4 Steps to Maintain Your Lawn

 

Summary

Step 1: Chemically treat your lawn

Step 2: Control insects and their larvae

Step 3: Controlling Fungus

Step 4: Maintain Your Lawn

Insects or diseases can attack your lawn as many insects can find a home on your lawn. Some attack the roots, others prefer the leaves. Beetle larvae, wireworms, red ants, sod webworms…

The diseases that threaten your lawn:

• Mildew (or coin spots): the cause is often acidic, poorly drained, over-watered soil.
• The red thread is responsible for the red strands between the grass stems.
• Fungi cause witches’ circles.
• Rust, red-orange pustules…

But, there are many others, and identifying them is not always easy. In case of doubt, ask for the help of a specialist.

Here are all the solutions to treat your lawn against diseases and pests.

Step 1: Chemically treat your lawn

Application of the treatment

Select the product according to the type of problem identified.

Before applying the product:

Mow your lawn.

Carefully read the instructions that come with the product.

Please wait until your lawn is dry; ideally, it should remain dry for 8 hours after treatment.

Apply the treatment to the affected areas:

Dilute the product as recommended:

If it is liquid, the dose is expressed in litres per water.

The dose is expressed in grams per litre of water if it is solid.

Spread the product:

• either with a watering can be equipped with a watering boom;
• or by using a garden sprayer.

Tip: proceed when there is no wind.

Warnings

These products are toxic: equip yourself accordingly, with gloves and a mask in case of spraying.

Opt for this solution as a last resort for an essential and long-lasting invasion.

Please do not abuse it! For your health and the environment, always prefer fewer chemical solutions when they exist, even if they are not as radical.

Step 2: Fight against insects and their larvae

Here are 3 examples of pests frequently encountered in residential lawns. The proposed solutions allow you to avoid the use of insecticides.

White grubs

Symptom: yellowing of the lawn.

Preventive treatment: apply potassium in the fall and aerate the soil.

Curative treatments:

Spread diatomaceous earth, a natural insecticide made of silica membranes from microscopic algae, on your lawn at a rate of 10 kg/100 m².

Otherwise, spray with a mixture of water and pyrethrum powder, a herbaceous plant containing a natural insecticide.

Case of the meadow moth

Symptom: yellow patches appear at the beginning of summer, and the caterpillars of white butterflies eat the grass stems.

Preventive treatment: aerate the lawn.

Curative treatments:

Treat with soapy water at a rate of 25 ml of pure liquid soap in 4 litres of water once a week for several weeks.

Treat with Bacillus Thuringiensis at a rate of 10 g/10 L of water.

Use garlic bulbs mixed at 100 g/10 L of water as a decoction.

Spread wood ash or lime to smother caterpillars.

Case of the stink bug

Symptom: yellow spots appear, and the bug sucks the sap from the grasses; when crushed, they emit a strong odour, easily identifiable!

Preventive treatment: remove thatch from the lawn, practice regular aeration, and limit fertilizer input.

Curative treatments:

Spray soapy water on your lawn every day for 2 weeks.

Pour a mixture of water, ash, and lime on your lawn.

Special case: earthworms

Do not fight the earthworm because it is not an enemy:

It contributes to the aeration of your lawn by digging its small galleries.

Eliminating them does not guarantee that the moles will stay away; they will only multiply their molehills to find their food.

And then, are their dirt wiggles annoying?

Step 3: Control fungi

Microscopic fungi can attack your lawn and cause cryptogamic diseases: the grass discolours and dries out.

Even if some curative or systemic products are practical, simple and non-threatening actions will help you fight these fungi:

Excessive humidity is often responsible for the proliferation of fungus: make sure not to overwater your lawn.

Good fertilization can overcome these diseases.

Clean your tools after use, and the ideal is to disinfect them by cleaning them with a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol.

Collect the grass and burn it, or take advantage of your city’s green waste collection.

Warning: before burning your grass clippings, check with your city hall to ensure that no ordinance prohibits this practice in your city!

Step 4: Maintain your lawn

A healthy and well-maintained lawn fights the development of parasites. Mowing, watering, weeding, fertilizing, dethatching, coring, all these interventions contribute to its good balance.

Equipment needed to treat the lawn.

– Watering boom

– Rake

– Pressure washer

– Thick protective gloves

– Protective mask

– Burning alcohol

– Watering can with head

– A piece of cloth

Read more:

• 5 Steps Before Installing a Lawn;
• How to Install Your Lawn?