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My Blog
My Blog
Blog
High Traffic Areas
| Posted on November 4, 2014 at 2:31 PM |
Do
you have an area of your lawn where personnel are constantly walking? Maybe not just personnel, but you also have
equipment going through that area all the time?
Are there all sorts of personnel walking in the same areas…personnel
coming in and out of the house, in and out of automobiles, delivery personnel or
postal personnel? Does your mower or
other equipment have to go a certain route on your turfgrass every time? This is what I call a “high traffic” area.
For
example, at the gate to my backyard, there is an area that has a difficult time
growing turf. Any person or piece of
equipment (mostly my lawn tractor) that has to go in to or out of my backyard
has to pass through that gate. That turf
is always beaten down. And, it looks
even worse in the summer, especially during times of drought stress or heat
stress. And, that area happens to be
under a great deal of shade. So, I’m out
of luck on many counts.
When
your turf is being trampled, there are basically two things going on. First, there is direct, physical damage being
done to the turf plants. Second, the
turf may suffer the consequences of soil compaction. The kinetic effects on the turf leaves are
self explanatory. The soil compaction
may not be so self explanatory.
Compacted soil hinders root growth, water penetration and the take up of
necessary nutrients. Compaction occurs
when soil particles are pressed together.
That pressing together of the soil particles eliminates the pore spaces
in the soil that are required for air and water. As many of us know, soils high in clay
content are more susceptible to compaction than soils higher in sand or silt.
What
causes soil compaction? In agriculture, it
is usually rain, improper tillage, minimal crop rotation and wheel
traffic. Those all contribute to
compacted soil on the farm. In your
yard, it is usually foot or wheel traffic.
Real hardcore pedologists (Like me!) use the term “bulk density”…the
bulk density of soil. Bulk density is a
measure of a soil’s mass per unit volume of soil. It is used as a measure of soil wetness,
volumetric water content, and porosity. Factors
that influence the measurement include organic matter content, the porosity of
the soil, and the soil structure. A soil
that has a well developed structure will become less dense as porosity
increases; as a result the bulk density of the soil will decrease. Soils which show massive structures and less
porosity will show higher bulk densities.
This blog post will go full circle.
More on soil density later.
As
I’ve said several times throughout this blog, species selection should be the
first consideration if you want to take on this problem. Different types of turfs vary in their
ability to tolerate wear. Now, I’m here
to tell you, if an area has real excessive (and I mean a whole lot) of foot and/or
wheel traffic, no turf is going to stand up to it. What is real excessive? Well, I’d say that would be constant movement
over an area. Not a turf on this planet
can handle huge amounts of traffic. Yet,
if there is a moderate amount of traffic, there are some species that are
better than others. The most tolerant
warm season grasses are zoysiagrass and bermudagrass. Of the cool season grasses, perennial
ryegrass and tall fescue are pretty tough.
Kentucky bluegrass is fairly tough but rough bluegrass and colonial
bentgrass are terrible.
Here’s
a quick, final thought on species selection.
My lawn is primarily tall fescue.
In fact, you could call my lawn a “cool season blend”. Remember – a mix is comprised of more than
one species of turfgrass; a blend is when there is more than one cultivar
within a species. One of my goals for my
lawn is consistency. I would not want to
plant, say, zoysia in that area on each side of my backyard gate. It would look different. It would ruin my lawn’s consistency, and
possibly spread. So, planting a patch of
a different species in that area is not really desirable for me. There
are some management practices one can do to enhance your turf’s tolerance to
traffic. One thing I say all the time –
for many reasons, now this one - mow your turf high. We know that longer turf leaves have more
leaf surface exposed to the process of photosynthesis. And, mowing higher encourages deeper
roots. Also, mowing is always a
stress. Perhaps mowing that area less
goes hand in hand with allowing the grass to be longer and will help it deal
with traffic better.
Small
amounts of thatch are acceptable. If you
read my blog post titled “Thatch”, you know I have said you should not have
more than half an inch of thatch. That
still holds true. But, having a small
(less than 0.5 inch) layer of thatch can provide a cushioning barrier. It keeps the turf leaves from actually getting
crushed.
From
a fertilizer perspective, another thought is to reduce your nitrogen
application. An excessively thick and
lush stand of turf is more susceptible to damage. Increasing your potassium application will
also increase the wear tolerance of your turfgrass.
The
only way to alleviate soil compaction is to core aerate. Like many golf courses, core aerating more
than once a year is an excellent thing to do, even if you don’t have compacted
soil. Those compacted cores are removed
and replaced with holes that allow greater air and water movement. Turfgrass roots grow into those holes and are
exposed to air, nutrients and water. If
I could, I’d aerate my lawn at least twice a year – once in the fall and again
in the spring. Although most compaction
is found in the top two inches of the soil, the deeper the cores, the better
the results. Read my blog post on
“Aeration”.
Finally,
some (other) experts say a light topdressing of sand after the aeration will
change the soil texture. I’m not a big
fan of that. Why? Because most homeowners don’t do that
correctly. Golf course superintendents
get it right…most of the time. It must
be a VERY LIGHT topdressing. And it
should only be done in certain circumstances and in certain locations. Messing up your soil texture is very
difficult and very expensive to reverse.
As I said in my “Establishment” blog post, just putting down 1 to 2
inches of sand can cause “layering” of the soil. When soils have these layers, the layers can
become impermeable. When you have
impermeable layers in your soil, that is another different set of
problems. Having compacted soil pales in
comparison to the problems posed by layered soil. If you have layered soil, might as well rent
that bulldozer with the huge soil ripper attached to it. You want to add something to your soil after
aeration? Add organic matter like humus,
peat or other soil conditioners or soil amendments like that. While
I’m thinking about it; let me say this.
Gypsum will not break up compacted soil.
It will increase the calcium content of your soil and the salt content
of your soil. The use of sulfur has also been incorrectly acclaimed to break up
compacted soils. Sulfur has an
acidifying effect on a soil. Adding
sulfur to a calcareous soil (soil mostly
or partly composed of calcium carbonate) only creates gypsum
(calcium sulfate). All of this will mess
with your pH level. Don’t use any of
these things for compacted soil. Really,
the basic solution for compacted soils is to physically manipulate the
soil. There are no short cuts when
dealing with compacted soil. There is
nothing you can just pour out of a bottle or dump out of a bag to fix it.
I
guess I’ve said enough about dealing with high traffic areas in your
turfgrass. This sort of turned in to a
block of instruction on compacted soil. If
what I’ve laid out here doesn’t really apply or does not work, well, perhaps
this is one of those battles you should withdraw from and live to fight another
day. I hate to say it. Maybe you should do something to manage
traffic flow. Raising your garden beds,
establishing a walk way, installing a fence or garden wall (like a "hard scape" solution), mulching…these can all be
alternatives to having a hard soil bare patch in your beautiful lawn.
|
Categories: High Traffic Areas
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