The Edge June/July/August 2026

THE AGRONOMIST

The Agronomist: The Importance of Practicing Stewardship from Preemergents to Irrigation

YOU WILL NEVER, EVER HEAR ME COMPLAIN ABOUT HOT and humid weather. This is especially true after dealing with six feet of snow at my home this past winter. I do not like the cold. At all.

a week!), and bags his clippings. But his greatest sin is how he uses his irrigation system. Right around April 15th, the local irrigation company shows up, plugs in the clock, opens the ball valves, and from that day forward, that lawn is irrigated every single morning until the system is turned off right around Halloween. The amount of water that is wasted – that is to say, water applied in excess of evapotranspi ration – is colossal. And of course, that excess water negatively impacts the health of his turf. Diseases show up right on schedule, and if things get really hot (as opposed to just dry), that lawn will slam into dormancy. I, on the other hand, rigorously adhere to a strict program of benign neglect of my lawn. I never water because I have heavy clay soil. I always mow at the highest setting on my mower and stick to the one-third rule. Sure, my lawn will go into dormancy, but I recognize that dormancy is an absolutely necessary physiological adapta tion that has evolved over eons of hot, dry summers. I embrace the brown. It’ll green up again. There are multiple states that have introduced legislation to curtail how much turfgrass you can have around your home, how much you can irrigate, and even offer you cash if you rip your lawn out. While there are parts of the country where turfgrasses should not be part of the landscape (e.g., desert climates), you can grow de cent turf almost everywhere else. But if we do not steward resources like water properly ourselves by instructing our customers on proper irrigation techniques, legislators and regu lators will do it for us. And that is something that none of us wants to happen. TE

should never trade professional ism for expediency. Lawn care is a marathon, not a wind sprint. The same is true in the middle of the summer. If your custom er’s lawn has entered dormancy due to heat and/or drought, you should not be applying fertil izer (unless you want to really ramp up the growth rate of the crabgrass that escaped because you were far too early with the preemergent). There…I’ll get off my soapbox now. Thank you for listening. Nope! Hold on. I have some thing else to talk about – water. While we have numerous inputs that are necessary for a healthy landscape, we aren’t going any where if we don’t have sufficient water. That said, we can have an enormous impact on what the quantity of “sufficient” actually is, from choosing plants that are ap propriate for the local climate to managing how we utilize water in the landscape. Here’s a great example. I guarantee that you’d love my neighbor. He’s a stand-up guy, pillar of the community, family man, and a great American. The previous owner of his home abused it tremendously, but he and his wife have done an amaz ing job repairing the damage and adding their own touches. When he does decide to sell, he’s going to make out handsomely on his investment. But he’s been watching too much golf on television and thinks his front lawn is the 18th at Augusta. You know the type. Fer tilizes too often, applies control products incorrectly, mows too low and too often (three times

As you might imagine, we have to write these columns many weeks ahead of publication, and because the growing season goes by so quickly, what’s topical on April 1st may not be relevant in the dog days of summer. But professionalism is not one of those topics. Case in point, we had quite a winter here in New England with a couple of blizzards and plenty of windstorms. Our March blizzard took down innumerable trees and limbs, a mess that will take months to fully clean up. But as I walked my dogs around the neighborhood this morning, I couldn’t help but notice that a lawn care company had already treated the house at the corner. If you are applying a preemergent herbicide before the customer has removed the snow stakes from his driveway, you’re there too early. And that is before we get to the huge pine limbs that have yet to be removed from the yard. Trust me when I say that I get it when someone wants to get an early start on the season, but you

By Bob Mann Senior Director of Regulatory and Technical Affairs

There are multiple states that have introduced legislation to curtail how much turfgrass you can have around your home, how much you can irrigate, even offering you cash if you rip your lawn out. While there are parts of the country where turfgrasses should not be part of the landscape (e.g., desert climates), you can grow decent turf almost everywhere else. But if we do not steward resources like water properly ourselves by instructing our customers on proper irrigation techniques, legislators and regulators will do it for us.

8 The Edge // June/July/August 2026