by Larry Williams | Sep 9, 2014
The Emerald Coast Home Show, Health Fair and Business Expo will include lawn and landscape seminars and an information booth hosted by the Okaloosa County Master Gardeners. This event will take place September 13 and 14 at the Emerald Coast Convention Center, 1250 Miracle Strip Parkway in Fort Walton Beach. The horticulture seminars will be provided by the UF/IFAS Extension Office in Okaloosa County.
A feature of the Emerald Coast Home Show Health Fair and Business Expo will be an information booth hosted by the Okaloosa County Master Gardeners. Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer your gardening questions and to distribute information pertinent to gardening and lawn care on the Gulf Coast.
In addition to an information booth hosted by Master Gardeners, free educational seminars will be provided. On Sunday, September 14, I will provide a one hour seminar at 1p.m. entitled “Preparing Your Lawn for Fall and Winter.” This presentation will answer questions concerning preparing your lawn for the dormant period of winter. What’s the truth about” winterizer” fertilizers? Do you need to “winterize” your lawn? How should you water your lawn through the fall and winter? Should you overseed your lawn with annual ryegrass? What should you do about winter weeds in your lawn? What lawn pests are active during fall and winter? Learn the answers to these questions and the truth about winter lawn care for North Florida by attending the Preparing Your Lawn for Fall and Winter seminar.
The complete schedule of free seminars includes the following.
Saturday, September 13
11a.m. Margaret Stewart – Herbs, growing, using and preserving
1p.m. Scott Berry – Orchid basics
3 p.m. Karen Kirk-Williams – Great plants for fall and winter color
Sunday, September 14
1 p.m. Larry Williams – Preparing Your Lawn for Fall and Winter
2 p.m. Marie Harrison – Help! Pollinators in peril
The Emerald Coast Home Show, Health Fair and Business Expo will be open September 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and September 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and offers free admission, door prizes and giveaway items along with 100 vendors and free health care evaluations.
Visit www.emeraldcoasthomeshow.com for more information.
by Roy Carter | Jun 23, 2014
Summertime is vacation time for people, not plants! While getting ready for that long awaited trip, it’s easy to forget about your lawn, landscape, vegetable garden and house plants. A little time spent preparing your leafy friends for your absence could save you needless worry and hours of extra work when you get back.
Prepare your landscape for your absence.
Photo by Mary Derrick, UF IFAS
A vacation may be relaxing and rejuvenating for you and your family, but it can be hazardous, even deadly, for your plants. Unless you make adequate preparations before leaving, you could return to vegetable disaster.
One of the first things you might do before leaving home is ask a neighbor to check your plants periodically while you’re gone. All plants need some care. During an extended vacation container grown plants require special attention and different species have different needs. Be sure you give your friend specific instructions for the care of each type.
If you can’t find someone to personally look after your plants while you’re away, there’s plenty you can do prior to departure to make sure you don’t come home to a limp landscape and sickly house plants. Outdoor container plants should be placed in a shady area to conserve moisture. Under a tree or on the north side of a building are good locations. A thick layer of mulch will help conserve moisture for landscape plantings. Mow your lawn just before leaving, cutting the grass a little closer than usual. An unkept lawn can encourage disease, and it’s a tell-tale sign that no one’s home.
Give lawn and landscape plants a heavy watering – especially recently planted beds, which will need extra moisture. Also, thoroughly spray or dust your plants to protect them from insects and diseases while you’re away. If you have flowering annuals, cut the blossoms before departing. If you don’t, they’ll soon stop blooming. Harvest all ripe or nearly ripe fruits and vegetables. Like flowers, they will continue to produce only if they’re picked frequently. Otherwise, they’ll go to seed.
Do a thorough job of weeding. If weeds are allowed to go to seed while you’re away, you can expect to encounter much more difficult problems later in the season – even next year – when the seeds sprout. Weeding eliminates a major source of competition for your landscape plants’ food and water which may be in short supply during your absence.
Plants kept indoors require special consideration. Before leaving home, place your house plants in a room which receives indirect sunlight. Direct exposure to the sun will dry the soil too quickly. Of course, you don’t want to put your plants in a room that’s too dark, either. Too little light will almost always result in leaf drop. And, just before you depart, be sure to water your house plants thoroughly. This is especially vital, because – unlike lawn grass and landscape ornamentals – house plants cannot benefit from any rain that may fall while you’re gone.
You’ll enjoy your vacation more by making sure your plants are well prepared for your absence.
by Sheila Dunning | Jun 17, 2014
The old cliché is “April showers bring May flowers”, but April deluges create weak plants and yellow grass. You were following the UF/IFAS recommendations and waited until April 15th to fertilize. You followed the Urban Turf Rule and applied a low-phosphate fertilizer with slow-release nitrogen. Yet, your grass is yellow and the shrubs haven’t put on any new growth. What happened? The 18” + of rainfall that we experienced at the end of April flushed nearly everything out of the soil, including any fertilizer you applied. Nitrogen and potassium are highly leachable. Phosphorus is also depleted under saturated soil conditions.
If you haven’t submitted a soil test since the storm, now is the time to do so. It’s time to apply a summer fertilizer, but it needs to address all the nutrient deficiencies created from the excess rain. Soil test kits can be obtained from your County Extension office. When you get the results from the University of Florida Lab, it is important to remember the 4 Rs when applying fertilizer. It needs to be the Right Source, applied at the Right Rate, at the Right Time, and over the Right Place.
Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been developed to allow individuals to make conscientious decisions regarding fertilizer selection that will reduce the risk of water contamination. The Right Source for a BMP-compliant fertilizer is one that contains a portion of slow-release (water insoluble) nitrogen with little to no phosphorus, and a potassium level similar to the nitrogen percentage (e.g. 15-0-15, that contains 5% coated nitrogen). However, a soil test is the only way to accurately identify the specific nutrients your landscape is lacking. Many soil tests indicate a need for phosphate and currently it is illegal to apply more than 0.25 pounds per 1,000 sq. ft. without a soil test verifying the need.
Next, the fertilizer must be applied at the Right Rate. In order to do that, you must know the square footage of your property and how much you can spread using the settings on your equipment. Individuals walk at varied speeds and the product recommended rates are based on 1,000 sq.ft. areas. For information on calibrating application equipment refer to 
the publication, “How to Calibrate Your Fertilizer Spreader”. Using the 15-0-15 fertilizer mentioned earlier, the Right Rate for one application would be 3 pounds per 1,000 sq.ft.. That 35 pound bag is all that is needed for a nearly 12,000 sq.ft. yard (a large corner lot).
The Right Time for applying fertilizer is when the plants are actively growing and beginning to show nutrient deficiencies. Summer, when rainfall and irrigation is frequent, is often a typical application time. The Right Place is only on living plant areas. Be cautious to avoid getting fertilizer on the sidewalk, driveway and street. A deflector on your spreader is very helpful. Otherwise, be sure to sweep or blow the fertilizer back onto the grass or into the landscape beds. Avoid having fertilizer end up in any water body.
by Larry Williams | Apr 29, 2014
Kentucky bluegrass, Fescuegrass & ryegrass (annual ryegrass pictured) can be seeded to provide a temporary winter lawn but will not provide a permanent lawn in Florida due to our hot, wet summers. Photo Credit: Dan Culbert, UF/IFAS
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This phrase offers sound advice for the person looking for the “perfect” lawn grass.
It’s common to see advertisements for the perfect lawn grass. You should be skeptical when reading advertisements that proclaim an amazing grass that produces a lush, green lawn with very little care. Question advertisements for grass seed mixtures that grow from Alaska to Florida. Beware of advertisements that do not include a specific name for the lawn grass being sold. Don’t believe advertisements that claim their grass even grows in impossible spots.
A number of years ago, I called a company that was advertising a grass seed mixture in hopes of finding out specifically what grass seeds were in this “too-good-to-be-true” mixture. I was told the seed mixture included Kentucky bluegrass, creeping red fescue and annual ryegrass. This information was not included in the advertisement. And it claimed that it would produce an attractive lawn for Florida.
In Florida, ryegrass, fescuegrass and Kentucky bluegrass will produce a green lawn during winter and early spring. However, as temperatures warm in late spring and summer, these grasses will die. All three are cool-season grasses that will not tolerate our hot, humid summer weather. They will not produce a permanent lawn in our area.
Basically there are seven types of grasses from which to choose when considering planting a lawn in Florida. Centipede and St. Augustine are the most commonly planted in our area. Bahia, bermuda, carpet, seashore paspalum and zoysia are used less often. All of these grasses have advantages and disadvantages, which should be looked at and understood before choosing a grass for your lawn.
With time, most people in our area will become frustrated with their lawn. As a result, North Florida is a great area to market a too-good-to-be-true lawn grass. It’s difficult to grow a lawn here. All of our lawn grasses are native to other parts of the world – they did not exist in our native ecosystem. Expectations for a Florida lawn are too high. Because of these factors, many people are looking for that too-good-to-be-true grass.
Be cautious before spending time and money on one of those “perfect” lawn grasses.
Contact the University of Florida Extension Office in your County or visit the following website for reliable information on lawn grass selection and maintenance for Florida. hort.ufl.edu/yourfloridalawn
by Julie McConnell | Apr 21, 2014
Captiva St. Augustinegrass Credit: Julie McConnell, UF/IFAS
Mowing is an important and often overlooked landscape best management practices that can increase lawn health.
Most of us mowed lawns to earn some spending money as kids. As long as it was shorter when we finished than when we started our customers were happy. Although mowing seems like a simple chore that anyone can do, it turns out that improper mowing can cause a lot of damage to lawns and can increase pest and disease issues.
Make sure your lawn mower in good working order. Ensure the blades are sharp and the engine is not leaking any oil or gas products that may damage your lawn. Dull or damaged blades will give a ragged cut to grass blades that make it easier for disease and insects to attack your lawn. Leaking fuel products can damage or kill turf. Keep your mower clean by blowing or rinsing it after use, this simple step will also reduce the spread of weeds, insects, and disease.
Know the recommended mowing height for your type of turf (see table below) and follow it! Cutting turf below the recommended height places stress on the grass and encourages shallow roots. Deep roots help turf handle stresses such as drought, shade, insects, disease, or traffic. If any of these circumstances are occurring, the mowing height should be increased and fertilization should be decreased.
Mowing Height Table
| Turfgrass Type |
Recommended Mowing Height |
| Bahiagrass |
3.0-4.0 inches |
| Bermudagrass |
0.75-1.5 inches |
| Centipedegrass |
1.5-2.5 inches |
| St. Augustinegrass |
3.5-4.0 inches, Dwarf Cultivars 2.0-2.5 inches |
| Zoysiagrass |
1.5-2.5 inches, cultivar dependent |
When mowing, never remove more than 1/3 of the leaf blade per cutting. If the grass is overgrown, plan to mow in stages to avoid scalping or removing too much of the leaf blade. Just like shrubs, turf needs leaf surface area for photosynthesis. Allow clippings to fall onto lawns rather than catching them or discharging onto hard surfaces. The grass will decompose rapidly and provide nutrients to the lawn. Clippings that are blown onto sidewalks, streets, or other hard surfaces may be washed into storm drains and get into water systems. Just as decomposed clippings provide helpful nitrogen and phosphorus to our lawns, these same nutrients are harmful to our water bodies. Keeping them in lawns is a great way to recycle and to keep our water clean.
To learn more about caring for your turf click on the link below.
Bahiagrass for Florida Lawns
Bermudagrass for Florida Lawns
Centipedegrass for Florida Lawns
St. Augustinegrass for Florida Lawns
Zoysiagrass for Florida Lawns
