ASK CALLIE

ADVICE ON LAWNS & LIFE

WORDS BY CALLIE ZAMZOW

Q: Hi Callie, I’m curious if you have any secret Zamzow lawncare tips?

I grew up in Idaho, where Zamzow is synonymous with beautiful lawns and gardens. It also happens to be my last name, though it wasn’t until I bought my first home that I realized lawncare wasn’t in my genes. It also wasn’t formally taught to me. During my first year as a homeowner, I was so embarrassed when the president of my neighborhood homeowner’s association left me a note about the poor condition of my lawn! I grew up helping my family maintain a nearly perfect yard every summer, but like every Idaho homeowner, native or not, I had to learn some simple guidelines to make lawncare easier. Thankfully I had my father, Jim Zamzow, to help.

The first thing my dad taught me was to think of my yard as a living entity. When you see your lawn as more of a “pet”, you approach it differently. I stopped using chemicals in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. If my dog couldn’t eat it, I wouldn’t put it on my yard. Although national brand chemical fertilizer companies make us think that green lawns require fertilizer, the truth is that applying chemicals weakens your lawn, making it susceptible to insects and disease, which only forces you to apply more chemicals. Applying lawn food that contains a full spectrum of vital nutrients beyond nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as well as compost and carbon-rich humus to the soil supports the world of good microorganisms that naturally keep diseases in check. Increasing the life in the soil also eliminates the need to aerate and dethatch your lawn every year.

But it wasn’t just the products I changed. As a new homeowner, I had never adjusted the prior owner’s sprinkler system settings. I took the word “automatic” literally. Dad helped me understand that I needed to set the length of my watering based on the volume of water each sprinkler emitted, not how much time the sprinkler ran. Sprinklers can be run less often in spring and fall than in the heat of summer. The key, which is particularly helpful in Idaho, is to water deeply and infrequently, so grass roots grow deeper and become drought resistant.

The most important thing that my dad taught me was that fall is the best time to set the stage for a beautiful lawn next spring. Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, an application of a natural, fall, and winter lawn recharger will give your lawn an enormous leg up in spring because soil remains active in winter. As the lawn recharger breaks down, it deposits nutrients around the roots, creating the first food that your lawn will consume in spring. With a specific ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and an added micronutrient pack, your lawn will wake up like it spent the winter at a health spa.

Ask Callie Zamzow your questions at www.Speakpipe.com/TheZamzowsShow and listen to her weekly podcast, “The Zamzows Show”, found anywhere you listen to podcasts.