Last Updated on March 20, 2025 by Brian Beck
Most people are two dry winters away from total lawn loss and they don’t even realize it. They often skirt this disaster by the skin of their teeth. The sad thing is that they often get robbed by of of the multitude of soil failures that are going on. They are not so obvious so let me explain…
Healthy lawns have healthy soils and healthy lawns can regulate themselves and protect themselves from the stresses of a traditional system. They can:
1. Infiltrate and hold large amounts of water.
2. Green up earlier in the season.
3. Utilize free nitrogen out of the air.
4. Be highly resistant to disease and insects.
5. Aerate itself
6. Digest thatch back into the soil as nutrient.
Here is the typical scenario of massive lawn failure:
Someone spends the entire Winter (the previous Fall) and half of the Spring not hydrating their lawn. When they do start watering they water in a shallow manner and resort to applying chemicals to catch up the slack. They aerate in hopes of allowing water and air into the lawn that is compacted and lacking structure (room). Because it is watered in a shallow manner the roots stay near the surface where they are routinely stressed by summer heat. Because there are no microbes down in the soil, that have been killed off by modern chemicals the relationship between the soil, microbes and the root have become non-existent forcing the roots up where the resources are easier to get to. This activity near the surface, combined with shallow watering (most of which evaporates rather than getting into the soil and root) sets the lawn up for stress. Summer heat which holds the lawn in a perpetual state of stress is further put into a greater state of stress by not getting hydrated in the Fall when the best chances for root development occur. The resulting effects after a dry winter (January and February are the two driest months of the year). Lawns are not lost in the Summer, they are lost in the winter and 99% of it is preventable! This is the roller coaster of failure and you can avoid a lot of expense by getting away from synthetics, water differently, embrace a biological system and focusing on building carbon in the soil. Having a great looking lawn need not be hard if you choose a different path.
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