Lawn Slobs, Lawn Snobs, Lawn Geeks: He's Seen 'Em All

John Rogers III is the kind of guy that people call with pressing problems, such as: "What the (bleep) is wrong with my lawn?"

Sometimes Rogers gets to play turf detective, such as when a man wanted to find out why he had a big spot of dead grass. Turned out the man's teenager had been mowing and dumped some gasoline.
 
"Grass doesn't lie," Rogers said with the patient air of a man who studies, lavishes attention on and philosophizes about turf.

A crop and soil sciences professor at Michigan State University, Rogers is called Trey for the Roman numerals after his name.

Recently, he became the published author of "Lawn Geek" (New American Library, $15). It's all about the care and feeding of lawn grasses, which are members of the plant family poaceae.

Rogers said people with grass lawns can be divided into three categories:

Lawn snobs want perfection, but don't want to get their own hands dirty.

Lawn slobs don't care.

Lawn geeks live for their turf. They wake up in the morning thinking about grass.

Rogers is a self-proclaimed lawn geek, with a special interest in athletic fields. He's also a consultant for power equipment company Briggs & Stratton and answers questions through its Web site, at www.yarddoctor.com.

Rogers, 47, who lives with his wife, Michelle, and their three teenage children in East Lansing, reflected recently on his poatic passion:

Q. Who's a lawn geek?

A. What we're dealing with is someone who's a perfectionist, and they've found a place where they can toil and not get bored. Because you can have a perfect lawn on Monday, and by Thursday something's got to be done, and it's started to bug you.

Q. What are the big mistakes people make in lawn care?

A. Scalping and overwatering. With scalping, people wait too long between mowings. You pruned it back too far. Like any plants, that puts it in some sort of shock for a period. You can do that once or twice. ... But continually doing that, you're opening up the canopy for weeds." Insects and disease are also more likely to move in.

Q. What about overwatering?

A. People turn the water on, and never pay any attention to it. It might rain three days in a row, and they're still watering. ... It gets waterlogged. The roots start to shrink. Or you have soggy conditions, a breeding ground for disease if the weather is right. ... The other issue with watering is watering smart. The best time of the day is early morning, the main reason being there's not a lot of wind to compete with. And grass dries out during the day, reducing damp overnight conditions that favor disease.

Q. What advice do you have for people who want to go organic?

A. When someone decides to go organic and they want to have a perfect lawn, you have to define what's perfect and what's acceptable. ... If your No. 1 complaint is [insufficient] time, the idea of going organic is more challenging."

Q. You confess in the book that you hire someone to mow your lawn, which is 18,000 square feet.

A. We have a good relationship. If he has a question, we stop and talk. It's not necessarily about my lawn. The lawn mower man is always asking me ... for somebody who never fertilizes your grass, your grass sure seems to grow well. I just smile.

Q. So what's your fertilizing secret?

A. Slow release. Twice or once. Usually in September.

What To Do First

Lawn geek John Rogers III advises:

On lawn care in March: "It's OK to mow. Actually, it will green things up. ... You want to check the north side. That's where you'll likely have disease issues, like snow mold. Take a garden rake, and rake it. Rake the mold away. Get some sunshine and some air, and Mother Nature will take it from there."

On healthy mowing: "Mow so you remove no more than a third of the blade height."

On robotic mowers: "The robotic mowers that are like [robotic] vacuum cleaners, I'm not a big fan of those. They could run two hours, and still miss spots. The ones we've tested will be out [in the future]. ... You set an outline, where the objects are. It puts that into a computer. It mows a pattern. It is basically a riderless mower."