Summer Lawn Fertilization

With the often-used phrase of “timing is everything” in mind, early summer lawn fertilization is a key landscape management step.

Seeing Spots?  Could be the Lawn…

If you’re seeing spots before your eyes, it could be some sort of dizziness syndrome, or it could be that you’re looking at your lawn, and it’s got a particular fungus disease…which shows up as spots. Actually, there are several lawn maladies that show up as spots, but one in particular, especially at this time of year – Dollar Spot.

Patio Planter Care in Mid-Summer

In mid-summer, especially when a hot, dry week is predicted, (like this upcoming week), patio planters and houseplants need a little TLC. Four actions are involved:

Spring Lawn Care

Spring has sprung and cabin fever is high. Not just cabin fever; COVID-19 cabin fever. As we start venturing outside and focus attention on the lawn and landscape, here are some spring lawn care tips to keep in mind:

Rules 3 and 4 of Garden Catalog Shopping

The first two rules of shopping for landscape plants with garden catalogs are centered around needs, much like shopping for groceries. The next two focus on the landscape itself in terms of cold tolerance and disease susceptibility of certain plants.

Bark Bummers

Bark Bummers   This time of year is good and challenging for Midwesterners.  The challenging?  The weather.  Nuff said.  The good?  It’s a great time to notice potential problems in trees and shrubs in the landscape.   At this point in the season, there aren’t any leaves, fruit or flowers (except for a couple species) to…

USDA Hardiness Zones

As a gardener it is a good chance that you know what hardiness zone you live in.  You know that you need to choose perennials, trees & shrubs that are hardy to your zone or a zone colder.  You also know that plants that are in a warmer zone will not overwinter where you are….

Post Frost Weed Control

So, it frosted.  In some areas, it was a hard frost with temperatures down in the 26 degree F range, and in others, plus/minus 30 degrees.  At this point in October, the question is: Is it a good idea to apply a post emergence herbicide to the lawn, considering the recent frost?  The answer?  It…

Late Fall Fertilizer Timing

For the past 5 years or so, our recommendation has been to lightly fertilize turfgrass stands in the Halloween timeframe to bolster root growth heading into winter.  That recommendation still stands, however, due to recent extended periods of cool, wet weather, we’re encouraging that an adjustment be made for this year. Instead of strict adherence…