Most homeowners look at their lawn and judge it by what they can see. Is it green? Is it thick? Are there weeds? Are there brown spots? Does it look better or worse than the neighbor’s? Those are fair questions, but they are not the whole story. In fact, by the time...

We’ve been looking at lawn stress all wrong. Rather than something to fight, stress is a signal—maybe even a friend. Once you see soil’s reality, you’ll realize stress is the lawn’s way of alerting us. What we see on top is a mirror of what’s happening below. We can’t...

Most homeowners believe the secret to surviving a heat wave is more water. Nature disagrees. Over the past several weeks, many lawns across Colorado Springs have shown signs of stress. Brown patches have appeared. Thin areas have become more noticeable. Some lawns...

In the fall of 2017, I had a realization that stopped me in my tracks. After almost 20 years in the landscape industry, I began to see the system I was involved in for what it really was. And I did not like it. I had been part of a lawn care model that looked normal...

Most people have been taught to look at their lawn through a very simple lens: If the lawn is yellow, fertilize it. If weeds show up, spray them. If disease appears, treat it. If the soil gets hard, water more. That sounds logical, but it often misses the real...

One of the most common arguments in lawn care, agriculture, and even golf course management is this: “Nitrogen is nitrogen. The plant doesn’t know the difference.” At first, that sounds logical. After all, nitrogen is an element. Grass needs nitrogen. Fertilizer...

For decades, the traditional lawn care industry has treated grass roots like little straws. Put fertilizer in the soil. The roots suck it up. The lawn turns green. Repeat forever. That sounds simple. It is also only half the story. A much better way to understand your...

There is a question I keep coming back to, because it seems to match what many of us are seeing with our own eyes: Are our weather seasons shifting? Are we getting drier winters and wetter springs? The short answer is: yes, there is evidence pointing in that direction...

Every time water restrictions come up, people start to panic. And I understand why. We live in a dry climate. We get wind. We get heat. We get sudden temperature swings. We get weeks where it feels like the lawn is being slowly cooked from the top down. Then someone...

Colorado weather can feel completely unpredictable. One winter is warm and dry. The next brings heavy spring snowstorms. Summer rain may arrive almost every afternoon—or disappear for weeks. Some of that variability begins thousands of miles away in the tropical...

The turf industry has become very good at treating symptoms. A lawn turns yellow, so we apply fertilizer. Weeds appear, so we spray herbicide. Disease shows up, so we apply fungicide. Insects arrive, so we reach for insecticide. Every problem creates another product...

A few years ago, I made a promise to my father. My grandfather died from heart disease, and my father discovered he had the same problem before it became fatal. He asked me to have a cardiac stress test before I turned 50. So I did. Before the test began, the...