Recent Articles
Creeping Red Fescue
Qualities Red fescue is a cool-season grass used in cool, shaded, mountain sites, such as camps, resorts, and cabins where low-input of mowing, fertilization, and irrigation is desired. It does not do well in hot climates, except in shady, dry situations. In areas where Kentucky bluegrass does well, red fescue forms an excellent companion grass [...]
Lawn Tennis Grass Courts
Grass courts are the second fastest type of tennis court (wooden courts, which were used in the past, and some current types of indoor surfaces, are actually the fastest). They consist of grass grown on very hard-packed soil, similar to golf greens (though AstroTurf which are hardly used in tennis are faster), which adds an [...]
How to be pesticide free
Healthy lawns are less susceptible to pest problems. Keep your lawn healthy using good maintenance practices. It will better tolerate drought, temperature extremes and general wear and tear. Healthy, vigorous, deep-rooted lawns are less susceptible to pest damage and do not usually require pesticides to control pests. Longer, thicker grass also prevents many pests from [...]
Seasonal Lawn Maintenance
Seasonal lawn care will vary to some extent depending on the climate zone and type of grass that is grown, whether cool season or warm season varieties. In general, however, there are recognized steps in lawn care that should be observed in any of these areas.
Types of Lawn grass
There are thousands of varieties of lawngrass, each adapted to specific conditions of precipitation, temperature, and sun/shade tolerance. Breeders are constantly creating new and improved varieties of the base list of lawngrass species. The two basic categories are cool season grasses and warm season grasses. Cool season grasses start growth at 5 °C, and grows [...]
Controlling Moss
Moss thrives on any lawn which is very wet, where the soil is compacted, or where grass is constantly kept too short. You can eradicate it by applying a proprietary brand of moss killer, or sulphate of iron, but if the conditions are not permanently addressed, the moss will return year after year. Sometimes, the [...]
Weeding the lawn
There are a number of ways to keep a lawn weed free. A new lawn will probably contain thousands of weeds and the only way to eradicate them once the lawn is established, is to use a selective weed killer. Selective weed killers, which kill broad leaf plants and not grass, can also be used [...]
Feeding The Lawn
A lawn should not be fed during the first year. Once an established lawn is growing well in late May or June, you should give it a proprietary spring and summer feed. This mixture has a high nitrogen and potash content to green up the lawn and encourage strong growth. A tired looking lawn can [...]
Scarifying the lawn
Use either a spring tined rake or a scarifier after the first cut of the season in order to remove the dead grass left by the winter and any moss that has accumulated. It’s also a good idea to scarify again in July and once more in September just before the last cut. Remove the [...]
Ground Preparation
The first mowing should not be made until the new lawn (grass and weeds) is a good 2” high. Set the mower to the highest setting and use a grass box to collect the clippings, rather than a rake. It is at this time you will see if your lawn is level or not. Hollows, [...]
