Anchorage Daily News

Whew! A few days of sunshine and folks go lawn crazy. True, it seems like we have had more sun this spring than we had all last summer, but let's remain calm. There is a great likelihood that in just a month or so you will start to hate your lawn. Doing too much work on it now is part of that problem. Besides, this is, after all, just a hobby. Let's try and keep it from getting to be work.

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Gardening calendar (5/14/09)

Arbor Day Ceremony: 2 p.m. Monday, at Trailside Elementary School, 5151 Abbott Road.

Vegetables in the ground this week: Beets, carrots, collards, kohlrabi, lettuce, Swiss chard, turnip, zucchini.

Visit Nurseries: Buy starts before there are no starts.

Bare root sales: The best sales of the year on trees and shrubs happen now, when they are sold barerooted. No hardening off needed. Plant them now or pot them up and plant when you want.

Harden off: All plants grown indoors. I leave ours outdoors in the shade for three days and then given them some sun. Don't make it complicated.

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As the soil temperatures increase thanks to these fantastic, warm days grass plants come out of dormancy. The microbes in the roots wake up and multiply, being fed by the plant and in turn, feeding the plant. Both the plant and the microbes need a bit of moisture, so hot sunny days this time of year slows down the process. The take home: Water your lawn as needed until it greens up.

What else should you do to or for your lawn? Well, if you are so inclined to use corn gluten to prevent new dandelion seeds from germinating, you might consider putting that down now. Corn gluten has to be watered in to be effective, so this would be a good time because you will be watering this week. The impact of the gluten should last up to six weeks. It also acts as a gentle nitrogen fertilizer, but don't get it in gardens or containers where seeds will be germinated.

Incidentally, dandelions that already exist in your lawn will respond to the water as well. They will, however, will not be impacted by corn gluten except for its fertilizer effect! So get out there using a hand tool to pull them up. After watering, consider using clove spray to at least kill the tops, and hopefully some of the roots, of existing plants. The clove spray will leave spots, so aim carefully.

As for fertilizers, does you lawn need feeding? The question is theoretical because it looks bad now, but how do you know what your lawn will look like when it isn't fully up yet? You don't. Hold off. If you want to put down some organic microbe food like soybean meal or Arctic Gro Natural, go ahead, but it sure isn't mandatory until you see how things green out.

How about liming? First, ask why are you liming. Lime is used to increase the soil's pH. If it is being considered simply because "people say you have to up here" or "I've always done it," those are not good enough reasons.

The only way to know if you need lime is to have your soil tested. No test? No lime. And, by the way, the reason most use lime here is because the lawn fertilizers with high nitrogen lower the soil's pH and may result in the need for lime. Not so if you garden using the soil food web, organically. Then the plant and the microbes make the pH they need. Skip liming, in my opinion.

How about aerating the lawn? This, too, may be a good idea, but how do you know if the grass hasn't had a time to green up? You don't. So let skip that bit of work as well.

Skip thatching, as well. The blades and stems in your lawn that turned brown this winter are dead. Instead, there is new growth from the old roots. It's that old, dead stuff that is often called "thatch." Technically, it is only the stems and not the leaves, but who is counting? If you don't use chemical fertilizers, especially those with high nitrogen and phosphorus numbers, this dead, organic material is simply fodder for the microbes you want to have in your soil. If they do their job, you never have to thatch, not that this would be a good time anyhow: If you must thatch, wait until the entire lawn has greened up.

How about rover spots? OK, you got me there. You can scratch out the dead grass and reseed the spot after flushing the area with water. Or you can use a lawn spot renewal kit that acts like hydro-seed with fertilizer, medium and seed all included. In fact, if you have bare spots and don't have a dog, or a thin lawn with and without pets, it often helps to seed over existing grass with new grass seed. Roll the seed first in mycorrhizal fungi designed for lawns, such as "Endo." Keep watering if it doesn't rain until the seed germinates.

So, just water. Other than making sure your hoses are not leakers, there really isn't much else you should do to your lawn for a couple of weeks.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at teamingwithmicrobes.com or by calling 274-5297 during "The Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR AM-700.

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