Tag Archives: Lawn Care

Spring Feeding: Yes or No?

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“Do my trees and shrubs really need to be fertilized?” We hear this question time and time again from our customers, and the answer is a resounding “yes!”

Construction activities when homes are built lead to soil that is heavily compacted, poorly aerated and poorly drained – not the best conditions for tree and shrub growth. Consider too that in their natural forest habitat, trees and shrubs have a constant supply of nutrientsimages-75 from decomposing layers of leaves and other organic matter on the forest floor. But in our lawns and landscapes, we regularly rake away leaves and other organic matter before it has a chance to decompose.

What Fertilizer Does

Fertilizer ensures that your trees and shrubs have the essential nutrients they need for healthy growth: nitro- gen, phosphorus and potassium. When they’re fertilized regularly, your trees and shrubs will exhibit deeper color, denser growth and better blooming. Plus, they’ll have an improved ability to fight off insects and disease. Fertilization also helps roots to branch out and grow in size, making it easier for your trees and shrubs to survive drought and other stresses.

What if They’re Not Fertilized?

Without fertilization, your trees and shrubs won’t be able to reach their true potential. And over time, they may begin to show signs of nutrient deficiency, including:

• Poor leaf color

• Reduced leaf size

• Premature fall coloration and leaf drop

• Reduced twig and branch growth

• An overall reduction in tree growth and vigor

By having your trees and shrubs fertilized regularly, you’ll be rewarded with healthier, more beautiful trees and shrubs that you can enjoy for many years to come.

Can Your Lawn Take the Heat?

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Summer will be here soon, and it can be brutal on your lawn. But summer hardiness can be improved this year and in the years ahead. Here are some things to think about throughout the rest of the growing season:

Mowing: As temperatures increase, you should gradually raise your mowing height by 25% to 50%. Also, you should remove no more than 1⁄3 of the grass blade at a time. This will keep the soil shaded and encourage deeper roots. When summer heat starts to subside, you can gradually lower the mowing height again.

Watering: Water your lawn deeply and infrequently, since light, frequent waterings encourage shallow roots that can’t sustain grass plants. Your lawn needs from 1″ to 1.5″ lawn-hostasof water per week from rainfall or sprinkling, and you should soak the soil to a depth of 6″ each time. Early morning is the best time to water.

Core Aeration and Fertilization in the Fall: Core aeration opens up the soil, breaks
 up thatch and improves the flow of air, water and nutrients to the roots. By having your lawn fertilized after aeration, your turf will be less susceptible to disease while exhibiting improved recovery from the stresses of summer heat and drought. Fall fertilization will also lead to fewer summer weed problems and better fall-to-spring color.

Plant Health Care

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The most common reason homeowners and business mangers call in a tree or lawn expert is because they are concerned something is wrong with their plants. Tree decline, insects,  power rakedisease attack and the weather often works against us. Sometimes a simple solution is available. For others, a more complex program is needed. Sometimes, when a problem has gone on too long, the plants may be lost.

These types of situations led to the development of Plant Health Care programs. Basically, PHC programs are designed to maintain or improve the health of your plants using the most cost-effective and environmentally sensitive practices and treatments available. They operate by monitoring your landscape. This may be as simple as an annual walk-through or as involved as monthly visits. It depends on the complexity and diversity of your landscape. Often monitoring is done in conjunction with your tree care and lawn care programs; while regular preventive and curative applications are being made, other aspects of your property are checked for healthy growth.

When problems beyond the scope of your regular programs arise, your professional will devise solutions and work with you to implement them.

The main point is to work with professionals who are trained and interested in helping keep your property in top condition- people who know how to spot and identify problems or potential problems and how to communicate effectively with you, the owner. Here at Emil Yedowitz Landscaping, we are devoted to finding the best plan for helping you to maintain a healthy landscape.

Early- Spring Essentials: Get a Jump on the Season Ahead!

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Welcome back! We’ve had a tough winter these past few months with all of the snowstorms, but birds are starting to chirp each morning… what does this mean? Spring is almost here! As temperatures rise and the snow melts away, it is time to prepare for the season ahead! The harsh weather has taken quite a toll on our plants, lawn and trees and its important to keep these simple spring essentials in mind as the season approaches!

Pruning: Many structural problems in ornamentals can be corrected right away before images-134plants begin to leaf out, with corrective pruning. Any winter-damaged wood can be pruned away. Very heavy wood can be removed, improving air circulation and plant shape. Overlapping and rubbing branches should be dealt with in order to eliminate this area as a possible site for insects and disease to invade the plants.

Clean Up: Leaves and debris should be blown or raked and removed from lawn areas, as well as shrub and flower beds.

Mulching: A spring application of mulch will help to prevent weeds, conserve moisture in the soil and keep soil temperatures cooler as the weather heats up. By including pre-Unknown-14emergent under the mulch it will help to control weeds throughout the season. Mulching should be a uniform thickness on the planting beds, and be sure to avoid piling mulch especially deep, or “coning” around the trunks of trees.

By just arranging for these three things, you’ll have made a great start to a better looking property!

The “Must-do’s” of Fall

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       It’s about that time where all those beautiful leaves are resting on your lawn. Should you leave them there? No! It is important that leaves are raked up from your lawn in order to keep it healthy. If you do not, it is possible that mold can grow under those leaves, similar to snow mold. This mold will suffocate and damage your turf. Sure signs of mold are white or grey spots growing throughout your lawn. In addition, thick layers of leaves can also prohibit the growth of your lawn by suffocating it and depriving it of the necessary sunlight needed for growth.

       How else should you prepare your lawn for the current and upcoming weather you ask? Try taking some of these tips:

  • Wondering what to do with those leaves after raking them from your lawn? Consider working them into your garden soil or adding them to your compost pile!
  •  If rainfall is scarce, remember that your lawn will benefit from extra watering this fall. 1″ to 1 1⁄2 ” per week will be very helpful.
  • It’s a good idea to add a layer of mulch to your landscape plantings after the first hard freeze. This will help to keep the soil temperature more consistent through winter for extended root growth.

    Lawn Mold

  • Keep that mower handy! Mowing should continue until your grass has stopped growing for the season.
  • If you have a water garden, you can keep leaves out of it this fall by covering it with netting.

 

Just by following these few steps your lawn will be sure to thank you with another year of green, lush grass!

A Great Start for New Grass

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Whether you’ve had your lawn overseeded, or have opted for a more extensive lawn renovation, proper care after planting is critical to giving your grass the best chances for success. Your newly seeded lawn will benefit from the following this fall:

  • Enough water to keep the top inch of soil moist at all times. Light watering once a day is recommended. Once seedlings appear, you’ll need to keep watering, but not as often (once or twice a week should do the trick).
  • Limited foot traffic. Try to avoid walking on newly seeded areas until the new grass has been established.
  • A balanced starter fertilizer should be applied up to six weeks after the seeding.
  • Mowing at a normal height (removing no more than 1/3 of the grass blade at a time) once the new grass is 4” tall.

With a little tender loving care, you’ll be enjoying your beautiful new turf in no time!

“Is Dinner Ready Yet?”

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You Can’t Blame your Lawn, Trees and Shrubs for Asking!

It’s hard to overstate how important it is to fertilize your lawn, trees and shrubs, especially during the fall. Most of the plants in your landscape will soon be shifting into dormancy, with top growth slowing down or stopping altogether. Underground, however, they’ll still be very active.

In order to prepare for new growth in the spring, your lawn, trees and shrubs must build new roots and fatten them up with nutrients. You can improve this process by making sure they get a heavy dose of fertilizer in the fall. The stronger and healthier the roots become as a result of proper fall fertilization, the better growth you can expect next year.

Some of the benefits you can expect from fall lawn fertilization include:

  • Grass blades that stay greener and roots that grow later into the season.
  • Better recovery from the stresses of summer heat and drought.
  • Increased ability to hold water, which helps grass plants withstand the drying and browning effects of winter winds.
  • Improves resistance to some cool-weather fungus diseases due to better overall plant health.
  • Thicker green-up in the spring.

By having your trees and shrubs fertilized this fall, you can expect:

  • Improved flowering.
  • Stronger resistance to insects and disease.
  • Better winter color in evergreens.
  • Healthier, denser foliage.
  • An increase in root mass and root branching.

Remember, fall fertilization of your lawn, trees and shrubs will have a direct effect on the performance of your plants throughout next year’s growing season. It’s an essential part of protecting and improving your valuable landscape investment.

Grass Clippings Are Too Valuable to Toss Out

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It can be tempting to bag and dispose of grass clippings, especially if it’s been a long time since your lawn was last mowed. After all, clumps of cut grass sitting on your lawn are unattractive, and they can smother the grass underneath if they aren’t removed.

Mowing more often, on the other hand, creates a free source of nutrients that can and should be left behind to decompose in your lawn. The trick is to follow the “1/3 Rule,” mowing often enough so that no more than 1/3 of the grass blade is removed with each cutting. It’s also important to mow only when the grass is dry, and to use a sharp mower blade.

The clippings left behind will fall down between the blades left standing, returning valuable nutrients to the soil as they decompose. This practice is known as “grasscycling,” and it can provide your lawn with up to 15% of the nutrients it needs for healthy growth.

Not only is grasscycling a great way to improve your lawn’s fertility, but it helps to reduce the amount of yard waste sent to landfills as well.  Grasscycling is becoming much more common, and that’s a good thing considering that one lawn can generate roughly 300 pounds of clippings per 1,000 square feet each year. Imagine what would happen to our landfills if nobody bothered to grasscycle!

Grasscycling also cuts down on the time it takes to mow, since bagging and disposal of clippings are eliminated. In the long run, this beneficial practice leads to a healthier, greener lawn that requires less fertilizer and effort to maintain.

 

Taking Care of What’s Under Your Lawn

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Thatch buildup can be harmful to your lawn!

The thatch layer is a normal part of any lawn. It consists of both living and dead organic materials, including the surface roots, stems and crowns of dead grass plants. Located on top of the soil and underneath your grass plants, thatch can become a problem if too much is allowed to accumulate.

When the thatch layer gets to be more than ½” thick, it can prevent air, water and nutrients from reaching you lawn’s root system. Plus, it can become a home for various types of insects and fungus diseases that can damage and even kill your turf.

Taking Control of Thatch

One of the bet ways to prevent excessive thatch buildup is to have your lawn aerated. During aeration, plugs of soil and thatch are pulled up from your lawn and left behind to dissolve through rainfall or sprinkling. As the plugs dissolve, they help to speed up the natural decomposition of the thatch layer. Aeration also opens up pathways that help air, water and nutrients travel more easily to the roots. Performed annually, aeration will help to keep thatch within acceptable limits while strengthening the root system.

When Aeration Isn’t Enough

If a lawn is very damaged or has an excessively thick layer of thatch, one remedy is to slice seed. With this process, a slice-seeding machine cuts open the thatch, mixes soil with it and plants seed directly into the soil beneath. Another solution is to have the lawn

Slice Seeding

dethatched with a power dethatcher. This equipment uses angled blades to pull thatch up out of the lawn. After dethatching, the loosened thatch must be raked up and removed.

Remember, in moderation, thatch is a normal and healthy part of any growing lawn. Annual core aeration, along with slice seeding or dethatching if necessary, will go a long way towards keeping thatch under control.

 

June Update

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What a spring so far…we started off with 70+ degree-days in March and it was cool and wet for most of May. Mother nature certainly is challenging us this year.

LAWN UPDATE

There may be a Fungus Among-us….

Not sure if you are seeing it, but I am. There is Red thread and Dollar spot fungus all over the lawns this year. If you see a browned out area on your green grass, it certainly could be an indication that a fungus is brewing. Look a little closer now.

Dollar Spots- circular, sunken patches measuring several inches. The patches turn from a brown shade to straw in color, they may also have small lesions on the grass blades.

Red Thread- patches that are reddish-brown in color from 1” to 2’ in diameter. When areas of grass experience more than 10 hours a day of foliar wetness (for several consecutive days) this fungus could occur.

What do you do to eradicate a fungus? Well…keep the lawn well fed. You can rake out any of the infected turf areas and throw away the debris. And heck, if you don’t want to do that…. give us a call. We can apply a liquid fungicide to your grass to help stop the infection in its’ tracks.

Fertilizers

For all of you “do it yourself-ers”…. it is time! That is, time to fertilize your lawn again.  Remember the goal is 4-5 pounds of Nitrogen per one thousand square feet, per growing season, or about 1 pound per feeding (5 times per year). So, when you see a bag of fertilizer with 3 numbers such as 20-5-20…the first number represents Nitrogen and indicates that 20% of the product is Nitrogen. If you took 100 and divided it by the first number (100/20) the result if 5, meaning you need 5 pounds of the product per 1,000 square feet of lawn area. Therefore, if your lawn measured out 12,000 sq.ft, you would need 60 pounds of fertilizer (5 pounds x 12 = 60 pounds)

It is extremely important that you calibrate your spreader prior to the application, this way, you know how much fertilizer you are applying…and remember more is NOT BETTER!

Weed Control

Spray the heck out of any broad leaf weeds that exist in your lawn. What are they you ask? Well they could be: Clover, Dandelion, Chickweed, plantain, etc…. you have about 4 weeks of cool enough weather to treat the weeds…. spray away!

IRRIGATION

If you have an irrigation system, please be mindful of the amount of water your lawn is getting from the rain. On Monday June 4th, we had temps of 59 degrees during the day and a lot of rain. What does that mean? POWER OFF YOUR SPRINKLERS if it’s raining like it is. You do not and you should not be watering everyday if it is raining daily.

So how much water is enough? At my house, I have watered once per week for the last 3 weeks, because we have had that much water. In fact, I shut off my drip irrigation in my lawn beds because all of my plant material has been adequately watered. Now, if the temperature during the day goes back to 90 degrees for 3 days in a row…I’ll be watering (and you should too)

Come July that irrigation system will be running daily…and it should be.

If you are manually watering, make sure your hoses and sprinkler heads are all ready for the upcoming summer months. You’ll need to start watering daily in a few more weeks.

PRUNING

If your landscape is anything like mine (and I think it is…) I bet your shrubs have been growing like weeds. The hemlocks and taxus (yews) have displayed a great flush of growth already this year. But they are still growing.

If you can tolerate the appearance of the new growth on the shrubs…let it grow! I believe that the plant material will continue to grow for the next couple of weeks…. and then you’ll be ready to prune them (in July).

In addition to “growing shrubs” are the growing weeds…the abundance of wet weather has led to a copious amount of weeds. Don’t let them get out of control…. keep up with their removal. And when in doubt…MULCH! Mulch is your friend. A bed with a good layer of mulch is a happy bed!

SEASONAL COLOR

You are safe…safe to plant the ole’ annuals in the ground. And take some chances by trying new plants. Have you seen Zinnia’s bloom? How about Heliotrope? Or Lantana?  The industry has done a great job creating new hybrids that are resistant to the many problems of the past. And do “super-charge” them…. incorporate a slow release fertilizer in the planting bed, as well as an organic fertilizer. You’ll be very happy with the results.

Not only is it OK to plant annuals, but you are good to go with the veggies…try some container plantings to supplement your raised gardens. Herbs grow well in planters, as do patio tomatoes. Take a bag of potting soil, make a slit or two, and plant a couple of cucumbers in the bag. It’s fun!