Teed & Brown

Browning of Lawns

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:15:13 +0000

The heat and drought of the past few weeks took a real toll on the grass. Many lawns escaped unscathed, but many more turned brown in areas. These tend to be areas that are in direct sunlight, are poorly irrigated, and often have thinner layers of topsoil.Luckily the weather looks far more pleasant for the next week or two. If you do have areas that browned out, try to water them on days we don’t receive rain. They’ll need a little extra help in greening up again.

Rains are great, but….

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:30:22 +0000

This week has been an incredible turn of much needed good luck. The rains and temperatures have been ideal for seed growth. That said, we’ve been getting some questions that should be answered.

1) Has the seed washed away with all this rain? - No. Unless a large amount of topsoil has literally washed off your property, the seed is still there and ready to do its thing. Unfortunately, most of this fall has been far too dry for seed growth without additional irrigation, so you may not be seeing anything growing yet. This doesn’t mean the seed has washed away, only that it hasn’t started growing.

2) When can I expect results? - If you cannot supplement the natural rains with your own irrigation, it’s hard to tell. Even with this week, the seed growth will be minimal unless it continues for another full week or you are able to add water. Basically, seed needs a certain amount of water. Once it gets it, it grows. If you are able to water after these rains pass, the seed should be grown within a few weeks.

3) Is there anything else we can do? - No, not really. Seed just needs water consistently. That’s about it!

Please let us know how things are coming.

Water!

admin — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:18:07 +0000

Seed needs water. It’s pretty much that simple. It’s a bit like baking a cake. You can mix up all the ingredients and throw the batter into a cake pan in the oven, but if the oven is too cold, too hot or not on, it won’t bake correctly.We can mix the batter and even put the cake in the pan in the oven. We just can’t turn on the heat to the right temperature. If we have recently seeded your lawn, we need your help in getting it to work. Please try to water several times a week (daily is ideal) to get the seed to grow.Thanks!

The Wall Street Journal Weighs In on Summer Heat

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:34:31 +0000

While we’ve been beating this drum for a little while now, even The Wall Street Journal has taken notice and written up a piece on the struggles faced by grass around the country in the summer of 2010.

The Ugly Summer of 2010

Why does Grass Suffer in the Summer Heat?

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:00:16 +0000

Now, You can measure shade.

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:33:41 +0000

Topdressing those Brown Areas

admin — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:00:07 +0000

In many cases, areas of your lawn are brown because the soil is too shallow. By laying down a layer of soil before reseeding, you not only give the seed a head start, but you also help to add to the soil layer for future enhanced root growth. If you would like us to give you a quote for topdressing the brown areas of your lawn with topsoil, just touch base by phone or e-mail.

Follow us on Facebook

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:36:17 +0000

If you are keeping up on the social networking trends, you’ll likely have either a Facebook or a Twitter account, possibly both. If so, consider becoming a follower or fan of Teed & Brown. You’ll get the latest updates on news about lawns, services, etc.

Fan us on Facebook

It’s the Heat, not the water…

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:10:45 +0000

This is the time of year when lawns brown out even when they are getting adequate water. The common assumption is that lawns won’t turn brown if they get plenty of water. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Now it’s the heat. Even if your irrigation system is perfect, it’s still too hot. The lawns aren’t turning brown from lack of water. They are turning brown from excessive heat.

Imagine cranking up your oven to 100 degrees, then placing a few well-watered houseplants inside. They won’t last long, even with plenty of water. Your lawn was inside that oven for a week. Reseeding isn’t an option either, as seed will fare even worse in these sauna like conditions.

Let us know if your lawn is browning out. We want to take a look to make sure we’re aware of its status. This way, we can plan for greening the lawn up again as soon as the weather becomes more favorable.

Hello from the 2010 Sauna

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:47:43 +0000

Here we go! For the first time in several years, we’re looking at the head of what promises to be a brutal monster of a heat wave. While we always get brief spells of uncomfortably hot weather, we rarely face a stretch of near 100 degree weather that promises to last through the forseeable future. Make no mistake, lawns will suffer as a result.

Unfortunately, there’s not much of anything that can be done to counteract this kind of heat. Heavy watering will only combine the heat with lots of water, making your lawn a prime breeding ground for disease causing fungus. Too little water will allow the lawn to burn out quickly. We recommend that you increase watering times by about 20%, but no more.

We of course wish that there was something we could apply that would help brace the lawn against this natural stress, but there isn’t. In fact, if you took some grass from your lawn and transported it to Florida (or Arizona, Mexico, etc), you’d see that even under the absolute best of care, it wouldn’t last a full year. The grasses in CT lawns are simply not made to withstand this kind of heat, just as the southern grasses aren’t able to handle winter freezing.

Keep yourself cool and healthy, and let’s all hope that this spell passes quickly and with minimal damage.