Cliff Burlingame mowed a lawn full of dandelions that had gone to seed for a friend living at a home in East Anchorage on June 24, 2024. (Bill Roth / ADN)
This is the time of year when color bleeds into the scenery. Days are warmer, though definitely not warm enough! You can now see a red hue among the tree limbs as buds develop. The perfect example, however, is the lawn. It comes out of winter brown or tan. As the soil warms up and the microbes begin to do more of their thing around grass plant roots, color slowly returns.
Actually, it is probably new blades being produced. If left alone, the old ones will decay and return the nutrients they contain back to the soil food web. Often, too often, readers see this accumulation at the end of winter as thatch. They insist on the hard, back-breaking work which is removing thatch with a thatching rake.
Let me save you the time. Don’t thatch now. Once the lawn is fully growing and green, you can assess if your build-up is thatch, or just natural accumulation which is decaying properly. Thatch consists as stems and not blades.
Thatch or no, you know my rule because I repeat it often: “Do nothing but water the lawn.” You lawn will green up even if you don’t listen to the angry Scot yelling that you must put down fertilizer. Once it does green up, you can decide for yourself if it is green enough or if it needs supplemental feeding. If it does, compost or a compost extract is the way to proceed.
The vole pathways left in the lawn after winter will regrow without you doing anything. If you want to speed the process up, toss down some grass seed and make sure the area stays damp. Keep an eye on any trees that may have girdled. They may be dead.
This is the time of year to get your lawn mower in shape. Gas mowers should be professionally tuned to minimize the egregious amount of pollution they spew. Both gas and push mowers should be sharpened. There are tools to do this, but a pro job is so much better. It will be easier to push the mower and do much less damage to the grass blades cut.
I keep mentioning the thumb-size and smaller twigs. Mow them over. They contain nutrient goodies. The bigger stuff can be used for fires — if there isn’t an outdoor fire ban — or broken up and tossed into the compost pile where it will help aerate the pile and keep it running.
Finally, we sand and gravel our driveway in the winter. It is a great idea to blow this stuff off the drive and onto the lawn. There, gravel and sand will work into the soil and again provide aeration and reduce compaction.
Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar:
Alaska Botanical Garden: The nursery is open and has most unusual stuff, worth the visit. And join.
Visit favorite nurseries that fit your politics. Yes, it has gotten to this.
Sweet peas! Plant the fragrant ones.
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