Cobblestone Lawn Care
Follow the plan below to have a perfect Cobblestone lawn with green healthy grass without weeds and insects!
There are several advantages to doing your own lawn care:
- You know everything’s being done right!
- You save money by doing it yourself.
- It’s good exercise.
About The Grass
Most Cobblestone Farms homes when built were sodded with Bermuda Grass. When asked, my builder specifically said my home had Tifway 419 Bermuda, developed by University of Georgia geneticist Glenn Burton and tested by both the U.S. and Southern Golf Associations and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Tifway is outstanding grass that resists drought and disease. Bermuda is self-repairing because it spreads by sending runners out above ground and also by spreading roots underground, so there’s no need to reseed often as with Fescue grass. Tifway Bermuda does produce seed heads that stick up, but the seeds are sterile and cannot sprout, so no harm in trimming seed heads off whenever you mow. Bermuda goes dormant in winter so no mowing is needed in colder months as with Fescue, which stays green in winter so you must mow it year round.
Fertilizing and Preventing Weeds in Your Lawn
Below is a yearly program that will keep your lawn healthy and weed free. It’s based on recommendations from these web links:
Walter Reeves, legendary host of WSB Radio’s The Georgia Gardener
View Bermuda Fertilizing
View Pre-Emergent
The University of Georgia
Forsyth County Bermuda Lawn Calendar
For products and equipment to use, see the sections later on.
Lawn Care Plan
February-March
Important! Apply pre-emergent granules to your lawn that will prevent any weed or crabgrass seeds from sprouting this spring. The right time to do this differs yearly depending on weather conditions. Specifically, Walter Reeves says: “Apply spring pre-emergent between March 1 and March 15 to control summer weeds. Specifically, apply when soil temperature at 2″ is 55 degrees and rising and no cold weather is forecast. So even though the soil temperature may be 55 degrees some days in January you should wait until your local weather person announces that your current warm weather will continue and it’s clear sailing, weather-wise, until spring.”
To check soil temperature click this link: Gainesville UGA Weather Station
Important! Read package instructions! Most pre-emergent granules are applied only to a dry lawn. Some but not all brands must be watered in by ¼ to ½ inch of rainfall or sprinklers within 2-3 days after application. Too much rainfall after application can affect performance.
March-April
Apply fertilizer when Bermuda grass is 50% green OR when soil temperature is above 65 degrees F.
May-July
Apply fertilizer every six weeks from the first application.
September
Apply a winter fertilizer that has more potassium to encourage root growth during winter.
Important! Before October 1st when soil temperature at 2″ is 70 degrees and declining apply pre-emergent to prevent winter weeds and annual bluegrass (poa annua) from sprouting.
How To Apply
You’ll need a rotary spreader, and the best is the Scott’s Edge Guard which has a lever that you can switch to stop spreading to the right side of the spreader to prevent getting fertilizer on sidewalks or pre-emergent into garden areas. Set the rate control knob to the correct number stated on the back of the product you are applying.
Mowing
Bermuda likes to be mowed short: 1 or 1 ½ inches. I can’t mow at 1” on my lawn because the sod-installer left many dips and ridges in my uneven lawn and when mower wheels fall into low spots the blade scalps areas, so 1 ½ inches is as low as I can go. Calculate how to set your mower height by putting it on a flat surface and measuring how high the blade is at each setting.
The rule with Bermuda is never cut off more than ⅓ of the grass height, so I cut when the grass is 2 ¼ inches tall which removes ⅓ to be 1 ½ inches again. When rainfall is frequent, I find myself cutting every 5 or 6 days. When we experience drought or it’s getting colder it can be a week or more.
In winter when the grass turns brown, do not cut it to leave it very high. This helps shelter roots from cold weather and reduce erosion. As spring approaches, cut the dead brown grass back to your regular height. You don’t need to scalp it.
Watering
Bermuda desires 1” of rain per week. If you water yourself, apply 1” at one time once a week, do not apply a little every day, because deep watering into the soil encourages better root growth. To know how much you are watering, place a pan in the area and time how long it takes to apply 1” so you know how long to water each time in the future.
If you rely on rainfall, buy a $4 rain gauge at your home store and place it in an open area away from your home, and monitor it after each rainfall. If not enough rain, use sprinklers to apply the rest.
Lawn Care Products
Fertilizer
Scott’s Turf Builder Southern Lawn Food is formulated for Bermuda as 32-0-10 (nitrogen – phosphorus – potassium) which is good for spring, summer and even your final fall application.
BioAdvanced 5 In 1 Weed and Feed. 22-0-4. Great product that not only fertilizes your lawn but also kills existing weeds PLUS applies a pre-emergent to prevent weed and crabgrass seeds from sprouting. I have applied this as my February pre-emergent with good results, or sometimes once in spring if I have lawn weeds sprouting that my February pre-emergent didn’t prevent. You should not apply this more than twice a year and never when temperatures are above 90 degrees.
Pre-Emergent & Weed Control
Scotts WeedEx Prevent with Halts or use Scott’s Halts Crabgrass & Grassy Weed Preventer. Pre-emergent to prevent weeds and crabgrass from sprouting. Apply only twice a year as described
Where To Buy
Shop around at Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and Amazon as prices can vary when there are sales, and surprisingly having it delivered sometimes is cheaper than buying in store. I often buy a year’s supply at once when Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day or Amazon Day sales occur. Sign up at Scotts.com and they will email you deals and ship to you. Sometimes near holidays Scott’s has a big sale with lower prices than retailers.
How Much To Buy
Install the “My Lawn App” from Scotts on your phone and you can see a satellite photo of your yard, draw borders to indicate where you lawn is, and it calculates how many square feet of lawn you have so you know how much fertilizer and pre-emergent you’ll need.
Weed Control Sprays
Sometimes your pre-emergent granules don’t stop all weeds or crabgrasses from sprouting, so when weeds do appear it’s time to apply a weed spray with your garden hose. The ones that work best are:
Bio-Advanced All-In-One Lawn Weed & Crabgrass Killer
or
BioAdvanced Season Long Weed Control For Lawns
The “Season Long” kills existing weed and also has pre-emergent to prevent seeds from sprouting, but I usually just use the cheaper All-In-One spray for existing weeds.
Each comes in a sprayer bottle, but to refill it also buy the version in a non-sprayer bottle which is much cheaper. Amazon is usually cheaper than the home store and delivers the next day.
Fighting Insects
My Cobblestone yard has two recurring problems: ants and beetle grubs.
Having tried many ant granules, sprays and baits without luck, I have great success with Andro Ant Block, which has ant bait granules that the ants carry back into the nest to kill the queen and colony.
In spring our house was surrounded by scads of crane flies for several weeks. In June, we are infested with hundreds of Japanese Beetles and June Bugs. All of these after mating bury into the lawn to lay eggs which hatch as grubs that eat your grass roots during summer, then emerge as beetles the next spring. You’ll see brown spots appear in summer wherever the grubs are eating.
BioAdvanced Complete Insect Killer Granules applied with your spreader in June or early July will control grubs, ants, fleas and any other insect pests. This product must be watered in immediately after application and allowed to dry before the yard is safe for pets and children. In addition to putting these on the lawn, I use a hand spread to apply around my home foundation to prevent insects.
Brown Areas or Uneven Dips in Your Lawn
Insects aren’t the only cause of brown spots in your green grass. Other causes are too much water flowing through an area, poor soil or diseases. A quick fix is to buy bags of topsoil and spread a little where you have problems. Within a week the extra nutrients in the topsoil will have the grass growing green and thick plus you’ll have a level lawn.
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