GREENTALK BLOG

While I spend quite a bit of time talking about how to water using spray and rotary heads, we’re seeing more and more drip irrigation systems being installed and I’ve begun getting questions about where they should be used and how long they should be run.

Drip systems put water exactly where you want it with virtually no loss to evaporation which is why for the past few years cities have encouraged and sometimes required them.

Here are a few tips and tricks regarding drip systems:

The best use of drip lines is in narrow bed areas that spray heads can’t cover well, such as around swimming pools or very narrow turf areas. Because they put out water very slowly, they are also great to use on slopes.

Drip irrigation is designed to maintain a consistent amount of water in the soil by watering a few minutes daily. Because of the low amount of water it puts out, drip lines are not as effective when they are run once or twice per week – if the soil dries out, it takes a long time for drip lines to put out enough water to catch back up.

Our slab foundations need a consistent amount of water at all times which makes drip lines ideal for watering the foundation.

During the summer, in sunny areas, drip zones should be run somewhere between 5 to 10 minutes per day or roughly 30 minutes to an hour per week per zone. Why the broad range? There are a few different types of drip hoses that are installed in this area and each of them drips (emits) at a different rate so you’ll need to watch your plants to see if they are happy with the amount of water they are getting.

Drip lines are meant to be covered with mulch or buried. The weakest part of drip lines are all of the connections which are held together with barbs that will sometimes pop loose. If the drip line is left in the sun, the heat on the hose will make it soft and the connections will come apart much more often.

Because the lines are shallow, they tend to get damaged more often then other sprinkler lines. They are prime targets for aerators, people weeding your beds or even squirrels that love to chew on anything so it’s a good idea to check your drip zones several times throughout the year, just to be sure you haven’t developed a leak.

During droughts, most cities exempt drip lines from their water restrictions so if your landscape beds are on drip zones, you can water those daily and focus in on the turf areas on the permitted days (that became important a few years ago to those of us who could only water every two weeks.)

If you have any lawn or landscape questions give us a call at 972.495.6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com.

As I’ve said in many a Quick Tip, your lawn needs three things to thrive: sun, water and food (fertilizer.) If you are doing everything right, but your lawn still looks wrong, you may have chinch bugs.

Chinch bugs are bad news. Over the years I’ve seen them cause more lawn damage than any other insect. What makes them particularly bad is when the first signs of chinch bug damage appear (typically small yellowing spots in your lawn,) most people wrongly assume they have drought damage, fungal disease or an iron deficiency. They then try and solve those problems which wastes money and completely ignores the real problem, chinch bugs.

In North Texas chinch bugs attack St. Augustine lawns. They thrive in hot, dry soil and frequently start eating the St. Augustine near concrete.

How can you tell if you have chinch bugs versus the other problems I noted above? To be honest it can be tough for a non-professional. Usually there is an area between the brown grass and green grass that is yellow. If you part the grass leaves and stare at the ground, you might eventually see them. Fair warning, you are going to see an amazing variety of bugs running around and it takes some patience to identify the chinch bugs (assuming they are there.)

The best clue is if the area is spreading over a period of a few days – most sprinkler issues don’t spread. Watch for that and also notice if the soil in that area is the same dampness as the surrounding green grass area. In the end, if you suspect you have chinch bugs, you’re usually better off treating the area for them just to be sure.

Unlike grub worms, there isn’t a preventative for chinch bugs. The way to control them is to treat while they are actively feeding. At Village Green we apply Bifenthrin which has proven to be very effective in killing them.

Even though there is no preventative for chinch bugs, the Village Green surface insect program can significantly reduce the risk of wide scale chinch bug damage. Our surface insect program uses Bifenthrin, which controls fleas, ticks, and ants in addition to reducing your chance of large areas chinch bug damage.

We apply it every month or so during the peak insect season and it usually kills off any active chinch bugs too. The surface insect program is an added cost to ourfertilization and weed control plan. If you’d like more information on it or questions regarding your lawn call at us at 972-495-6990 or emailKen@VillageGreen-Inc.com. We’d be happy to answer your questions if you want to do it yourself. Or if you want to save time and have us do it, we’d be happy to give you an affordable estimate on what it would cost for your lawn.

If you have any lawn or landscape questions give us a call at 972.495.6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com.

In my last Quick Tip I gave valuable advice on how to spot drought stress in your lawn (and what could be causing it.)

What should you do if your lawn has been under watered?:

First, you need to make sure you’ve fixed whatever problem caused the drought stress. Assuming you’ve done that it is time to help your lawn start recovering.

If you’ve been under-watering the water table in your soil has moved so low that the roots of your lawn can’t reach the water. A good visual of this problem is to imagine you left a bucket full of water in the middle of your sunny lawn. If you are under-watering you are only replacing a portion of the water the soil has lost. If this goes on for too long your bucket is going to get lower and lower and when it comes time to refill it to the proper level you have to add more water to get it back to normal.

If you do the 25% increase you are going to gradually move your water table up to the level of your roots.

It’s the same for your lawn, which is why I recommend that you add about 25% to your watering each week. You may think you can over water all at once, but this isn’t a good idea because of our North Texas soil (it has a hard time taking a lot of water all at once, and will run off into the street or sidewalk.)

If you follow this schedule and assuming good sun and fertilizations (hopefully using Village Green), you’ll start seeing great results, usually within two or three weeks. Once your lawn is free of brown spots you’ll know you’ve fixed your problem and can return to normal summer watering.

If you have any lawn or landscape questions give us a call at 972.495.6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com.

North Texas summers are hard on your lawn and landscape, and 2018 is no exception. We are seeing many lawns in our area suffering drought stress. Drought can be defined as the absence of rainfall or irrigation for a period of time sufficient to deplete soil moisture and injure plants. It is serious business, because drought stress can reduce growth more than all other environmental stresses combined. The two likely culprits causing drought stress for most home owners is that they are not watering long enough and/or they have unknown sprinkler system issues that is causing their under-watering.

If you are unsure if you have drought stress, you can watch my short drought stress video here. It will show you the telltale signs. If you do see signs of drought stress in your lawn, here is what you can do to reduce possible damage to your lawn and landscape:

• Make sure that your sprinkler is programmed properly and that you are watering long enough. You can download our free summer watering guide here.
• Test your sprinkler system to make sure that you don’t have any nozzle or valve issues and that you are getting good coverage in all areas of your lawn and landscape. Learn more about sprinkler troubleshooting here.
• Or if you want to let the professionals handle it, give us a call at at 972-495-6990 or email Ken@VillageGreen-Inc.com. We offer affordable sprinkler tune-up services where our certified irrigation technicians make sure your sprinkler system is working properly (including programming it based on our summer watering guidelines.)

As I mentioned in my last Quick Tip all you need for a healthy lawn is sun, water, and food (fertilizer.) If you have those three things grass will fill in by itself. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter how much time, effort or money you throw at the problem, you will end up with that same bare dirt spots.

Consider how much sun you need in North Texas for grasses common in our area.
• Bermuda needs about 8 hours of sunlight to survive.
• St. Augustine needs about 6 hours to establish, once established you can plant a tree and as the tree casts more shade the St. Augustine will gradually acclimate to less light (which explains why your neighbor may have thick St. Augustine under their trees and you don’t).
• Zoysia is starting to become popular and has similar light requirements as St. Augustine.
• Fescue doesn’t mind the shade, but it’s a cheap short-term solution because you have to replant it each year.

One solution many try, which seems logical, but is a waste of time and money is thinning their trees to allow more sunlight to reach their lawn. Don’t get me wrong, pruning your trees regularly is great for the tree. But it won’t help the grass underneath.

I know it seems hard to believe with our recent hot and sultry weather, but we had a lot of cold weather this past winter with many days in the 20s.  Add in a fairly cool spring and North Texas was slow to green up this spring. Now that we’ve skipped from spring to summer heat wise, the majority of our lawns are thriving, with the exception of a few that are still struggling with brown and patchy spots.

I’m often asked, what causes one lawn thrive and another to struggle, often when they are on the same street.  I’ve always said the key to a healthy lawn is three things.  Sun, water and food (fertilizer) – in that order.

With our wet winter and spring (February 2018 broke the record for being the wettest on record) you would think water was taken care of for most lawns, but it is important to remember the key to any successful lawn program is consistent watering 12 months out of the year.