List of Services
"Dethatching" lawns refer to the mechanical removal from a lawn of the layer of dead turfgrass tissue known as "thatch." This residue is bad for your grass, as it keeps water and nutrients from seeping down to grassroots. Preventing thatch buildup is not nearly as big a part of lawn care as is mowing, but you should not overlook its importance to the long-term health of your grass.
Lawn Mowing
Remember that mowing is pruning. Proper mowing increases the density of the lawn, which in turn decreases weeds. Each type of grass has a recommended mowing height. Find out which type of grass is in your lawn (you may have more than one) and mow at the proper height.
Stick to the 1/3 rule — never remove more than 1/3 of the grass blade length at any one time. A healthy lawn can survive an occasional close cut. Repeated close mowing produces a brown lawn and has several harmful side effects, including:
- Injury to the crown, where new growth generates and nutrients are stored.
- Reduction of the surface area of the blade, making the blade surface insufficient to produce food through photosynthesis.
- Increased vulnerability to pests and disease.
- An increase in the sunlight reaching weed seeds, allowing them to germinate.
- Risk of soil compaction.
Fertilizing Lawns
When and how often you should apply fertilizer to your lawn depends on the type of grass you grow. Grasses need nitrogen and other nutrients during their seasons of active growth, and they grow best with an even supply. Fertilize grasses when it’s naturally dormant, and you’re wasting fertilizer. Space your applications too far apart, and your grass grows fine for a while, then slows down, and then speeds up again with the next application. If you’re not up for the higher-maintenance lawn (that is, frequent mowing), fertilize once in spring and once in fall.
Pruning Ornamental Trees and Shrubs
Correct pruning is essential maintenance for keeping trees and shrubs healthy in the home landscape. However, the thought of pruning makes many homeowners apprehensive. But this doesn’t have to be. Pruning is not difficult if you understand the basics of why, when, and how to prune. To prune successfully, you must know:
1. Why you should prune — prune for the right reasons
2. When to prune — prune at the right time
3. How to prune — use the right techniques and tools Too often, homeowners ignore pruning for several years, which causes some trees and most shrubs to become overgrown — and often weak or even unsafe. When this happens, drastic pruning is necessary to bring the plant back to usefulness or to conform to the space. Regular pruning will help keep plants in bounds and keep their growth vigorous. You should examine trees and shrubs each year to determine whether you need to prune them.
Trim Bushes & Hedges
When trimming a shrub, the goal is to make it look like it hasn’t been trimmed. Pruning cuts should be hidden inside the plant where they will be covered by remaining leaves. Once the injured, diseased and dead branches have been removed from the shrub, work on the shape of the shrub can begin. Trim the shrub so that it will fit in with the design of the lawn. A formal landscape usually is filled with shrubs in geometric shapes, while an informal space benefits with shrubs that need less maintenance and are trimmed simply to keep them healthy and contained.
Lawn Aeration
Core aeration is a type of lawn aeration whereby a machine (a lawn aerator) with hollow tines mechanically removes plugs or "cores" of soil and thatch from a lawn. Core aeration reduces soil compaction, creating a channel through which oxygen, water, and nutrients can penetrate into the soil.
De-thatching
"Dethatching" lawns refer to the mechanical removal from a lawn of the layer of dead turfgrass tissue known as "thatch." This residue is bad for your grass, as it keeps water and nutrients from seeping down to grassroots. Preventing thatch buildup is not nearly as big a part of lawn care as is mowing, but you should not overlook its importance to the long-term health of your grass.
Planting Grass Seed (fescue) in Piedmont,N.C.
Keys To a Healthy Lawn
- Amend soil for organic matter, pH and nutrients
- Do a soil test to determine what to add
- Maintain proper water and blade height
Organic Matter
To improve soils that suffer from high compaction,
poor drainage, and erosion
- Add 3-6” and incorporate (aeration, rake, etc.)
- OM must be decomposed before the plant can use nutrients
- More economical: Less economical:
- Compost Vermiculite
- Manures Perlite
- Pine bark
- Peat moss is not recommended
Lime
Dolomitic Lime
- the mixture of calcium and magnesium carbonate
- use on soils low in magnesium
Calcitic Lime
- calcium carbonate
- use on soils high in magnesium
Gypsum is not lime
Standard recommendation for Fescue:
1 lb. of nitrogen / 1000 ft2 per application
- Use slow-release nitrogen instead of fast-release nitrogen
- soluble salts accumulate & burn plant tissue
- Fertilize the lawn, not the driveway & sidewalks
- Load your fertilizer spreader on the driveway or other hard surfaces
- Sweep up dry fertilizer spills and apply to your lawn at the right time and in the right amount
- Add liquid fertilizer to the spray tank while it is on the
lawn
Do Fertilize in:
February - .05 to 1 lb N /1000 sq. ft. September (Labor Day) – 1 lb N /1000 sq ft. November (Thanksgiving) – 1 lb N /1000 sq. ft For a total of 2.5 or 3.0 lbs N/1000sq. ft. per year DO NOT fertilize during late spring or summer because…
- Fescue can not utilize fertilizer at this time
- Nitrogen builds up in the soil
- Fertilize the lawn, not the driveway & sidewalks
- Disease organisms grow in excessively fertilized soils (Brown Patch)
- Pollutes environment fertilizing