LawnCare.net

Making sure your lawn receives the proper nutrients is an important part of lawn care.

A key component of lawn care is providing the lawn with the nutrients it needs to grow.  Each nutrient is involved in different plant processes.  Nutrients are loosely grouped into two categories:  Macronutrients and micronutrients.  The nutrients listed under Macronutrients are almost always in lawn fertilizers.  Potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur are sometimes categorized as macronutrients, and other times as micro-nutrients.  Each has its specific function in plant growth and development.

Macronutrients

• Nitrogen
• Phosphorous
• Potassium

Micronutrients

• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Sulfur
• Iron
• Manganese
• Copper
• Zinc
• Boron

Lawn Fertilizer Analysis

Most lawn fertilizers contain the macronutrients, or what you could call “the big three:” Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K).  The fertilizer bags have their N-P-K analysis, or numbers that tell consumers how much of each nutrients is in the fertilizer, by percentage.  This can also tell you how many pounds of active ingredient are in each type of fertilizer.  For example, a 10-10-10 fertilizer has the same percentage of each ingredient.  100 lbs of the fertilizer would have 10 lbs of each active ingredient.  Here’s what each of the “big three” do for plants:

Nitrogen:  The basis of all protein and DNA.  Used mostly for growth.  Nitrogen application is said to “green up the grass” because it is incorporated into the leaf tissue.

Phosphorous:  This nutrient plays an integral part in photosynthesis, energy transfer and flower/fruit growth.  Plants without enough phosphorous do not produce many fruits, and their seeds can be deformed or not fully formed.

Potassium:  Many processes within the plant use potassium.  Sugar movement, cell division, root development and water retention all require potassium.

Micronutrients are just as Important

Even though most fertilizers contain only Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium, the micronutrients are just as important for healthy plant growth, and lawn grass will show the affects of an imbalance, or too little of any of these nutrients.

Calcium:  Plants without enough calcium have thick, woody stems and poor root development.  Lack of calcium can give the grass a yellowish hue.  The ratio of calcium to magnesium must be 7:1 for proper plant growth.

Magnesium:  Chlorophyll is partially made of magnesium, and needs this nutrient to function.  Too much Potassium in the soil can prevent magnesium from being present in the soil in a form that is available to plants.

Sulfur:  proteins have sulfur components in them.  Peppers, onions, cherries and plums need plenty of sulfur to bloom and produce good fruit set.  Many lawn grass fertilizers have a sulfur component.

Iron:  Iron uptake is affected by the amount and form of manganese.  Iron can bond tightly with soil particles.  Addition of a light layer of compost raked into the grass can re-introduce iron into lawns where it is deficient.

Manganese:  Plants require manganese to oxidize enzymes.  Acid soils (lower pH) tend to make more manganese available than alkaline (high pH) soils.

Copper:  Copper is a catalyst for specific enzymes within plants.  Many plant growth processes rely on sufficient copper.

Zinc:  Protein and starch building processes require zinc.  Too much Phosphorous in a lawn can bind up Zinc and make it unavailable to plants.

Boron:  Flowering, fruit and seed formation are affected by boron.

Identifying Specific Lawn Nutrient Needs

Before applying fertilizer to the lawn, it is always a good idea to have a soil test done.  You can pick up soil test boxes at your local cooperative extension office, along with instructions about how to collect a representative sample and prepare it for testing.  Fertilizer is expensive, and over-use of nutrients can cause pollution.  Getting a soil test will ensure that you are supplying your lawn with the right nutrients in the right amounts for healthy growth.

Not all insects that you find in your lawn and garden need to be removed. Many are actually beneficial.

These insects are worker-bees that actually help you in the garden.  Make sure that you do everything possible to keep these insects around.  You can encourage beneficial insects by eliminating broad-spectrum (that means, kills everything) insecticides from your lawn care program.  Once beneficial insects establish themselves in your lawn or garden, they can mostly take care of the destructive insects.

Ladybugs

Ladybugs are beetles, and there are hundreds of different species.  You can keep ladybugs in your garden, eliminating pests by not spraying insecticides.  Aphids are one of their favorite foods.  A healthy population of ladybugs can completely eliminate aphids as a problem in your garden.

Lacewings

The larval form of the lacewing is actually the heavy lifter when it comes to keeping your garden free of pests.  The larvae will pretty much stay put in your garden if you are lucky enough to lure them there.  The adults do fly away, but will often lay eggs before they fly.  They are most effective at controlling soft-bodied insects like mites and aphids.

Big-EyedBugs

If you don’t have a pest that these guys like to eat, they can live on pollen until a pest shows up.  They eat mites, aphids, small caterpillars and just about any other garden pest you can think of.

Parasitic Wasps

There are several species of parasitic wasps.  Most of them are uniquely adapted to only attack a specific pest, though.  If they end up in your yard, you can feel thankful, but shouldn’t go to great lengths trying to get them.  They work on pests by laying their eggs inside the host insect.  The larva hatches inside the pest and eats it alive from the inside out.

Make your garden a friendly place for beneficial insects, and you will have many fewer problems with insect damage on all of your plants.

There are few things more frustrating than weeds growing in your garden.

Lawn maintenance extends to  includes weed control in landscape beds.  Most common lawn weeds are equal opportunity attackers, when it comes to landscape beds.  Without the frequent mowing that lawns receive, weeds in landscape beds can grow, happily, developing and releasing thousands of seeds to re-populate and live another day.  If the lawn is picture-perfect, but there are weeds in all of the landscape beds around the house, driveway, sidewalk or out-buildings, the overall impression is marred.  To present the best overall picture of your lawn and landscape, make sure that you eradicate weeds in the lawn and in the landscape.

Landscape Beds Provide their Own Challenges

Landscape beds are sometimes more difficult to maintain in a weed-free condition, because they contain a wider variety of plants than the lawn.  Lawn weed killers are generally broad-leaf herbicides, which means they kill broad-leafed plants (dicots) that are not grasses (monocots).  That makes sense for ridding a lawn of weeds.  That makes weed control in landscape beds a trickier proposition, best accomplished using a multi-pronged approach.

Weed Control Procedures

Controlling weeds in landscape beds relies more on proper procedures than certain chemicals.  Chemicals tend to be largely indiscriminate, and maintaining a weed-free foundation planting requires finesse.  Here are the ways gardeners can control weeds in their landscape beds, without hurting the plants they want to keep.

• Apply organic mulch such as grass clippings, shredded bark, composted leaves, bark chips-anything that will break down and enhance the soil over time. Using organic mulch isn’t just good for the earth, it is good for you. Over time, new weed seeds accumulate on top of whatever type of mulch you use. If you use organic mulch, it will break down over time, and you can add more mulch on top of it. If you use rubber or plastic mulch, you have to eventually remove it because new soil will build up on top of it, and make it useless, in terms of weed control. The same goes for rocks. While they are natural, they are also extremely slow to break down. Unless you live somewhere arid, where rocks are part of the natural landscape, it is best to leave them out of beds.
• Use pre-emergence herbicides. Corn gluten is an organic pre emergence herbicide. There are also synthetic options available. These compounds prevent weeds from sprouting, so they won’t help you get rid of the weeds already in your flower beds, but they will help you prevent new weeds from sprouting. Usually, the best time to apply pre-emergence herbicides are in the late winter and late summer, in anticipation of the change of seasons.
• If the weed problem is very bad, and you can’t eradicate with mulch and pre-emergence herbicide, you can use post-emergence herbicide. Roundup is the brand name for the chemical glyphosate, the active ingredient in most common lawn weed killers. The herbicide should be sprayed directly onto the plants you want to eliminate, not the plants you want to keep, and only works when the temperature is above 70 degrees outside.
• If you want to steer clear of chemicals, pulling weeds before they go to seed is another good option. After a few seasons of weed control, your weed problem in landscape beds will be significantly diminished.

Remember, the landscape beds and the lawn work together to present a beautiful vision of a piece of property.  For the best “curb appeal” make sure that you control lawn weeds and landscape weeds with equal vigilance.

Organic lawn care is an enviornmentally friendly approach to lawn care.

Organic lawn care is a good start toward contributing positively toward the ecosystem in your yard.  Each year, billions of dollars are spent on chemicals and pesticides for lawn care-to keep the more than 30 million acres of turf blanketing the United States healthy.  You might be thinking, “Why would I want to take care of my lawn using organic methods?” or “Is there such a thing as organic lawn care?”  Yes!  You can and should practice organic lawn care methods! It is easier and less expensive than you might think.  The best part about it is that a lawn maintained with organic methods is much healthier in the long run.  Organically grown lawns:

• Withstand drought more easily
• Are less susceptible to pest and disease problems
• Can be enjoyed, barefoot, at all times of the year by people and pets without worry about getting sick

Transitioning your Lawn to Organic Lawn Care

Planting a new lawn using organic methods and transitioning an existing lawn to organic care are two completely different processes.  Because most people will be starting with an existing lawn (uniform turf, or a blend of different turf and weeds), we’ll explain how to transition your existing lawn.  One of the best resources for organic lawn care principles is the book The Organic Lawn Care Manual, by Paul Tukey.   Here are his twelve steps for transitioning your lawn to organic methods.

1.       Test your soil

2.       Aerate and de-thatch the lawn

3.       Survey the weeds growing in the lawn, and add soil amendments to make conditions more favorable for grass and less favorable for weeds.

4.       Top-dress the lawn with about ½ inch of fine compost at least once a year

5.       Spray with compost tea three times a year

6.       Mow the lawn to the maximum height for your grass cultivar, and do not every remove more than 1/3 of the grass blade in any single mowing.

7.       “Grasscycle” or leave grass clippings on the lawn to add nitrogen back into the lawn

8.       Water deeply and infrequently to encourage deep root growth.

9.       Overseed with the right grass seed in the spring or fall to thicken up turf

10.   Add white clover to your grass seed mix to add nitrogen to the soil

11.   Add nitrogen as needed, depending upon the results of your soil test

12.   Make sure (via soil test) that the calcium level in the soil is seven times higher than the magnesium levels, to ensure that both nutrients are available in the right form for plants to take up.

Dealing with Weeds

Any organic lawn care program must be organized to treat weeds.  As you transition your lawn to organic methods, you will need to take a three pronged approach to removing weeds and prohibiting their growth.  Good lawn care goes a long way toward preventing weed growth-proper pH, good watering and mowing practices and avoiding over-feeding of nitrogen helps.  When it comes to flat-out weed removal, there are a few techniques to learn and practice.  Here’s what you can do to remove weeds and prohibit growth of new weeds in your lawn.

1.       Dig up the big weeds.  The only way to completely remove the largest weeds from the lawn is to dig them up.  If you are truly serious about a weed-free, organically maintained lawn, you need to eradicate the big weeds with taproots, and the best and easiest way to do that is by digging.

2.       Do not let existing weeds go to seed.  Prevent weeds in the lawn from re-producing, and your battle against weeds gets easier.  You can prevent existing weeds from spreading seeds by keeping the grass mown frequently, at the proper height.

3.       Use corn gluten as a pre emergence herbicide to keep weed seeds that do make it into the lawn from sprouting.

For a comprehensive look at organic lawn care, check out Paul Tukey’s book.  These are just a few basics about organic lawn care to let you know that it can be done, and to help you transition your practices from using synthetics to organics.

A spring vegetable garden is a great addition to any backyard.

There are some vegetables that you need to plant almost before you think you should plant anything.  If you wait too late to plant these vegetables, you will not get a full season of harvest from them.  Some will not even mature before it gets too hot.  Here are five early spring vegetables that you can start, from seed or transplants, outside before the danger of frost is past.

Peas

Peas can be planted when there is snow on the ground!  Peas do best when you plant them directly into the garden as seeds.  You can start planting them up to two months before the average frost free date.  Plant seeds close together, with only 2 to 4 inches between seeds.  Climbing varieties need a trellis.  They start producing later than bush varieties, but will produce longer.  Peas grow in conjunction with nitrogen fixing bacteria, so they do not need extra food.  It takes most peas about 60 days from planting to maturity.

Spinach

Spinach is one of the most nutritious vegetables you can grow and eat.  It contains some of almost every vitamin and mineral needed to stay healthy.  To be so nutritious, spinach needs a lot of food.  When possible, work compost into the soil before planting spinach in your spring vegetable garden.  You can “side dress” with a slow-release fertilizer or compost two to four weeks after planting.  Spinach is a little bit difficult to grow from seed; however, plants started from seed do much better and produce leaves longer before “bolting,” or sending up a flower stalk (which effectively ends their life as food plants).  You can begin direct seeding spinach in the garden four to six weeks before the average last frost date.  The seeds need to be barely covered with a light potting mix, and kept evenly moist during germination.

Beets

Beets are a vegetable that tastes much better when grown during cool weather.  When it begins to get hot outside, beet roots become tough and woody, and sometimes have a strange flavor.  For best-tasting beets, sow directly outside up to one month before the average last frost date.  Plants should be spaced three to four inches apart.  You can over-plant and harvest beet greens for salads, leaving others to mature.  Most beets will mature in 45-60 days.  After six weeks, scrape some soil away from the beets to see how large the roots are.  Do not let the beet roots grow larger than two inches across, for best flavor.

Carrots

Carrots are fun and frustrating to grow!  They take a long time to germinate, but must be kept evenly moist during germination.  Sometimes the combination of germination time and moisture requirements can cause a crust to form on the soil.  To keep this from happening, plant a row of radishes alongside the carrots.  The radishes will sprout quickly and keep the soil loose for the carrots.  Carrots like a very light, sandy soil.  Some people save specific sections of their gardens just for carrots, preparing the soil so that it has more sand than other areas of the garden.  If carrots grow in heavy soils, they will often split their roots and can form some unusual shapes.  You can sow carrot seeds directly into the garden up to one month before the average last frost date.  Because their germination can be spotty, plan to sow more seeds than you want finished plants, and thin as the first true leaves begin to appear.

Lettuce

Lettuce is relatively easy to grow, but can be a heavy feeder.  It likes soil with a pH of 6.5 or higher.  You can grow “heading lettuce” an leaf lettuce.  The heading varieties are more difficult to grow.  For home gardeners, leaf lettuce is easy to grow and will produce well.  If you live in a very hot climate, grow lettuce in partial shade.  You can plant lettuce directly in the garden up to six weeks before the average last frost date.  Lettuce seeds should be sprinkled on loose, rich soil, and covered just barely with a bit of light potting soil.  Keep the seeds evenly moist and watch them grow.  You can harvest as soon as there are enough leaves on the plant to sustain continued growth.

Planting an early spring vegetable garden is a treat after a long winter.  These vegetables will get your garden off to a great start, even as the weather has barely started to warm up.

Aerating your lawn in the spring time will help your lawn on the road to recovery from cold winter weather.

Early March is a great time to think about scheduling your lawn aerating service for spring.  Over the previous summer, the lawn will have been subjected to a lot of traffic, causing compaction.  Soil compaction leads to a variety of other problems, if not alleviated, so it is best to alleviate compaction as early as possible in the year.  Aerating will also take care of any thatch buildup problem your lawn might be suffering from.  A little bit of thatch is fine.  Too much thatch can lead to many of the same problems that soil compaction causes.

Why Spring for Aerating the Lawn?

Lawn aerating is helpful for the health of the grass, but it is also stressful because it disrupts the roots and the regular growing habit of the grass plant. Aerating in the spring, when the lawn is actively growing, gives the lawn a chance to recover more quickly than aerating during the summer or late fall when the lawn is not growing as quickly.  If you didn’t get a chance to aerate the lawn in the fall, the spring is, obviously, the next best choice! The spaces opened up by aeration will allow you to keep your lawn healthy all summer long.  Air, water and fertilizer will penetrate the soil more easily after aeration, ensuring an overall healthier lawn.

Prevent these Problems with Spring Aeration

Aerating can help correct certain problems in the lawn, and avoid others.  Take care of this garden task in the spring to avoid these problems:

• Fungal diseases. Aeration won’t completely eliminate these problems, but better air and water movement in the soil will reduce them.
• Thatch buildup. An inch or so of thatch is ok.  More than that, and you provide a home for fungal, bacterial and insect pests.
• Weeds. Weeds sprout when lawn grass is unhealthy and unable to out-grow or out-compete the weeds.  Overall improvement in health of the grass will keep weed problems to a minimum.

Steps for Successful Lawn Aerating

1. First, mow your lawn to about ½ of the normal mowing height.  For example, if you usually mow your lawn to a height of three inches, set the deck at 1 ½ inches.
2. Give the lawn at least one inch of water a couple of days in a row, a couple of days before you aerate.
3. Aerate using a punch-core aerator.  These actually remove little cores of soil.
4. After aeration, water to break up the cores of soil.
5. Top dress with a light layer of compost or lightweight topsoil.
6. Keep the lawn watered well-at least one inch a week-until it starts to fill in. Aerating is both helpful and stressful for the lawn, so good care after aeration is important.

You can hire a professional to complete your lawn aerating for you, or do it yourself.  It should be a priority at least once a year.

Keeping your garden hand tools in optimal condition will make your gardening tasks much easier.

Learn how to sharpen your garden hand tools so that your gardening work is as easy as possible.  You are more likely to give good care to your plants if your tools are in the right shape for gardening.  You can sharpen gardening hand tools with a hand-held file, or with a grinder.  Below are some basics of sharpening and cleaning your tools.

Why Clean and Sharpen Garden Hand Tools?

The very simple answer is that your tools will last longer if you take proper care of them.  That means cleaning and sharpening.  Immediately after working with a tool, you can brush off the tool with a wire brush or other cleaning implement.  If you can store your tools in an area with good air circulation, you can use a pressure nozzle to wash off the blade.  Just make sure that it will dry quickly.  If tools sit in wet conditions, wood handles will swell and crack, and steel blades will rust. If you have used a tool to prune or cut a plant that produces a lot of sap (pine trees, dogwood trees, euphorbias), you will want to clean off the blade with a bit of solvent to remove anything gummy.  Once the tool is dry, wipe the tool blade with a thin coating of oil.  A mixture of motor oil and kerosene oil will prevent steel blades from rusting.

Garden Hand Tool Sharpening Implements

Pruners and shears with small blades can be sharpened with an oil stone.  There are also diamond stones and other honing stones that work well.  Clamp the hand tool blade in a vice and draw the sharpening stone in one direction, at a steady angle, against the angled edge of the tool.

Shovels, axes and other heavy-duty equipment can be easily sharpened with a file.  A half-round, ten inch long mill file will do the trick.  Again, it is easier to sharpen the tool if you can hold it steady in a vice.  Sharpen along the original, factory bevel for the tool, working the file in one direction across the surface.  These files only work on the “push” part of the motion.  Do not drag the file back and forth across the edge.  You will ruin the file and your tool.

If your tools are completely worn out, you may need to have a completely new edge ground into them.  Unless you have a bench grinder, and are experienced using it, it is easier and more cost-effective to take tools to a local hardware store for sharpening.

Storing Gardening Hand Tools

Proper cleaning and sharpening will keep hand tools in good working order for a long time. Storage conditions are another major factor in tool longevity.  You should always coat your tools, after they are clean, dry and sharpened, with a thin film of oil.  Fine Gardening magazine recommends this mixture: One quart nondetergent 30W motor oil and one pint of kerosene or lamp oil. You only want to apply a thin film-it should not drip off onto the floor.  You can also oil your tools by digging them into a bucket of oily sand, like brick laying sand, to coat them.

To keep your tools in the best condition, prepare a space in your tool shed or garage for each tool.  A peg, hook or shelf for each tool will help you find the tools when you need them, and also keep the tools from rubbing against each other or the floor and becoming dull.

Spring is a great time to sharpen gardening hand tools to prepare for the coming season. You will find, once you establish a routine, that you are much more interested in taking care of your lawn or garden, because you have tools in good condition.

Pruning roses is an important step in ensuring proper growth during spring.

The best time for pruning roses is in the winter when they are dormant.  Roses are shrubs that benefit from a hard pruning or renewal pruning.  The pruning causes the plants to sprout new, healthy growth.  Many roses only bloom on new wood, hybrid teas included.  For luscious flowers during the summer, make some time for pruning rose bushes during the winter.

How to Prune Roses

One way of classifying roses is by their growth habits.  There are climbing roses, hybrid tea roses, wild shrub roses, floribunda roses and more.  Each type of rose requires a slightly different pruning technique for overall structure, but all three can be improved with these pruning actions:

• Always prune back to an outward facing bud for hybrid teas. For every other growth type, prune back to an outward facing bud about 80% of the time. Roses like air flow through their branches. That helps prevent humid conditions that allow bacterial and fungal diseases to grow.
• While pruning rose bushes, strive to remove at least 1/3 of the growth. A renewal pruning schedule is to remove to the base of the plant 1/3 of the growth each year. Remove branches evenly from around the shrub.
• Remove any dead canes (branches).
• Remove branches that are growing toward the center of the plant.
• Remove crossing branches that have the potential to rub against each other or grow together.

Image from http://urbanext.illinois.edu/roses/prune.html

Pruning Rose Bushes

Pruning a true rose bush means you are dealing with one of the older species types of roses or a newer hybrid shrub rose.  These need less pruning than very picky hybrid teas.  These roses also bloom on old wood-meaning growth that is at least a year old-so you should wait until after flowering for pruning these rose business because, otherwise, you will cut off the flower buds!  These plants mainly benefit from pruning to maintain size and vigorous growth.  Each year you will prune to remove dead wood.  You can prune as much or as little as you like-just know that when you prune to drastically reduce the size of the shrub, you could wait a year or two for heavy flower displays.

Difference between Pruning Roses in the Winter and Pruning Roses in the Summer

Winter pruning is generally to reduce size, encourage good spring growth, and remove any dead or week tissue that could become infested with disease.  Summer pruning is more for deadheading to encourage re-bloom.  Re-bloom shrub roses are pruned just below the flower to deadhead.  Hybrid teas can be pruned in the summer back to just above an outward facing leaf with five leaflets (not three).  Summer rose pruning is about the look of the plant, while winter pruning is about the health.  For the most part, even if you make a pruning mistake, the plant will grow back-you might just be out a season of flowering if you prune at the wrong time.  Do not let that scare you from pruning your rose bushes.  They will benefit from a good pruning more than from neglect.

Spring time is an important time of the year for lawn care.

Spring lawn maintenance makes a big difference in the health of your lawn during the summer.  Follow these spring lawn care tips to have a healthy, green lawn throughout the entire growing season.

Aerate the lawn. There are few things that help a lawn more than aerating it.  Make sure you aerate after the lawn has started actively growing again.  (Warm season grasses go completely dormant in the winter, and cool season grasses don’t grow as much when it is very chilly.)

Top-dress with a lightweight compost or topsoil after aerating, or after mowing the lawn a little shorter than usual.  Some lawns have problems with building additional organic matter.  You can remedy this by giving your lawn just about ½ inch of compost in the spring.

Put down summer weed pre emergence herbicide. Before it heats up is the right time to do this.  Most pre emergence herbicides will work for three or four months.  To get the best weed control, you have to apply before the weeds start sprouting.  (Hence the name “pre emergence.”  It doesn’t work post-emergence!)  If you use a granular herbicide, make sure to water the lawn well so that the herbicide will break down and become active.  Organic gardeners can use corn gluten meal as a pre emergence herbicide.

If you had grub problems the previous year, apply milky spore. This is available at most lawn and garden centers.  It is also an organic remedy, which makes it more people-friendly.  When applied correctly, milky spore can last for up to fifteen years in the soil.

Overseed areas that have been damaged during the winter. Mow the area very short, top dress with ½ inch of light topsoil and overseed.  Make sure to keep the grass seed well watered until established, and do not mow or walk on it for a month or so.

Sharpen your mower blades. While this is not directly caring for your lawn, it is a big part of healthy grass.  Sharp mower blades will produce a cleaner cut that heals faster.  The clean cut will also give your lawn a more uniform appearance.  Dull blades tear the grass plant, and the torn ends dry out, creating a whitish sheen over the lawn.

Do not fertilize unless you have to. If you do want to fertilize to green your lawn, put down a very light application with about ¼ of the nitrogen you would use for a fall application.  High-nitrogen fertilizers stimulate leaf growth at the expense of root growth.  When the lawn begins actively growing again, you want to make sure that the roots produce new growth first, before the top starts taking off.

De-thatch by aerating or using a verticutter. More than an inch of thatch provides homes for too many detrimental critters and diseases.

Calibrate your irrigation system. Much like mower blade sharpening, this isn’t something you do to the lawn, but something that will benefit the lawn.  The spring is a good time to fire up the irrigation system, and run all of the zones, testing for any broken heads or areas that need re-calibrating.

Spring lawn maintenance activities will give your lawn a jump start for healthy growth the rest of the growing season.