Best books on lawn care??

[Gello]

Howdy all, I am looking for good books on lawn care. What are your favorites and/or which do you suggest. Any are of interest especially ones on organic lawn care.

Thanks, Gello!

[Doug Kanter]

Mow medium high in the spring. Set mower at highest level for summer, and mow rarely. If anyone comments on this being wrong, hose them down and chase them off the property. If you feel you need to water during the summer, do it late in the day, and water for a LONG LONG TIME, just like rain that lasts all day. But, remember many grass varieties naturally turn brown in the summer and green up again in the fall, so don't try to change nature TOO much. It's a waste of time.

In fall, put the mower gradually lower as winter approaches. For the last mowing, go down to putting green height, especially if the ground tends to stay snow-covered.

Feeding: Take the time to visit various garden centers until you find a lawn food which contains no poisons. You don't need them.

Dandelions: If you're pretty sure some fool isn't spraying anything on or near your lawn, pick the leaves and put them in salad, especially in spring when they're less bitter. This is one of the greens that you pay large money for in "gourmet salad mixes".

Other weeds: Care for the lawn properly for a couple of years and see if the grass doesn't dominate the weeds. It usually does. Since none of the weed/bug control chemicals have been or ever will be tested for safety, you probably want to avoid them, especially if you have children and pets.

Other tips:

[Warren]

I agree with what you say, except this.

If you water during the day, a lot of water is lost to evaporation. Some won't even hit the grass before it evaporates. So you want to water when the sun is down (and the wind is calm), but if you do it in the evening, the blades of grass can stay wet all night, and invite fungal problems.

If you water at (or just before) dawn, you lessen the amount you loose to evaporation before it even hits the ground. You'll loose some water to evaporation - the water that never got to the ground, but remained on the blades - when the sun comes up. You'll have less opportunity for fungal problems. Remember, you really want to water the soil the grass is growing in, not the blades themselves.

There's a link to my recently posted essay on lawn care in my signature.

[Doug Kanter]

I've heard about the fungus risk, but never had a problem with it. Still, it's probably a good precaution, if you can water in the morning. In my previous house, I could not because the water pipes made so much noise that it disturbed people who were sleeping. Didn't water much anyway, which drove my neighbor crazy. The guy was a moron when it came to mowing correctly. He mowed at crew-cut level all season, and by early to mid June, his grass was not just brown, but mostly dead. So, he'd water like crazy and have some lawn spray idiots come to do the too-much-nitrogen trick. Former neighbors say he's still struggling with the same routine of endless failure. :-)