Lawn Leaders guide neighbors to healthier home lawns

Lawns may be ubiquitous, but to many, caring for them can be mysterious. Many seek trustworthy lawn care advice. 

Lawn Leaders are University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener volunteers who have opted to level up their turf and lawn knowledge — and even turn their own yards into temporary teaching spaces for their neighbors.

The goal? Not perfect lawns, but healthier ones that use less water. 

Lawn troubleshooting

Here’s a not uncommon scenario: a lawn is grown successfully for quite some time until it starts to decline. Why? The impulse of homeowners may be to water more. 

Lawn Leaders can help sleuth the answer. The homeowners haven’t changed their watering or fertilizing practices. But it may be that their property's trees have matured, creating shadier conditions and competition at the root level. If the species in their lawn is sun-loving, that will lead to decline.

"You may not have to water more — it's a species thing," said Gary Deters, lawn water conservation educator with the University of Minnesota, who teaches the course. So to improve the lawn, shade-tolerant grass species should be added by overseeding the existing lawn.

Trusted by neighbors

So far more than 30 Master Gardener volunteers have taken the Lawn Leaders training — a three-hour, self-paced online course followed by an in-person, four-hour intensive covering plant identification, seed selection, mowing, watering, fertilizing, weeds and so on. The training covers the volunteers’ annual continuing education requirements.

“We focused on basic turf management, with particular focus on practical things homeowners could do to save water and have a healthier lawn,” says Jon Trappe, Extension educator focused on turf, who developed the course with Deters and Professor Eric Watkins.

Master Gardeners get plenty of lawn questions alongside garden and landscape ones. And they are trusted sources of information in their neighborhoods. 

“Because I’ve lived in my neighborhood for 50 years, I am the go-to. I get asked, ‘Why does your lawn look so much better than mine?’ I took this course to be more knowledgeable,” says Carla Kilkelly, Master Gardener in Hennepin County. 

Robbie Smith, Master Gardener from Goodhue County, shares, “I have always loved having a nice lawn. I wanted to learn more about how and why.”

At-home demonstration plot

By mowing a few small patches in their yards at different heights, Lawn Leaders can show neighbors how mowing height impacts lawn health. 

For the Lawn Leaders training, Deters set the mowing height at 1.5", 2.5" and 3.5" in three different plots. The difference is easy to see, especially during a dry stretch: 1.5" looks stressed with browning; 3.5" looks healthier and green. An infrared tool showed their temperatures at 69 and 67 degrees respectively. 

Stressed lawns are more likely to get weed growth too. So it's not about watering more; it's about raising the mower height so the grass is not cut as short. Small changes add up. 

How are lawn care decisions made?

According to Michael Barnes, research assistant professor in the Department of Horticultural Science, whose research on lawn care decision making helped shape the concept of Lawn Leaders, neighbors serve as a trusted source of information on lawn care. “We see someone has a beautiful and healthy lawn and it's right next door or across the street, we have a sense that whatever they are doing will also help us.”

This forms the foundation for the Lawn Leader program — to distribute best management practices and water-saving techniques through individuals who are already part of the neighborhood. “What better way to do that than through the vast network of Master Gardener volunteers?” asks Barnes.

Trappe notes, “As learning becomes more and more online and digital, direct human interactions like what is happening between Lawn Leaders and their neighbors may be more valued over time.”

“It goes back to the power of neighbors, and what someone is doing next door,” says Barnes.