Barriers and Weed Suppressors

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everyone, are you protecting your investment? How about your client’s investment?

If you’re going to be removing natural grass when placing synthetic turf, I recommend placing weed barrier and/or pre-emergent to prevent vegetation from creeping up through drainage holes and the edges around the hardscape.

If you ignore this, it can and will destroy your beautiful installation.

Polyspun fabric is commonly used to prevent weeds and other vegetation from sprouting up through your installation.

If there is a large volume of regrowth, this may cause lumps under the turf and mirror through the surface.

I recommend a high-quality fabric that is permeable, allows nutrients to pass through, and has a 20-year warranty.

Often, weed fabric cannot prevent weeds or other vegetation from popping up near the edges of the hardscape.

This can be a task of killing and removing them. I recommend spraying an organic weed/vegetation killer, which may need to be repeated.

Here is a method that you can do to prevent edge weeds.

***When all of the natural grass is removed, excavate a small trench with a claw hammer, sprinkle pre-emergent granules into the trench, and then complete your grading and compaction. This will prevent weeds from ever thinking about popping up! Just make sure you respect other living plants surrounding the areas so that the pre-emergent does not kill them.

Nutsedge, Clover, and other weed-type grasses may grow right within your infill. When they reach the drainage holes, they can bury themselves deep.

To rid these grass-type weeds, you will need to get to the root of the problem, no pun intended.

In cases like this, you may need to “Flush” the entire installation with an organic nutsedge killer and reapply if needed.

Gopher Screen
Gophers love to dig. If you are looking to install synthetic turf and have gophers? You must be aware. I had a client who had a gopher destroy his entire putting green due to the gopher trying to get out from underneath the turf.  I recommend placing a gopher screen in all areas where gophers and varmints are present.  A Gopher screen is a metal screen that is used to keep gophers from digging and damaging ground surfaces.

Mushrooms & Synthetic Turf
They say only big things come from Texas… well, so do their mushrooms. I have witnessed mushrooms the size of softballs that have pushed synthetic turf 3 inches in height!

If you have mushrooms that are on steroids and destroying your installation, depending on the volume, you may need to flush the entire area with an organic mushroom killer so that the chemical can penetrate deep into the soil.

Tree Roots
Tree roots can definitely ruin your installation. This putting green was destroyed by tree roots, which didn’t make the golfer happy.

If you’re going to be placing any performance synthetic turf around trees or large bushes, I recommend excavating a trench around the perimeter of your installation and place bio-barrier into the trench to prevent roots from causing damage.

Do the right thing and protect your clients and your investment by preventing underlying vegetation from destroying your installation.

Until next time…..JW OUT!