Winter Preparations for Lawns and Gardens

Going into the winter, your lawn should be cut relatively short (about 2" - 2.5").  This is the only time you will be excused from not cutting the grass at least 3" in height!  Also, it's a great idea to have at least a couple of fertilizer applications on the lawn to allow nutrients to be stored in the roots for use early in the next season.  Leaves should be raked up so they don't smother the lawn over winter and so there is not a breeding ground for mold and fungus activity which can cause damage to the grass. 

Have a look at your gardens before the snow flies to see what newly planted evergreen shrubs you have.  It is a good idea to protect those new evergreens so that they are not subject to the severity of the winter winds that really dry out the needles.  Also, water all your evergreens well so they have enough moisture in their system to handle the drying winter winds. 

Hopefully you have planted any bulbs like Daffodils or Crocus that you want to see bloom in Spring.  If planting bulbs is still on your to-do list, it's not too late, but hurry! 

Perennials in your gardens can be cut down in either the Fall or the Spring.  Some perennials such as Sedum have a lovely seedhead on them that is a beautiful accent in the winter with a light dusting of snow on it.  Believe it or not, beauty can still be found in gardens even in winter!  If you are cutting your perennials back for winter, cut them down to within about an inch of the ground which will leave lots of space for new growth in the Spring.   

Good luck with all your fall clean up chores and don't forget that if you run out of either time or desire to finish your fall clean up "to-do's" you can always give us a call at 849-4124 .  We're here to help! 

  SURE SIGNS OF SUMMER! 

As Spring approaches its transition into Summer, we once again enjoy the sights of trees in full leaf, the sounds of green grass being mowed, the feel of warmer temperatures on our skin and the unending vision of DANDELIONS! 

I think this year since the bright yellow orb in the sky has been significantly absent most of the Spring, the sunny yellow dandelion faces have felt the need to overcompensate with their abundance of numbers on lawns, roadsides and in gardens! Perhaps it was the appealing agronomic conditions of moisture rich soil last fall combined with a sufficient snowfall to protect the seeds that has allowed their numbers to seemingly increase exponentially this year.  Nonetheless, for lawns we have treated with our OrganiCare program over a number of successive years, the dandelion population explosion has not been particularly explosive at all – more like just a rumble!   

Although in many eyes dandelions are an eyesore, they are not necessarily one of the most invasive or destructive weeds in existence in lawns.  Usually one taproot can produce up to 10 stems, so the removal of each plant can significantly reduce the amount of yellow bloom on your lawn.  Also, dandelions are one of the easiest weeds to remove manually from the lawn, even without the aid of an herbicide.  A large number of dandelion pulling tools exist in stores, most of which do not even require the homeowner to have to bend down when extracting the weed.  The dandelion pullers are quite effective at grasping onto the taproot and pulling all of it out of the ground.  The most effective timeframe to extract the dandelion is before the yellow flower goes to seed and blows away since the dandelion is reproduced from seed only.   

The most prolific times of the season when dandelions are at their height of growth and

visual prominence is in the May/June timeframe and again in the September time.  Seeds which blew away in the spring and successfully germinated are those which appear in the Fall.   Alternatively, those seeds which successfully germinate from the Fall crop of dandelions appear in the Spring. 

Our OrganiCare program does help in the control of the dandelion population both with our control spray as well as manual help from our customers, but I’m afraid the dandelion will always be a part of the seasonal landscape since the seeds can blow from quite a distance away and stealthily acquire a home on your lawn.  With the upkeep of our regular fertilization program, the lawn is generally healthy enough and dense enough to limit the number of dandelion seeds which can successfully germinate.  Fertilizing the lawn is one of the most effective ways to aid in dandelion control (before it goes out of control!) since a healthy lawn is usually quite successful in outcompeting most other plant species. 

If you have any further questions about dandelions, or other turf related issues, please feel free to talk to your lawn care technician or call the office (849-4124).  We’re here to help!

Grubs used to be something that was thought of as an issue for the United States or central Canada to have to deal with, but it is quickly becoming an issue for all of us in the greater Saint John area too! 

The term "grub" is used to identify any number of ugly worm-like creatures that live in the upper layers of soil just underneath the grass.  They are the product of any variety of mating mosquitoes, beetles or moths with the more prevalent ones being from the European Cranefly, European Chafer, or moths of the sod webworm or cutworm.   Damage becomes noticeable as areas of the lawn appear to be dry and yellow, but surrounding areas are green.  These damaged areas tend to grow in size fairly rapidly and may have crows or skunks digging to get the yummy morsels. 

The differentiating factor of these insects versus the chinch bug are that the grubs feeding times tends to be in the Spring or late summer / fall timeframe, whereas the chinch bug becomes active in feeding with the rise in temperature of late June through early September.  Also, the damaged lawn from grubs may lift off the soil quite easily whereas the chinch bug damage is not easily lifted.   

Control of grubs is not part of our Organicare program, but it can be dealt with once we obtain a government issued permit for each individual case.  Once a permit is issued, a wide swath of lawn surrounding the damaged area would be sprayed to try to ensure the control of the feeding population.  A larger area of the property would be sprayed than if the issue was chinch bugs because unlike chinch bugs which are surface feeders, grubs are subsurface insects and as such it is very difficult to detect their whereabouts.  It would be helpful to have the same type of X-ray vision that the crows and skunks seem to have when it comes to controlling these pesky grubs! 

So, as we progress through the Spring feeding time of the newly annointed "grub season" let us know if you see any issues that could be grub related and we'll have one of our trained technicians take a look.  Here's hoping your property remains grub free!