Wed, 5/19 · 10:19 AM

Taun Beddes 0:00 I wanted to put out a quick apology for missing an episode last week. I've been extremely busy. And part of last week I was under the weather. So thank you again for your patience and thank you for listening. TB Taun Beddes

0:11 Hello and welcome back to the homegrown horticulture podcast. On this week's episode: lawn weed control. TB Taun Beddes

0:19 The homegrown horticultural podcast is specifically for the Intermountain West areas like Denver, Reno, Salt Lake City and Boise, and all points in between. We have unique soils and a unique climate like nowhere else in the United States. TB Taun Beddes

0:35 Several years ago, I worked for a large retail nursery, and one of my responsibilities was helping landscape contractors. One particular landscaper used his home as a showpiece where he would show them everything he could do as a landscape contractor in an effort to land the bid to install their landscape. One thing that this contractor really prided himself on, was his great looking lawn. For a long time when you looked at it, it was totally green, perfectly manicured and there wasn't a weed in sight. After a few years, the lawn started to turn yellow and have other problems and nothing that the contractor did seem to fix the problem. I was sent by the nursery to take a look at the lawn and I found that it was being mowed about an inch and a half high water daily and fertilize six or seven times a year. I told the landscaper to water a couple of times a week deeply raises more blades up to two and a half to three inches and to cut his fertilizer applications in half. I don't know if he ever did or not. He wasn't very pleased with my answer. TB Taun Beddes

1:43 But my reason for telling this story is to introduce the topic of reasonable lawn expectations contract contrary to the belief of many, it's just fine to have a few weeds in your lawn and a few brown spots, especially with our drought situation in many parts of the West. So very briefly, some things you can do to maintain a healthy lawn is to mow at a height of three inches. I know the grass can be a little bit more Shaggy, but it allows the roots to grow more deeply and allows the grass to become more drought tolerant. Additionally fertilize on an as needed basis and not on a calendar. Most lawns in the Intermountain West will survive just fine being fertilized two to three times a year. That would be once in the spring once in late summer and once in late fall, trying to time that last application with a rain or snow storm between mid October and early November. As far as irrigation and an average loamy soil. You should be irrigating once to twice a week over your lawn so that water penetrates into the soil about six inches to a foot deep, heavier clay soil should be watered more often but with less water because the water doesn't penetrate as deeply into the clay. Likewise with sandy soils, you should water more often but with less water because they're so well drained. Water easily penetrates to a depth of six inches to a foot and so add water three to four times a week. Just like keeping our own bodies healthy. Maintaining your lawns correctly, will maintain the lawn health and reduce the number of weeds that actually can invade the lawn. There will always be a few but these will be easily pulled by hand or popped out with a screwdriver or something. And it's usually the overly maintained lawns or under maintained lawns that are more susceptible to weeds which is going to be today's topic. Keep in mind also that healthy lawns that are mowed high, shade out weeds and crowd weeds out because the lawn is so thick. TB Taun Beddes 3:48 The first weed I want to talk about are dandelions. They are native to Europe and Asia but have become established worldwide. there either by annual or short lived perennial and mainly bloom in the spring. Although they can sporadically bloom through...