June 16, 2011

Here's Randy's Weekly KTRH GardenLine Tip:

Issue #216

I'm on vacation with the family this week, so I've asked our Web dudes to rerun a pertinent tip sheet from last summer, when we were suffering drought conditions as we are now.
Thanks to our heat wave, much of the discussion on GardenLine last weekend was related to lawns burning up.

That ultimately led to irrigation and how diseases and insects are related to stresses.

We even spoofed the Beds Are Burning '80s hit by Midnight Oil, converting it to Yards Are Burning!

But what has caught my attention since those discussions are the e-mails I've received from listeners wanting to debate me on two issues. When to water, and what sprinkler heads to use if you don't have an in-ground irrigation system.

I've touched on irrigation just recently, but the many questions caused me to go back through the archives to find anything I've written regarding watering and sprinkler heads. So, this week's tip sheet is an amalgamation of things I've written about burned-up lawns and irrigation. I hope it will provide you with quantifiable information on why you should get an irrigation system, what you should use if you're a "hose dragger," when to water, how much to water, and what you should look for in terms of insects and diseases if you think you've done a great job of irrigation but still see problems.

A tip sheet from just a month ago covers the basics and explains why you should water deeply and early in the morning during our hotter months.

Two months ago, I hammered home the point of "water-wise" irrigation practices, because saving water is so important. This tip sheet also touched on the Rain Water Harvest deal offered by Rain Tube of Houston.

Quite often, when we need to water the lawn a whole bunch, it can lead to yellowing grass. So, I covered all the ways to handle that predicament.

One of the earliest stages of yellowing grass could lead to Take All Patch, and in recent years we've documented that it's mostly attributable to the higher levels of chlorine in our water.

A big lawn problem related to excessive heat are the dreaded chinch bugs.

And finally in the lineup of old weekly tips, I found the discussion about avoiding oscillating sprinklers. It was entitled "Confessions of a Former Hose-Dragger," and it was an argument for hiring an irrigation specialist.

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