Resources

Mowing

Proper mowing is critical to keeping your lawn healthy and looking good. There are three things you can do to keep your lawn “a cut above” the rest:

1. Mow High Enough
   The basic rule is: The hotter the weather, the higher you should mow. Higher mowing promotes deeper roots, prevents water loss by shading the soil, and reduces weeds by preventing sunlight from warming weed seeds. Taller grass also cools the soil and reduces heat stress.
2. Mow Often Enough
   Be sure that no more than ⅓ of the total grass blade is removed in any one mowing. Mowing too short removes too much of the green part of the plant, leaving stalky-looking crown and stems. This gives the lawn a brown, scalped look and weakens the grass. Recovering from even a single “scalping” sets the lawn’s growth back many weeks.
3. Keep Mower Blades Sharp
   Dull mower blades can rip and shred the tips of your grass blades, turning them a bleached, tan color and leaving the whole lawn looking brown. For best results, sharpen mower blades several times per year. If you have a large lawn, sharpen them once a month during the mowing season.

Tree and Shrub Care

Your trees and shrubs represent a growing investment that’s worth protecting. Our program of scheduled inspections and treatment helps to keep all of your ornamentals healthy and in top growing condition.

There are hundreds of insects and diseases that can attack and infest your landscape. Our trained and licensed staff can identify and control these problems before severe damage or plant loss occurs.

Custom Programs Designed for the Unique Needs of Your Property
Each landscape is different, and we can provide either standard or customized programs to fit virtually any property. Our plan of protection can include insect management, disease management and dormant applications. We can also combine these pest management services with properly timed and applied fertilization.

Expert Protection for Your Landscape Investment
We understand and appreciate the value of your landscape investment. Call on us for a comprehensive evaluation and program recommendation.

Watering

Keeping your lawn thick, green and healthy means doing several things right. One of the most important is making sure there’s enough moisture to maintain growth.

Nature’s rainfall schedule is not dependable. Some additional watering is almost always necessary, at least during the hotter and drier parts of the year, to avoid water stress.

Lawns turn brown, thin out, and run into more disease and insect problems when under water stress. A thin, water-stressed lawn also creates room for weeds to invade. So whether you use underground or portable sprinklers, there are a few basic guidelines to follow to avoid these problems and maintain good lawn health.

Timing Makes A Difference
One basic rule is: Water your lawn when the least amount will be lost. Avoid watering in the heat of the day to make sure your water goes down to the roots instead of going up as vapor. Also avoid watering when windy conditions will affect even watering or cause you to water your neighbor’s lawn instead.

Soak Those Roots!
When you water, saturate the soil to a depth of 6” to 8”. Frequent, shallow watering causes the grass to send roots to the surface for water, where they suffer more quickly during dry, hot spells. Also be sure to put down extra water along curbs and pavement, because these areas heat up much more and dry out much faster.

Weed Control

Even the most beautiful lawn is likely to have weeds appear at some point. Keeping a lawn “weed-free” takes more than just having a couple of herbicide treatments each year. Nature finds ways to make sure something starts growing in any lawn that has become too thin. Bare patches of soil quickly fill up with broadleaf and grassy weeds of all sorts. That’s why a healthy, thick stand of grass is the very best weed prevention there is.

Below are a few facts you should know in winning your war with lawn weeds.

All About Weeds. The two basic kinds of weeds in most lawns are broadleaf and grasses. Dandelions and clover are broadleaf weeds, while crabgrass is a grassy type. There are also perennial and annual weeds with very different life cycles. Summer weeds have a thick, waxy coating that makes them the toughest to control. We have specialized approaches for controlling the various types of weeds common to lawns.

Mow high. Longer grass cuts off the light and warmth weeds need.

Water. Whenever weed control is applied, the results are much better when the weeds are actively growing. So, water if necessary at treatment time.

Regular fertilization is the best way to produce a healthy, thick stand of grass that can fight off invading weeds.

Working together, we can keep your lawn beautiful and healthy while keeping most of the weeds out, too. Please give us a call with any questions you may have about weeds or any other lawn concerns.

Grubs

There are several types of white grubs that feed on the roots of lawn grasses. All of them can cause severe damage if left untreated.

Out Of Site… Out Of Mind
Grubs live and feed in the soil. It’s easy to miss them as they gradually cut the roots out from under your lawn until brown patches begin to appear and the grubs are finally discovered. Pull back the turf if you suspect grubs. If the lawn pulls up easily (like new sod), you may find white grubs in the top inch or so of the soil.

Spring and Fall Feeders
Grubs are the larval (or worm) state of many types of beetles. The beetles lay their eggs in your lawn, and the newly hatched worms work their way through the thatch and into the soil, where they feed on roots of grass plants. Most beetles lay their eggs in mid to late summer, and the young grubs do their greatest damage during the fall months.

As the weather cools, most grubs burrow deeper into the soil for the winter. They then return to the surface to feed again as the soil warms in the spring. After this spring feeding, the grubs pupate into adult beetles and begin the cycle again.

Don’t Wait
Grubs don’t disappear on their own. They should be treated before damage begins to appear, or as soon as they’re discovered. When discovered early enough in the year, a preventive treatment can be applied. When damage appears in the fall, a fast-acting curative treatment is needed. Call with any questions.

Aeration and Overseeding

Power core aeration is one of the most important cultural practices available for your lawn. Aeration helps control thatch, improves the soil structure, helps create growth pockets for new roots, and opens the way for water and fertilizer to reach the root zone of your lawn.

Annual or semi-annual aeration is advised for all lawns on heavy clay soils, those with a thatch buildup, and any lawn that needs to be “thickened up.”

How Aeration Works
Aeration removes thousands of small cores of soil 1” to 3” in length from your lawn. These cores “melt” back into the lawn after a few rainfalls, mixing with whatever thatch exists on your lawn. The holes created by aeration catch fertilizer and water. Turf roots naturally grow toward these growth pockets and thicken in the process. Aeration holes also relieve pressure from compacted soils, letting oxygen and water move more freely into the root zone.

Regular Aeration Can Help Avoid Costly Lawn Renovation
Thatch on your lawn works like a thatched roof. This layer of roots, stems and other plant parts sheds water and prevents fertilizers and insect controls from moving freely into the soil. Thatch that is too heavy can make major lawn renovation necessary. Regular aeration helps thatch break down naturally by mixing the soil cores into the thatch and speeding up decomposition. Performed once or twice per year, aeration significantly reduces thatch and improves turf growth.

After-Seeding Care

Now that your lawn has been seeded, you may be wondering what you can do to help the new grass along. The first step is to provide water, and plenty of it!

With new seed, you should use light, frequent watering (at least once a day). You should water enough to keep the top 1” to 2” of soil continuously moist. If seedbeds are allowed to dry out, germination can be reduced considerably.

Keep up the frequent watering even after you see the first grass. If your seed mixture contained several kinds of grasses, you may be seeing the first kind. The other grasses will continue to germinate for three to four more weeks. Plus, young grass seedlings without many roots still need your help with water.

• Other than watering, here are some important points to keep in mind:

• Weed controls should be avoided until the lawn has been mowed three to five times.
• Mowing at normal height (removing no more than ⅓ of the grass blade at a time) will help the new grass to fill in.
• Regular fertilization with a balanced starter fertilizer is a great way to give young grass plants an extra boost.

Enjoy your new turf, and if you have any questions about caring for your newly seeded lawn, please give us a call.

Drought Damage

Are your lawn and landscape plants showing the ill effects of dry weather? Often, damage continues to show up for a number of years after a drought. To prevent more trouble, water when rainfall is scarce — and don’t wait!

A plant’s root system sustains the plant with the moisture and nutrients it takes in from the soil. For trees and shrubs, as for grass, most roots lie in the top few inches of soil. This means that when it doesn’t rain, the root zone dries out fast unless you water. When roots are water-stressed, they shrivel and die, causing plants to suffer.

Even if you start watering at the first signs of trouble, such as leaf wilt or tip browning, chances are that damage has already begun occurring to plant root systems. That’s why it’s best to water before plants “tell” you they need help.

When moisture does return, plants go into a recovery mode. Lawns will need lots of water as grass plants that survived the drought spread to fill in bare areas left by the crown death of some plants. In addition, some lawns will need overseeding or even total renovation if damage is too severe.

For Larger plants that have been without water, the diminished root system may not be able to meet all the health and moisture needs of the whole plant. New shoots and twigs may not be sent out for years, until the root system is once again capable of both taking care of current needs and sending out new growth. Some stressed plants will eventually lose the fight to stay alive, falling prey not only to the lingering effects of drought but to insects or diseases that invade stressed plants.

Protect your precious plants. Water!

Lawn Disease

Of all lawn-damaging pests, fungus diseases are some of the most difficult to tame. There are hundreds of diseases that can infect your turf. Some are relatively harmless, while others can destroy an entire lawn in a very short time.

Disease Travels by Foot, Water & Air
Fungus spores spread on the wheels of lawn mowers, on the shoes of children, on the droplets of water that bounce from plant to plant during rainfall or watering, or by wind. Every lawn has disease organisms. The trick is not letting them get the upper hand.

Prevention is the Best Cure
To reduce disease, keep your lawn healthy and growing with proper feeding, mowing, watering and thatch control measures. Some grass types are much less susceptible to fungus attack. Consider planting disease-resistant varieties when you seed.

With Treatment, Control is the Goal
Disease treatments do not usually eliminate the disease from lawns. Instead, they suppress activity for a period of a few days to several weeks. The goal is to keep the disease in check long enough for your grass to recover or the weather conditions change. Often, several treatments are needed.

Lime: A Lawn Value

Lime “sweetens” your soil. In areas where soil is naturally “sour” (acid), lime is extremely important for growing healthy turf. Lime helps to improve lawn color and density, helps to control thatch, and increases root development.

Our lime application helps to keep the chemistry of your soil in balance so that you can have, and enjoy, a thicker, greener, healthier lawn.

Lime Affects Color, Thatch and Root Development
When your soil pH is too low (acid), it needs lime to bring it back into balance. Soil that is too acid causes “fertilizer lock-up.” This means that fertilizer and important micronutrients become locked up in the soil and are unavailable to the grass plants.

Lock-up may result in grass becoming thin and yellow, thatch building up faster, and root growth slowing down.

A lawn in this condition is called “unthrifty,” because even when properly fertilized, it can’t make use of the plant food applied to become thick and stay green.

We suggest annual liming for acid soils. It helps everything else we do work even better. That’s what makes lime such a great lawn value for you.

Managing Thatch

Every lawn has some thatch. It is when a lawn has too much thatch that problems occur. Thatch is the layer of living and dead organic material that lies on top of the soil. It is made up of surface roots, stems and crowns of grass plants. Studies have shown that grass clippings left on the lawn do not increase thatch. When thatch accumulates to over ½”, it often becomes a home to various types of insects and fungus spores that can damage or kill your lawn. Thatch also prevents water, fertilizer and air from reaching the soil and grass roots. This can cause the death of grass plants and serious thinning of the lawn.

Solving thatch problems. The best cure for thatch is to prevent buildup in the first place. The best way to do this is through regular aeration of the lawn. Aeration breaks up the thatch layer and mixes soil with it to speed up natural decomposition. Annual aeration helps keep thatch within acceptable limits.

If a lawn is seriously damaged or has a thick layer of thatch, the best remedy is usually to slice-seed the lawn, which cuts open the thatch, mixes soil with it and plants seed directly into the soil beneath it. Another solution is dethatching with a power dethatcher, which uses angled blades to pull the thatch up. After dethatching, the loosened thatch needs to be raked or vacuumed and removed.

Thatch can cause serious problems if allowed to accumulate too long. Regular, professional thatch management is strongly recommended.

Nutsedge

If a bright, yellow-green, grass-like weed is detracting from your lawn’s beauty, there’s a good chance that you’re in a battle with nutsedge. Also known as nut grass or water grass, this vigorous weed produces wide triangular stalks in threes from a center point at ground level.

Nutsedge is a perennial weed that is hard to get rid of, mainly because it reproduces itself from tubers beneath the soil. These tubers can survive even the coldest of winters. Nutsedge grows quickly in a low, wet soil. Left unchecked, it will grow as tall as 2’ in height.

Getting rid of nutsedge fast — when the plants first appear during the summer but before new tubers form — is very important for long-term control. Chemical controls work by traveling through the plant and eliminating existing tubers. It’s usually necessary to treat more than once per season, and watering and mowing should be avoided for a few days before and after treatment.

Good cultural practices, like avoiding overwatering, can also help to discourage nutsedge growth in your lawn. Since this troublesome weed doesn’t grow well in shade, mowing higher to keep the soil shaded is recommended. It’s best to mow often enough so that no more than ⅓ of the grass blade needs to be removed at a time.

Give us a call anytime to learn more about nutsedge and how we can help.

Root Feeding

Your trees and shrubs are a growing investment that should increase in beauty and value with each passing season. But landscape plants often fail to flourish, and may even go into decline, due to lack of proper nourishment. Proper feeding of your ornamentals offers many benefits, including improved flowering, increased resistance to disease, and increased ability to ward off insect attacks. Root feeding injects the proper plant foods directly into the root zone of the plants, which allows the fertilizer to be easily absorbed and quickly put to work.

Feeding helps compensate for poor soil or less-than-ideal planting locations. Over time, poorly located plants may gradually “decline” if not given proper care.

Feeding your trees and shrubs at least once per season is good preventive maintenance. The right diet helps to prevent many types of stress that weaken plants. When your trees and shrubs are in top health and growing well, they’re often strong enough to fight off many infectious diseases or insect attacks without suffering serious or permanent damage.

Balanced root feeding, scheduled on a regular basis, helps to improve and protect your growing landscape investment.

Shady Areas

While trees are a beautiful and valuable part of any landscape, they do compete with our lawns for sunlight, moisture and nutrients. Lawns grow best when they get four to six hours of full sunlight per day. If heavy shade under trees is causing problems for parts of your lawn, it might make sense to consider some turf alternatives in those areas.

Ground covers or ornamental beds work well under many trees when foot traffic isn’t a concern. Plus, they look great and are easy to maintain. In cases where foot traffic is heavy, rock beds, stone pavers and even mulch beds can work instead.

Of course, there are still going to be areas on your property where turf is forced to grow in shady conditions, and there are steps that can be taken to help it along.

• Regular fertilization combined with proper mowing and watering will give your turf a stronger foundation for growing under trees.
• Selective pruning and thinning of tree limbs will allow better penetration of sunlight and air to the turf below.
• Minimizing foot traffic in shady areas of your lawn will make it easier for turf to tolerate decreased sunlight.
• Overseeding of shady areas is a great way to improve turf density.
• You may want to consider reseeding with other turf cultivars that are developed especially for shady conditions.

Feel free to give us a call for more information.

Slice Seeding

When lawn renovation is needed, slice seeding can often solve the problem quickly, easily, and with little mess or bother. Our system slices through the sod and plants new seed directly into the soil, eliminating the need to strip the existing sod, till the yard, or provide a straw cover.

Late summer is the time to decide what, if any, seeding work your lawn will need this year. Careful advance planning and follow-up can make the difference between seeding success and failure. A very effective seeding system uses a slice-seeder to cut through the thatch and create furrows in the soil. Tubes drop seed into the furrows for great seed-to-soil contact and improved germination.

When Is Slice Seeding Needed?
When thatch builds up to over ½”, it begins to interfere with the healthy growth of your lawn. A thin, sickly lawn is often the result. Older or neglected lawns may become infested with many varieties of unwanted grass that should be removed or replaced. Serious disease or insect damage can also thin a lawn so badly that renovation is the only answer. Lawns that were planted with grasses which require a lot of water may need to be converted to more drought-tolerant types. For all of the cases above, slice seeding is one of your best and most economical solutions.

How Slice Seeding Works
A slice seeder is made up of three basic parts a) slicing knives that cut through the thatch and into the soil, creating furrows and mixing soil with the thatch; b) seed tubes that place the seed into the prepared furrows; and c) disks or rollers that close the soil over the seed.

Slice seeding provides proper seed-to-soil contact and results in much better germination and growth rates that seed that is broadcast or spread by hand. Give us a call if you’d like more information on our lawn renewal programs and services.

Tick Control

Two of the more worrisome ticks found in North America are the American dog tick and the deer tick.

The American dog tick feeds on a variety of warm blooded animals, including dogs and humans. It has been known to transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever and other diseases from animals to people, and can even cause paralysis in children.

The deer tick is much smaller than the American dog tick (slightly larger than a pinhead), and is responsible for the spread of Lyme disease among humans.

Lyme disease can be carried by mice, dogs, cats, raccoons and squirrels. Deer ticks pick the disease up from these carriers and transmit it to people with their bites. Research shows that most bites occur in people’s own lawns.

Symptoms of Lyme disease include a bullseye-shaped rash, headaches, fever, chills, nausea, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and swollen glands. In later stages of the disease, arthritis, nerve or heart disorders, meningitis, encephalitis and facial paralysis can occur.

Properties located next to heavily wooded areas, and those with an abundance of trees and shrubs in the landscape, are especially prone to tick infestation. We can help to keep ticks out of your yard with pesticide treatments, paying special attention to your lawn and any shrubbery.

We’ll be happy to provide an inspection of your property to determine the best strategy for keeping ticks out of your yard. For more information on tick control or to schedule preventative treatments customized to your needs, call today.