Soil Testing

If you're fertilizing as a Joe-shmoe homeowner, you're probably fertilizing too much. On average, homeowners who get a soil testing of their lawn's soil (plus or minus $25) will save more money in the long run. A soil test will tell you what type of nutrients you actually need instead of just "adding fertilizer" to the soil, I promise you'll probably be adding less fertilizer than you originally were.

What to know from your soil test

Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) is the ability of the soil to exchange cations or in other words nutrients. Sands have very low CEC and clays are very high but have poor soil growing conditions for turfs.
 
Most important cations for turf/plant growth: Hydrogen, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Sodium, Ammonium
 
The pH of a soil also plays an important part in turf/plant growth. The pH scale ranges from 1-14: 0-6 being acidic and 8-14 being alkaline/basic and 7 is neutral. If soil is too acidic (excessively low) think about “liming” it. Add gypsum when Ca is needed but no pH change is necessary and also at the same time that there is too much  sodium
 
Potassium is recommended when turf has undergone considerable change in the past 3 decades. 

Maximum tissue growth occurs at lower levels of pH
 
Zinc and Manganese at high levels cause a potential hazard and can become a toxicity to turf. 


To collect a soil sample from your own grass- collect 15-20 random samples between 3-6 in.
 

Grass types

What kind of grass is in your yard anyways?

Typical summer grass in Arizona: Bermuda Grass.

Find a variety that has better drought tolerance and has a deepr green color. Bermudagrass is the most widely used warm season grass and will be the most beneficial in the hot climate. It may struggle a little bit in the peak of the hot summer but will most definitely make it through.

ID tools: Has rhizomes and stolons, has a folded veneration, hairy ligule, coarse to very fine leaf texture, has a distinctive seedhead, rooting occurs at nodes of stolons.

Typical winter grass in Arizona: Perennial Rye Grass or Rough Bluegrass

Perennial Rye grass is known for its rapid establishment which will decrease the time of an ugly green lawn. The downside of Perennial Rye: it is a bunch type grass which means it will not spread evenly over the whole lawn. If a spot is bear, overseed that spot and that will be how the problem is fixed. Once filled in you will not notice its bunch type qualities but rather how quickly it greened up and fills its small area. Rough Bluegrass also grows a high quality turf for the cool season but does not establish as quickly as the Rye grass, though it is more wear tolerant throughout the winter season.

ID tools: Perennial Rye- folded veneration, pointed leaf tip, shiny backside of leaves, prominent veins, bunch-type growth, membranous ligule, short auricle, braod collar, and appear to have a boat-shaped leaf tip. Easily confused with Kentucky bluegrass which has a boat shaped tip as well but Perennial leaf tip opens to a point. Rough Bluegrass- boat-shpaed leaf tip, folded veneration, long membranous ligule, splits sheath, silvery-onionskin-like appearance on sheath.

Structure- main grass morphology includes the blade, the sheath, crown, node, bud, roots, rhizomes (below ground stems), stolons (above ground stems). All play an important part in the regrowth of the blade after it has been mowed/determines how the plant continues to grow and get nutrients.

 

Professional Lawn Care

Deciding to use a professional lawn care company?


For Arizona residents, look for a company that has confidence in their surface and validates their costs. A company should be applying a heavy fertilization all summer long, about every month to keep grass at its optimum level. Look for details in the company, their workers, the way they treat customers, aesthetics, and cleanliness after maintenance. Don't be afraid to shop around and get the most out of your money.



Side note- Understand that if you're looking for dry products to be put on your lawn, a smaller business would be the better applicant of your business (it is more cost effective to buy dry products in small quantities). Liquid applied products are better for businesses to buy in a larger quantity so a larger business would be the answer

Establishing your lawn

There's 2 main options here when it comes to going from plain soil (dirt in Laman's terms) to a beautiful turf.

A) Seeding

B) Sodding

A) Seeding is the "most common" form of establishment (well of course, all turf must be seeded somehow). The steps for seeding establishment are as follows: a) Rough grading and removal of debris, b) Installation of drainage and irrigation systems (if needed), c) Application & tilling in of fertilizer P and lime (if needed and according to soil test) to subsoil, d) Covering subsoil with 8 or more inches of topsoil. The seeding rate is determined by growth habit and seed size: smaller the seed, more seeds per pound. The smaller the seed, the closer it needs to be to the surface when planted. Hydroseeding is an option that can be used here, it is a mixture of spraying seed, mulch, and fertilizer on surface at the same time. This procedure is more costly but can be very effective. Often homeowners choose seeding because it is incredibly less expensive than sodding, but it takes better care, maintenance and a patience to grow a Joe-shmo-grass from seed.

B) Sodding is truly the most common way for homeowners to establish their lawn. It is undoubtedly more costly but gives an instant lawn and is establishes faster for the homeowner (which will give you less chance to kill it!). The same steps apply to sodding as seeding plus a few more: a) the soil must be lightly moistened prior to sodding, b) sod should be laid staggered, perpendicular to slopes and in a staggered brick pattern, c) lightly rolled to remove air pockets, d) staked on steep slopes, e) kept moist immediately after it is laid and rolled through root establishment into the soil below, which will take 10‐14 days, and f) traffic should be avoided during this time. Choose sod that has a similar soil type to the already existing one on site. Choose sod that is has a thin cut soil (.5-.75 in) for it will establish more quickly with the existing soil