Last Updated on April 10, 2024 by Brian Beck
Happy new year and welcome to 2024! I’ve spent the past six years developing a program that solves the problems that exist in the lawn all while providing a truly awesome experience in both health and appearance. I have been constructing an integrated system that incorporates all of the elements necessary to have a truly trouble-free lawn and I’d like to share that with you. While I will never be able to write this on a bumper sticker I have narrowed it down to 10 very simple concepts that are critical to ensuring that not only the turf looks awesome but it is efficient. Most lawns are only evaluated on how they look completely ignoring the entirety of the cost that is realized by maintaining it. I can tell you that most of it is waste and I’d like to elaborate on this idea and show you what I’ve discovered since 2018.
I once read a quote that read, “Observe the masses and do the opposite”. I have adopted this philosophy as the traditional method of maintaining a lawn left me yearning for more as there was little satisfaction in the process. I’m going to enumerate these 10 ideas and go over the benefits of each while providing some historical background so that you can understand the concept. Here it goes.
#1 The biggest failure that anyone will experience with the lawn is simply not knowing what problems are lurking in the soil. If you’re serious about having a truly great lawn getting a soil test is mandatory without one you are just simply guessing and wasting a lot of money along the way. Getting a soil test will identify some very critical points that cannot be observed with the naked eye these being organic content, also known as carbon, soil pH and CEC also known as cat ion exchange capacity. Getting a soil test will pay for itself in the course of a year as you can correct problems that are contributing to the waste and you can set the soil on a trajectory to be successful rather than problematic.
#2 Get away from synthetic chemicals as quickly as possible! Synthetic fertilizers contain inorganic salts which kill off microbiology in the soil, reduce carbon in the soil , contribute to compaction and they reduce oxygen which is a major catalyst for getting nutrients into the plant root and also help to combat pathogenic microbes which can only exist and then anaerobic state. Synthetic fertilizers work that’s why people use them but the problems that they cause far outweigh the benefits. The presence of green in a lawn does not always mean that the lawn is healthy. If you know the true data behind what synthetics are doing to the soil you would get away from them just as you would get away from drugs.
#3 Be willing to water deep. The second biggest failure that I have witnessed in customers lawns is an unwillingness to water deep. The biggest contributor to evaporation is shallow watering. The biggest contributor to root stress is shallow watering. Shallow watering causes shallow roots which leads to stress, disease and eventual death either by shock as in winterkill or by slow death over a multi-year torture from a thick thatch which causes roots to grow up rather than down.
#4 Increase soil porosity. When you have healthy amounts of microbiology in the soil you create structure. Structure is just what it sounds like, the skeletal system of the soil that creates room for air water and nutrients to circulate in the soil. By their very existence microbiology causes structure which creates soil porosity which allows resources to enter the soil much more quickly than they would otherwise. Without soil structure you have a compacted soil which also means that you have concrete which contributes to many problems.
#5 Increase carbon in the soil. After dozens and dozens of soil tests that I have performed over the past four years I can tell you that the soils have about half the amount of carbon or organic content that they need to be healthy. Most lawns that I encounter have 2-2 1/2% organic content. Carbon is the battery of the soil that gives it energy to support life. It also increases water carrying capacity or the soil’s ability to hold water. Very predictably for every 1% increase in soil organic matter the soil will hold an extra 613 gallons of water for every 1000 ft.². This is the equivalent to an inch of rain that can be bound in the soil, trapped for later use. Soils need carbon!
#6 Adjust the soil pH. pH stands for the potential of hydrogen. It is a representation and a scale of how many hydrogen ions there are in the soil. The more you have the more alkaline the soil is and the less you have the more acidic the soil is. Healthy soils need to be approximately 6.5 pH. The further you drift away from this measurement either in the acidic or alkaline direction makes it very difficult if not impossible for nutrients to get into the plant and also makes it toxic for the microbiology in the soil.
#7 Automate your mowing. Anybody who is anybody that knows anything about lawn maintenance knows that when you cut your lawn more than once a week it is healthier. The problem with the mowing paradigm is that most people see it as an event rather than a process. Cutting a lawn more than once a week is either time or financially prohibitive so it is very rarely considered. Once you remove this factor out of the equation with modern technology you can begin to realize that mowing can be a process, maintaining an already cut lawn while eliminating a tremendous amount of energy waste. This has several benefits on the lawn such as eliminating bagging, weed suppression, reducing water usage, reducing turf stress and lessening compaction. Lawns in the future will be cut with robotic mowers, period. Those that fail to adopt this technology will be forced to spend more money than is necessary to maintain a lawn.
#8 Increase oxygen in the soil. As mentioned before, and I will say it again oxygen or a lack of it causes a lot of problems in the soil. All of the lawn diseases that you can think of exist because of low levels of oxygen or otherwise known as anaerobic state. By increasing carbon in the soil and microbe populations you can increase the available oxygen getting to the roots.
#9 Extend your irrigation season. Several years ago I began using a component that we attach to the irrigation system to allow our customers to water longer in the fall when root development is paramount and highly advantageous if there is adequate hydration. Conversely the same device can be used in the springtime to hydrate the soil in an automated manner long before you can normally turn on the irrigation system without any fear of freeze damage. It seems counterintuitive but a lawn that is consistently hydrated will use less water than a lawn that is left to become dehydrated and hydrophobic. Playing catch up in the spring is one of the biggest water wasters of the entire season and must be eliminated. The vast majority of all plants that get replaced in the landscape are directly related to dehydration and can largely be prevented with consistent hydration levels in the soil. Not only do the plants benefit but the biology that we seek to foster in the soil needs hydration to survive. If you extend your irrigation season you will reap great reward.
#10 Perform an irrigation audit. Most people turn on their irrigation system in the springtime and never touch it for the rest of the year. Let me use an analogy of what this is akin to so you will understand the repercussions of not being proactive with your irrigation needs. Imagine having a car and never checking anything like oil levels, tire pressure, coolant levels, windshield wiper fluid, etc. The irrigation system is probably the most mismanaged thing at any house there is a tremendous amount of waste a horrible amount of inefficiency of maldistribution of water. The intended purpose for an irrigation system is to get the water evenly distributed onto lawn so that a healthy soil can be infiltrated quickly and sequester the water while getting needed resources into the plant as efficiently as possible. This cannot be done without adequate hydration in the sole purpose of having an irrigation system is to automate the process of hydration.
The cost of being passive with your lawn far outweighs the cost of being proactive. If you are negligent with your lawn it will cost you dearly. Most of the problems that you will encounter with a lawn, once you achieve a healthy soil and properly hydrated lawn can simply be avoided. It’s really that simple most of the problems that we experience with their lawns are due to a lack of knowledge, bad habit, poor tradition, myth and sometimes even superstition. A pragmatic approach to the health of a soil and hydration will severely reduce the hidden costs associated with maintaining a lawn. Once a lawn is viewed as a process and not an event one can begin to appreciate and realize the reward of having a truly stress-free existence. From my experience I truly believe that the average person can reduce their expenses and their lawn anywhere from 20 to 50% if there is discipline and adherence to routine care and maintenance of the soil, the irrigation system and the mowing.
For more information about our biological process, automated irrigation and robotic mowing, click the link below and learn more about how to get away from bad tradition.
