soil and then it comes out of the soil and when it goes into the soil again, there's a hole on top and the soil that is being forced into the time pushes the soil that was in the tine before from the previous insertion out the back end and it's resting on top of your lawn and you can either break it up and just rake it back in the lawn or or rake it off and put it someplace else. Or just leave it there and it'll you know, it'll be there for a couple of months. If you're going to overseed, if you're doing a real renovation, you can maybe just drag a piece of chain link fence, that's what the golf courses do, when they aerate. They just have a chain link fence drag behind the the aerator. And that'll break up most of those cores.
Steve Zien 18:30
And then you want to spread that starter fertilizer and a lawn seed that closely matches your existing grass over the area. And then you want to roll it, you want to press that seed into the ground and usually the best thing for that is back at the rental yard, or a local nurseries, will sometimes lend them to you, are water-filled rollers. Yeah. And while you're getting the water-filled roller, you might as well get one of those cages that spreads compost.
Steve Zien 19:57
I do want to say if you're using an organic fertilizer, which is what I would recommend, if you get your typical, you know, most of your organic lawn fertilizers, or you can use an organic starter fertilizer like Fred just talked about, or you can use an organic lawn fertilizer, because they're they're slow release. But you want to make sure that it has some phosphorus, which is that second number in the printed as three numbers because some of the lawn fertilizers don't have any of that second number. Because back east in particular, it's a real pollution problem and it's damaging the lakes and so the national brand lawn fertilizers have removed the phosphorus and so, you'll see like a 9-0-5 for example, and that second number will be zero because of the restrictions, legal restrictions, they have back east because of the pollution problem.
Farmer Fred 20:54
Phosphorus is for root development. Now, in organic lawn fertilizers, can they have phosphorus in them?
Steve Zien 21:01
You know, the organic sources for phosphorus are not as subject to runoff which is the real problem with the synthetic sources of phosphorus. In some states, in some communities where they have these guidelines where they restrict phosphorus, some of them have differentiated between the organic sources and the synthetic sources and the organic sources are allowed in in some areas.
Farmer Fred 21:26
If you're balking at the price of paying for an organic lawn fertilizer, consider this. Usually on organic lawn fertilizers, you only have to apply it twice a year. With synthetic lawn fertilizers, they might suggest four or five times, maybe every six weeks. And if you compare the price in that regard, organic fertilizers is a much better buy and less work for you.
Steve Zien 21:50
It's less work, you're not having to go to the store to buy it as frequently, you get a much healthier soil with the organic fertilizer. Synthetic fertilizers are high in salts, and they kill the beneficial soil biology. The organic fertilizers stimulate the soil biology, depending upon your organic fertilizer, they may even have a beneficial biology in that bag with the fertilizer. And that beneficial soil biology extends the area that the roots can absorb water and nutrients they provide pest protection. They make a much happier and healthier lawn that will resist pests, both diseases and insects. So you're saving your money in reference to pest management, and you're going to have a better quality lawn.
Farmer Fred 22:43
And again, the final step is to spread that thin layer of compost over the entire area and the cages, the rolling cages, that you can get from either nurseries or rental yards, eases that process quite a bit. It doesn't have to be a thick layer, you're not burying the seed with the compost. It's a very thin layer that will work its way into the soil in no time. And yeah, and then you lightly roll it. So after dethatching, aerating, and overseeding here in the West, you can do it either in the fall or in the spring. Back east and in the Midwest, you probably want to do it just in spring. After you do that renovation to your lawn, you're gonna have the nicest looking lawn on the block.
Steve Zien 23:23
Yeah, and then you'll get that big thick lawn, which will prevent the weeds if especially if you're mowing it high as as appropriate for the type of lawn that you have.
Farmer Fred 23:35
Treat it right, feed it right, and you will always have a great looking lawn. We got a lot of great fall lawn care tips about renovating a lawn and applying pre emergent and post emergent weed controls as well as fertilizers, courtesy of Steve Zien, Sacramento's organic advocate, Living Resources president. Steve, thanks for all the good lawn tips today.
Steve Zien 23:57
Yeah, it's been fun as always, Fred.
Farmer Fred 24:05
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Farmer Fred 24:45
Every week we like to talk with Warren Roberts out at the UC Davis Arboretum to find out about the Plant of the Week. He is their Superintendent Emeritus. One of the wisest plant people I know. And Warren, today's plant is commonly called the blanket flower, but it is one of my favorites because it is definitely a bright spring- summer- fall bloomer. The blanket flower aka the Gaillardia.
Warren Roberts 25:10
Yes, gaillardia is native to the southwest of the United States, but not California. it's a plant that needs a little bit of summer rain, which California really doesn't provide. But the parents of the gaillardia are native to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and down into Mexico. Mainly what we grow is not the wild species, but we grow of which there are 28 (species) I guess in North America, but we grow a hybrid called Gaillardia grandiflora. Did I get that right?
Farmer Fred 25:50
Yeah. And there are many varieties that have the word Arizona as part of their name. There's 'Arizona Sun' and one of my favorites is 'Arizona Apricot'.
Warren Roberts 26:01
Yes, many different varieties. The parent species are Gaillardia aristata, and Gaillardia pulchella. And we know things are going well. When you see the word pulchella, I think this means, basically, beautiful, I guess. Anyway, there are hybrids that are very low growing, maybe five, six inches tall, and then something get up to two feet or more in size. I particularly liked the dwarf ones because you never have to worry about staking them. And about, I would say, once every two or three weeks, it would be worth going through any kind of sprucing them up a little bit because the seeds are a kind of a tan color. And they do detract a bit from the display. The main colors are red, and yellow, usually together but there are forms that are just red, or just yellow. It likes the heat. It likes the hot summer sun of the of the West. But it can grow, also commonly cultivated, all over the country of the United States anyway, because it's a really good summer blooming plant.
Farmer Fred 27:16
It's gorgeous. It's a member of the Asteraceae family, which means it probably has a flat flower and that flat flower, that Daisy-like flower, is very attractive to beneficial insects and pollinators. And so if you're looking to attract the good guys to your garden, it's hard to beat the Gaillardia in the summertime.
Warren Roberts 27:36
Yes, it is also attracts hummingbirds too.
Farmer Fred 27:40
You know, it's a very forgiving plant too, because as you mentioned, those seed heads do sort of detract from the color of the flower, but I find just taking a pair of shears out there and whacking the plant back by a few inches or so, it recovers quickly.
Warren Roberts 27:56
It does recover quickly. It will re-seed as well. And although it's listed as an annual, in mild climates, it will continue to grow and live year around.
Farmer Fred 28:09
Yeah, exactly. The gaillardia g-a-i-l-l-a-r-d-i-a, also known as the blanket flower. If you're looking for bright reds, oranges and yellows for a part of your sunny yard, you can't be the gaillardia.
Warren Roberts 28:25
They're a good, useful flower for any garden, and easy to grow.
Farmer Fred 28:31
Full sun, moderate water. Yes indeed, the blanket flower. Warren Roberts, Superintendent Emeritus of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden. Check them out online, arboretum.uc davis.edu. Warren, once again, thank you for the Plant of the Week.
Warren Roberts 28:47
You're welcome.
Farmer Fred 28:54
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