Learn the Lingo: The Dirt on Lawns, From Sod to Fairy Rings
Finally! Now that the weather is warming up, that’s a wake-up call for the grass in your yard to get growing already.
Our latest installment of Learning the Lingo can seed your vocabulary with all the landscaping terms worth knowing. Whether you want to beautify your yard for summertime barbecues or kick up your home’s curb appeal so you can rake in the profits when you sell, here are some words to ponder, from “dollar spots” to “plugs” and beyond. Way beyond!
Sod
Rolling out the turf
If seeding your entire lawn sounds like a headache, you can go the easy route with sod instead. Also called turf, these squares or rolls of mature grass are cut by professional growers; they can be planted in your yard much like carpet’s installed in your home. But prepare to pay for the privilege: Sod costs 15 to 24 cents per square foot, or around $6,500 per acre.
Sod generally needs to be planted within 24 hours of being cut. Also bear in mind that not all sod is created equal. To get a better idea of what grass can thrive in your climate, go to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map and enter your ZIP code.
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Plugs
Illustration of plugs used to turf a lawn
Plugs are similar to your Uncle Travis‘ hair transplant, but only for your yard. If you have a lawn with some ever-growing bald spots here and there, plugs of sod are the answer. They have a much longer shelf life than the long strips do, and planted at intervals, plugs can also be a significantly cheaper alternative.
Downside: You’ll have to wait longer (up to a year) before they completely fill in their target area. Just like Uncle Travis did (which is why he wore baseball caps everywhere).
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Kentucky bluegrass
Kentucky bluegrass
This common grass species, Psoa pratensis, can be found in plenty of places other than Kentucky, and for good reason: It’s dense, does fine in cooler temperatures, and can take plenty of wear and tear—which explains why it’s the grass of choice for golf courses across the U.S. and even the well-trafficked Sheep’s Meadow in New York’s Central Park. The “blue” part comes from the fact that the grass can cop a bluish tint, plus blue flowers appear if the grass isn’t cut and allowed to grow to its full 3 feet.
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Tall fescue
Tall-fescue
The president walks across the White House South Lawn over this lush, greener-than-green turf variety before climbing aboard the Marine One helicopter. It has its roots (literally) in Europe, but it has become a staple of higher-end American lawns and gardens. There are a number of fescue varieties, but this one is the most drought- and traffic-tolerant of the bunch.
Fescue’s drawbacks are that in the summer, you can’t give it a crew cut—mow below one-and-a-half inches and you’ll likely damage or kill swaths of it—and it doesn’t do well in extreme heat.
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Zoysia
Zoysia, or Manila grass
It creeps and creeps, and grows and grows. Named after the 18th-century botanist Karl von Zois, this easy-to-maintain grass was brought to the U.S. from the Philippines, which is why it is also known as Manila grass.
Zoysia is hardy and loves heat and sun. What’s more, it’s not overwhelmingly thirsty (unlike Uncle Travis) and is so hardy that the Texas Rangers use it for their infield.
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Drought-shaming
See, there’s this severe drought in certain parts of the country, most notoriously California. And if you live in one of these areas and decide to give your dry-as-burnt-toast lawn a refreshing nine-hour shower, watch out. Not only is this quite possibly a violation of local laws and ordinances, you could also end up a target of drought-shaming, where neighbors rag on you for wasting water on your lawn that could have gone to, say, bathing a family of four.
It can all get pretty ugly. Last year Tom Selleck was outed in Ventura County for stealing water from a nearby hydrant to water his 60-acre farm and avocado ranch. Say it ain’t so, Magnum! (For an alternative to water-hungry lawns, see our next term.)
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Xeriscaping
Xeriscaping
The root word “xeri” is Greek for “dry”—this landscaping tactic drastically reduces your yard’s water usage by using drought-resistant plants and types of grass that require far-less-than-usual levels of water. Bonus: It requires less mowing and maintenance, too.
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Dollar spot
Dollar spots
Seeing small tan circles about the size of a silver dollar? Your lawn is afflicted with a fungal disease known as Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, and it’s nothing to scoff at. If left unchecked, those spots will expand into patches and eventually kill your lawn clear down to the roots.
If you suspect you’ve got dollar spots, you can treat your lawn with antifungals, or prevent them from taking hold by adding nitrogen fertilizer, since it tends to take hold in nitrogen-deficient soil.
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Fairy ring
Fairy ring
Research from the University of British Columbia gives us one interesting tactic: Remove half your fairy ring and till it in with the other side. The spores on each side are different and antagonistic, and will annihilate each other. (It’s not exactly a fairy-tale ending, is it?)