A lush green lawn provides more than beauty; it also filters dust and smoke from the air. It can even help prevent disease.
Lawn Care Cape Girardeau requires regular mowing to the grass type’s preferred height, aeration and targeted treatments for pests that can damage the turf. It also requires soil testing and proper watering practices.
A lush, healthy lawn is a good environmental steward, absorbing rainfall four to six times more effectively than sandy soils and reducing the pollution caused by wind erosion. It is also a visual asset that adds to the beauty and value of your property.
Regular lawn care treatment prevents the development of weeds, crabgrass and other undesirable grasses that compete with your turf for nutrients, water and sunlight. Weed control is a critical component of the lawn care process, as well as overseeding and aeration, all of which are essential to a beautiful landscape.
The right mower blades ensure that your lawn is not only aesthetically pleasing, but that your mower cuts the grass cleanly without tearing or damaging it. Also, using electric lawn mowers instead of gas-powered equipment reduces noise pollution and toxic emissions.
It is important to use a mowing schedule that is appropriate for your lawn’s growth rate, soil conditions and season. If you follow an arbitrary mowing schedule, you may end up with a patchy or unhealthy lawn.
When you mow your lawn, it’s also important to vary the direction you mow. Sticking with one direction can cause rutting and degrade the soil surface. In addition, alternating mowing directions encourages healthy root structure.
Lawn maintenance professionals understand the relationship between lawn health, soil quality and the overall turf ecosystem. They regularly test the soil to determine its nutrient levels, pH level and other properties that affect how your grass grows. They address problems such as soil compaction, drainage issues and fungus/disease management.
The primary benefits of lawn care include a green, healthy yard that provides a great place for family activities and socializing with friends. Lawn care services can also improve the aesthetic of your outdoor space and add curb appeal to your home, which is especially important when your lawn is on display during the warm, sunny summer days of Tri-Cities and Yakima.
Fertilizing
The best lawns have high-quality, well-applied fertilizer that provides critical nutrients to turf grass. These help it resist environmental pressures like weeds or insects, and they also promote dense, healthy grass. Lawn care professionals can use either liquid or granular (dry) fertilizer. To date, university research has not found major agronomic differences between the two.
Soil testing is essential for determining nutrient needs and how best to amend soil. Organic material such as compost, manure and shredded leaves can add important micronutrients to the soil. However, it can take a long time to incorporate these materials into the soil after they are applied. Adding organic matter is usually done before turf grass is established to better prepare the soil for growth.
Lawn care tasks continue throughout the year. Eric Halfman, a go-to-market manager at John Deere in South Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, recommends a general schedule that includes aerating and fertilizing the yard in the fall, overseeding bare spots in spring, watering deeply less often, mowing at least once every other week and regularly monitoring for pests and disease.
Aeration is the process of creating small openings in the soil to reduce compacted soil conditions. This improves the movement of air, water and nutrients within the soil, which is especially helpful in our clay-based North Texas soils. Aeration is a critical step in maintaining a thick, healthy lawn and helps reduce the need for watering because soil can uptake water more easily.
Organic or natural fertilizers are more environmentally friendly than synthetic fertilizers, as they contain no chemicals that can run off into nearby water sources and cause pollution and harm to aquatic life. Using natural, organic fertilizers can also help reduce the amount of phosphorous and nitrogen that is lost to the environment from conventional chemical fertilizers.
To further protect the environment, it is best to apply fertilizer only when it is needed, rather than on a regular calendar-based schedule. This helps avoid over-fertilizing and wasting money and resources, as plants can get the nutrients they need through their roots and from the atmosphere.
Weed Control
Homeowners may spend a lot of time and money fighting weeds in their yards. Unfortunately, weed control is a complex task that requires a great deal of knowledge and training to achieve successful results. In fact, store-bought lawn care products are often ineffective and can actually cause damage to your yard’s health.
A professional weed control service uses a wide range of tools and techniques that are carefully matched to your lawn’s specific needs. This approach reduces waste and prevents harmful side effects from the use of lawn care products. Moreover, it saves you time and money by handling all aspects of your yard’s weed control needs regularly.
Weeds choke out desirable grass species and compete for essential resources such as water, light, and nutrients. These weeds also serve as hosts for many common lawn pests, making them an important issue in the overall health of your yard.
Persistent weed problems typically indicate that you have an underlying lawn health problem that must be addressed. A thorough professional weed control program should eliminate your current weeds and help prevent future weed growth.
There are two main types of weed killers used in lawn care: contact and systemic. Systemic herbicides are absorbed by the weed and move throughout the plant to kill it from the inside out. Contact herbicides attack weeds from the outside, killing them by disrupting their ability to take in nutrients from the soil.
Whether you choose systemic or contact herbicides, regular treatment of your yard will help keep weeds at bay. The most effective treatments are applied in the fall before weeds start growing again in the spring. For best results, spraying should occur on a dry day (no rain for 24 hours after application).
Some weeds such as knotweed and clover are invasive perennials that compete with desirable grass species. Others such as crabgrass and dandelions are annual weeds that spread quickly in poorly managed lawns. To manage these weeds, it is necessary to reduce soil compaction and improve turfgrass health by core aerating the lawn and adding organic matter. Improving soil drainage by adding a rain garden or grading the lawn is also helpful in managing crabgrass and dandelion populations.
Pest Control
Many lawns require a combination of cultural and chemical methods to prevent or eradicate pests. These approaches may include fertilizers, weed control, and fungicides. Managing pests can be challenging, but understanding the lifecycle of the pest and its environmental conditions is key to effective control strategies. In addition, adjusting pest management practices in response to seasonal activity is critical. For example, during warmer months, pests are more active and may require more frequent intervention, while in cooler seasons, they are less active and may need fewer treatments.
Insects are some of the most common pests to target turfgrass. While healthy, well-managed lawns using best management practices can usually tolerate a certain number of insects, high populations can lead to severe damage and stress the grass. Some insect pests, such as grubs, sod webworms, and chinch bugs, are more persistent than others, and may damage the grass roots and crowns.
To keep pests under control, regular inspection and monitoring of the lawn is essential. Look for signs of pest activity, including discolored patches of grass or bare spots and chewed or damaged plant leaves. Also, regularly pick up grass clippings, debris, and dead plants from the yard to reduce over-wintering habitats for pests and their offspring.
Depending on the severity of pest problems and your own level of knowledge and expertise, you can use pest control treatments to eliminate the pests yourself or hire a professional lawn care service. When applying pest control treatments yourself, it is important to follow the application guidelines on the product label. Be sure to water the lawn as recommended prior to treatment, as this can help the chemical penetrate the soil and be more effective.
Using integrated pest management (IPM) techniques can also help to minimize the need for pesticides. These strategies utilize cultural controls such as mowing, irrigation, and fertilization, along with physical and biological controls such as mulching and the addition of natural predators to the lawn. For example, planting flowers that produce pollen and nectar can attract beneficial insects such as lady beetles and green lacewings to the garden. These natural enemies of pests can be more effective at controlling pest populations than pesticides and are safe for pets, children, and other plants in the garden.
