Is your lawn ready for the Winter?

Is your lawn ready for the Winter?

When fall is just around the corner, you need to start thinking about winterizing your lawn for the coming season.

So, what does this involve, you might ask? Well, the good news is that winterizing your grass is rather a simple process that doesn’t involve a lot of money or time. However, winterization is essential if you would like to enjoy a healthy and lush lawn when spring rolls around.

The first step is to fertilize your lawn during the fall. This does your lawn a world of good because when the weather begins to cool, a lawn will respond by growing slower and moving its reserves of food and nutrients from the leaves to the roots. The roots will continue to remain active in the soil and are very receptive to winter fertilizer (which has a high potassium content). This provides additional support and strength to the roots and helps the lawn to survive the cold, winter months.

As long as you give your lawn a good fertilizing treatment in the fall, it will remain healthy as long as possible and will result in beautiful turf in the spring.

Another way in which to winterize your lawn is to aerate it during the fall. This involves using aerating shoes or a manual push aerator. Aeration will allow water and nutrients to penetrate through to the roots effectively and will precent your soil from getting too hard.

If you notice any bare or patchy spots on your lawn, now is an excellent time to reseed these areas! You will be grateful for this when spring arrives.

Finally, as the leaves begin falling, be sure to rake them away as much as possible. Grass that is covered with leaves can become smothered and can become a breeding ground for unwanted insects, fungi and other diseases that could damage the grass. Mowing over the leaves with a mulching attachment is a great idea as this minces them into tiny fragments and provides the lawn with nutrition.

Christmas lighting tips and ideas

Christmas lighting tips and ideas

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Thinking of lighting up your yard for Christmas? If this is your first time doing it, it may seem overwhelming but remember to start small and build it up from there.

There are so many ways in which to decorate your lawn with lights for the festive season. This is why a theme is very important- do you like colorful lights or do you prefer a single color? Are you interested in lighting up a Christmas tree or do you want to have lit-up Santas, reindeer and angels? As a general rule of thumb for outdoor Christmas lights, less is more so remember that you need less than you think!

Try and decorate a small area (such as an evergreen tree or your eaves) and see how you like the effect. If the effect is pleasing, you could decorate another area in the same way. Remember to measure each area before heading off to the hardware store for supplies!

Once you know how you want to decorate your property, make a list of the lights you will need to buy. Incandescent lights are the least expensive and you should be able to find a wide variety of colors and options (eg. strings of mini-lights or nets) at your local hardware store. Alternatively, you could opt for LED lights which, although more expensive, are more durable. Always remember to check your lights before hanging them as there is nothing worse than a burnt-out globe when they’ve already been hung!

When decorating, think about how it will appear to folks passing your property. They won’t see the backs of trees and objects at strange angles, so save yourself some money on electricity and decorate only what they will see.

Finally, safety is always essential when decorating your property for the festive season! Lights should only be plugged into GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlets and avoid hanging lights if you think they will touch a power line.

Happy holidays!

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Fall Lawn & Landscaping Tips

Fall Lawn & Landscaping Tips

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Fall lawn care and maintenance are all about preparation.

Do it right, and it will go a long way toward a nicer lawn in the spring!

 

Even though fall weather is cooler, you should still be mowing and watering the lawn, as needed. As fall comes to an end and you prepare for the last 2 mowings of the season, set your mower blade to the lowest setting as this allows more sunlight to reach to the top of the grass.

Additionally, another important aspect of fall lawn maintenance is aeration. Aerating your lawn allows water, fertilizer, and oxygen to reach the roots and prepares it nicely for the cooler months. This can be done by renting an aerator at your local hardware store.

While leaf raking may seem like an obvious fall activity, it is actually vital to remove as many leaves as possible from your lawn during the fall. Try your best to rake regularly so that the leaves don’t have time to trap moisture and stick together (which forms a sticky mat that is not only difficult to remove but also suffocates the underlying grass and makes it prone to fungal diseases).

Lawnmowers are great tools for removing leaves! Attach a leaf collection bag to your mower and activate the vacuum system (if you have one). Your leaves will be removed in no time and you will have completed one of the most important fall maintenance tasks for your turf!

 

Of course, if you need any help on your lawn, we’re always here to help you out!

Leaf Removal Tips

Leaf Removal Tips

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It’s Holiday Season, and also time to rake and remove leaves! 

 
Here are our top tips for removing leaves:

Before you even think of tackling your leaves, do you have a good rake and is it the right size for you? As a rule of thumb, the bigger the rake, the smaller the job. You may also want to consider purchasing a no-clog rake that doesn’t skewer leaves and prevents you from having to constantly unclog your rake.

Another incredibly handy tool for leaf removal is a leaf blower or vacuum. This is especially useful for hard-to-reach places such as flower beds and under shrubs. Many yard vacuum devices have in-built mincers which work to compact the minced leaves so that you only have to change the bag once or twice the whole season.

If your garden has a lot of trees and is on the big size, instead of placing all your leaves into bags, a better idea is to sweep them all into a large tarp and then dispose of them all at once.

Mulching mowers can also help to make leaf removal much easier in the fall. If you don’t have a mulching mower, you could raise the blade of your mower to its highest setting so that when you mow, the leaves will be broken down and will be filtered into the grass blades. This works well for medium to large-sized yards and the leftover bits of leaves will act as a beneficial mulch for your lawn.

Finally, remember that when leaves begin falling, they can trap water on your roof and in your gutters, causing it to deteriorate if left for a long period. To prevent this from happening, try and remove as many leaves as possible from your roof with a broom that has been attached to an extension pole.

 

 
If you need help with leaves or any other lawn or landscape maintenance, give us a call!