Growing and keeping a healthy lawn in the Front Range Urban Corridor can be tricky, especially for people relocating to Colorado’s arid climate. Colorado lawns require special care to ensure healthy growth.
Local conditions present many challenges to establishing and maintaining a healthy green lawn.
A serious problem is constant water restrictions. In many areas, it is not permissible to water more than three days per week without a permit, during normal or even high moisture years. In addition, low humidity makes lawn applications of fertilizer and insect control more difficult than in most areas of the United States. In Colorado it is not uncommon to experience thirty to forty degree temperature swings due to low humidity and lighter air density in the higher altitudes. This combination can wreak havoc with attempts to maximize effectiveness by timing fertilizer applications with cooler weather and rainfall.
Weed control can be another challenge. Low humidity hardens weeds off making them much more difficult to kill. While almost all weed controls contain surfactants (sticking agents), adding extra surfactants can greatly increase weed control effectiveness. At the same time, water pH levels tend to be high, so with some products it is necessary to add in a sulfate to reduce pH to levels better suited for the weed control’s active ingredients. Finally, weed control dries very rapidly, so care has to be taken to walk an established pattern across a yard since a weed could be dry within minutes and there is no easy way to see if it has been treated or not.
While general lawn care is challenging, seeding is even more so. Fall weather is unpredictable, but there may possibly be a small window to seed grass in September. Of course, daily watering is a must. In addition, the Front Range has heavy clay soil with high pH levels, so adding in some organic matter helps provide a seed bed where the grass seed can germinate. Prepping a new site should include rock removal and tilling the soil, with the added amendments, down to as deep as twelve inches. The soil must be broken up enough to allow for good root growth with good core
aeration. Because soil compaction is an issue for newly seeded areas as well, it is critical to reduce traffic over seeded areas.
Contact your local arborist to learn more about Mountain High-SavATree’s expanded Organic Lawn Programs.
