It’s Houston, it’s hot, it’s dry (or drenched… rarely is it in between) and your yard that looked so great last month, is showing signs of, well, you’re not sure…but you can tell something isn’t quite right?  The most common problems with lawns in our area are chinch bugs, brown patch, or watering issues.  Here’s a little review to help you identify what you’ve got going on in your lawn.

Chinch Bugs
These are actual little bugs, a little bigger than fleas, but you can still spot them. Their immature stage is brown with a white ring around his middle. The adult stage is black with white wings on their back. If left untreated, these guys can kill a lawn.  They pierce the grass where the blade attaches to the stem.  Normally, chinch bugs start appearing in July and August.  These little guys like light…if you’ll take a white piece of paper and put it down in your grass, you’ll see them hopping on the paper, again, like fleas.  They’ll tend to show up first in stressed, dry areas.

So, the best treatment is actually prevention, keeping your lawn consistently watered.  However, if you do get an infestation, you can treat it organically with a granular cedarcide (cedar pellets) or Organocide, made of fish and sesame oil.  Or, if you prefer a chemical route, try a granular bifinthrin, which would be applied with a broadcast spreader every eight weeks. Chinch bugs rarely do damage beyond mid-October. 

Brown Patch
If you’re seeing circular brown patches in your grass and the blades are thinning, but the runners are still alive, that’s probably Brown Patch.  Brown Patch is a fungal disease in the soil that will make your lawn look bad, but not kill it, like Chinch Bugs.  Brown Patch doesn’t normally start showing up until cooler evening temperatures arrive, sometime in September through November.  Sometimes we see it in April or if we have a really cloudy summer with really wet conditions.  For prevention, we recommend the organic route of applying horticultural cornmeal and leaf mold compost to problematic areas in March and again in August.  There’s also a chemical treatment of granular PCNB (also known as terrichor), which needs to be applied anytime you see the spots grow larger.

Watering
Consistent watering cannot only prevent Chinch Bug and Brown Patch problems in your lawn, but is absolutely necessary for keeping your lawn healthy all year round.  If we get heavy rains, you must stop or readjust your sprinkler timers, you can’t just expect your yard to deal with a downpour and a sprinkler system at the same time.  However, setting your sprinkler for what’s considered adequate watering in March doesn’t mean adequate watering in the hot, dry months of June, July and August.  It’s important to go dig down into your lawn and see how far down your watering is reaching into the soil.  If it’s dry a couple of inches down after a good 15 minute watering, you’ll need to readjust your sprinklers and water enough to reach down to about eight inches into the ground. 

Discolored grass and/or blades of grass that appear shriveled are both signs of not enough water.  If you walk across your grass and it leaves footprints, not automatically springing back into place, that’s a sign of underwatering.

Still Not Sure? If you’re still unsure what’s going on with your lawn, dig up a generous sample with soil attached. Pick a spot in the transition area where the symptoms are.. Bring it to us to look at, we’ll be happy to try and help you diagnose your problem.  You might even want to snap a photo and bring that along, in addition to the sample.

Ok, if you’ve been in Houston for any amount of time, you’re aware that our weather patterns are inconsistent and often extreme.  From flash flooding to drought in the blink of an eye…and if you’re trying to keep your lawn consistently watered…it’s enough to make the average homeowner set their sprinkler system and walk away.

Is your lawn over watered or under-watered? Just setting a sprinkler system for the same amount of watering on any given day can be tricky, as many different factors dictate how much water your lawn needs.  Temperature, humidity and wind all come into play.  Try just walking across your lawn…do you see footprints or does it bounce right back?  If you see footprints, that’s an indication that you need to water.  Often, you can just look at your lawn and see clues to if it needs water or not…are the blades of grass turning off-color, curling up or wilting…those are signs of an overly dry lawn.

Water early in the morning. When you use sprinklers, some water evaporates before it hits the ground. On a hot, windy day, the amount of water that never reaches your grass can actually be quite significant. To reduce loss to evaporation, water sometime before 9 am., when the air is still cool and the wind is usually at its calmest.  Sprinkler systems can be adjusted, so don’t just set your sprinkler in May and walk away until September.  Especially in this day of being environmentally friendly and conserving water, with just a little effort, you can help your lawn be watered more effectively and be a good environmental steward.  If we’ve had a heavy rain, don’t let your sprinkler run.  Make sure your sprinkler heads aren’t wasting water on washing sidewalks and driveways.

Deep watering done less frequently is more beneficial than regular shallow watering, as deep watering will penetrate down deeper to the root system.  If you’re still unclear to the effectiveness of your watering approach, try this simple test. Turn on your sprinkler for 15 minutes. After 18-24 hours, find out how deep the water soaked in by digging a small hole in the watered area or using a probe (a probe will push easily through damp ground). You can also push a shovel into the ground and use it as a lever to spread the soil apart enough so that you can see several inches below the surface. Once you see how deep the water went in 15 minutes, you can calculate how long you need to leave your sprinkler on. For example, if the soil is damp to 4 inches below the surface and your goal is to moisten the soil to a depth of 8 inches, you'll need to leave the sprinkler on for 30 minutes (2 X 15 minutes) each time you water.