Charlotte Lawn Care Tips & Details

Charlotte is in the Transition Zone meaning it is too warm for cool season grass to thrive all year long and too cold for warm season grass to thrive. Fescue is the most popular turf grass and because this turf grass is cool season the summers bring on many challenges. Brown Patch and Pythium are two very destructive diseases.

Bermuda is the most popular warm season turf grass. The winters can be cold for long periods and cause winter kill. Diseases of Bermuda grass include Dollar Spot, Spring Deadspot and Leaf Spot all of which are very destructive. Homeowners feel their Bermuda lawn is low maintenance but this is not necessarily true. Even Bermuda needs to aerated for better soil relief and Bermuda can go into drought stress and loss of tissue.

The Charlotte area has heavy clay soils. While clay soils can be a good growing medium some challenger can accrued. The soil does not drain well which can lead to algae problems and root rot.

Also when the clay soil dries it becomes very hard and compact which leads to a soil conditiosn called Hydrophobic soil, or the soils repel water. Proper cultural practices can lead to healthy soils such are core aeration, proper lime or gypsum application and irrigation.

Crabgrass, Dallisgrass, Nutsedge Chickweed, Clover, Buttonweed and Annual Bluegrass are some of the weeds seen in the turf. The most important thing to remember is you can’t eliminate all weeds. Some weeds are considered noxious and there is no quick fix to “control these weeds”.