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

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

Every single 7 days, I chat with an sector friend to tackle your household advancement thoughts. We’ll share professional tips and sensible assistance to help you do well! As well as, there’s normally a special or humorous story together the way.

Currently 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 design, and environment of landscape plants.

About Sid Sexton

As the founder of Sexton Garden & Landscape, Sid is a down-to-earth, genuine businessman with a like for lawn treatment, landscape layout, and providing the very best goods to his clientele.

Starting up at age 16, Sid used his summers working for a community landscape organization and the local nation club and golfing system in his hometown of Muskogee, Okla.

Soon after earning his bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration with a insignificant in horticulture, Sid joined the U.S. Coastline Guard and was stationed in Hawaii, exactly where he achieved his future spouse, Jourdan.

He was honorably discharged immediately after two decades and began performing as an account manager for a landscape corporation. In January 2004, he founded Sexton Garden & Landscape.

Sid is certified in turf and ornament spraying, landscape structure, and placing of landscape vegetation. He is also a Accredited Landscape Qualified and proceeds his education and learning through workshops, on the net courses and other functions several situations in the course of the calendar year.

Preserve reading through for his advice on typical garden problems.

Controlling Weeds

“We laid sod in our garden a number of yrs ago and it is held up very well until finally a short while ago. We’re commencing to notice a good deal far more weeds than standard. What ought to we do?” 

Sid: The very best weed manage is a nutritious garden. Grass demands 3 key points to thrive — sunlight, h2o and vitamins, and in that purchase.

See if the sod is acquiring sufficient daylight. Trim any branches that could be casting way too a lot shadow onto the grass.

Also, think about the sort of grass. Some varieties of grass prosper in just one place and fall short in a different. The style of sod could not be shade-tolerant. There’s no genuine shade-loving turf, but there are some that tolerate a particular volume of shade.

Subsequent, look at irrigation. Are you watering too a great deal or way too small? The right harmony is dependent on the style of turf you have.

The final step should really be fertilization and weed manage. If weeds are the difficulty and you feel like you have plenty of sunshine, h2o and vitamins and minerals, get hold of a expert for a weed management system.

Garden Aeration

“Should most people aerate a garden, or is that in a circumstance when you suspect the floor has gotten far more compacted?”

Sid: The respond to depends on how significantly site visitors you have on your garden.

Do you have some mature trees and are people roots are receiving larger sized and bigger and getting up extra area under the grass. Do you have canines or youngsters? Is there a soccer match in the yard each and every weekend? This will cause compaction.

If this is the case, you really should main aerate. If it’s a athletics turf, you should really core aerate two times a yr. 

For normal property owners, at the time a yr, 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 garden?”

Sid: Prior to laying sod, get five or six soil samples from the front and backyard.

Label them so you will know what location of your garden needs soil modification. Consult with your local extension business office to see what remedies you really should do.

Just after your soil is amended and you are ready to lay the sod, get started prepping. There is no need to have to eradicate all vegetation, but you do need to get rid of the weeds. 

Right before laying the sod, split up the soil with a till. This will create a tender changeover layer of soil that will make it easier for the grass roots to acquire maintain. 

Then, incorporate some natural and organic make any difference to generate a living soil for your sod to prosper, like Black Cow. (This is an affiliate hyperlink. If you obtain this product, we will gain a little fee at no extra value to you.)

Sid Sexton’s Mowing Strategies

• Sharpen your garden mower blade at minimum when for each time. A sharp blade will make a great clean up slice and will not tear the grass blades.
• Improve up mowing designs. Don’t mow in the very same route every single time every year. It will help the grass to grow a distinctive way and lessens the probability of ruts in your property.
• Make guaranteed you know the mowing top for your turf sort. Various grasses develop finest when at sure heights. For instance, the advisable height for St. Augustine grass is 3-4 inches, whereas Bermuda grass wants to be reduce at an inch and a 50 percent. 

Sid’s Face with the Elusive Ground Pearl

For the duration of the study course of his horticulture research in college or university, Sid uncovered about an insect named a floor pearl. Ground pearls reside in the soil, feed on turf roots and search like a pearl, as their title suggests.

In excess of the a long time, he’s read about ground pearls in seminars and browse about them in textbooks, but he had in no way noticed one in serious existence. 

“I imagined it was the Loch Ness monster — something you stated when you couldn’t determine out what was erroneous with a garden,” Sid says.

This adjusted, while, when he acquired a house in 2012. For 9 months, he struggled to come across the lead to of why the grass’ health and fitness was declining. The response turned clear when he was digging to plant a tree and pulled out a big wad of soil.

There were being white and pink dots everywhere! Lo and behold, it was the elusive ground pearl.

Now, he sees them almost everywhere!

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