Lawn Care Blog

What do you do with all the leaves, thatch and mulch that you clear from your yard this Fall?  

Instead of throwing them over the hill out back and forgetting about them, consider composting. You can start a compost pile with anything from coffee grinds to grass clippings.  Keep adding your yard waste to it and nurturing it through the winter and by spring time you’ll have nutrient-rich material to fertilize your lawn and garden area. Add products like compost worms or vericompost and get an even richer blend.
 
Compost is good for retaining moisture. It also contains beneficial microbes, along with macro and micro nutrients that help prevent diseases and stimulate plant growth. And, it’s the latest way to go “green” for your yard.  

If you don’t want to compost yourself, you can purchase composting products to use to enrich your soil. Or, you can contribute to local green efforts by giving organic waste like wood chips, leaves, manure and moldy hay or straw to a composting company like Veteran Compost in Harford County. See www.veterancompost.com for more information.

   

The party’s still rockin’ for Fall lawn maintenance. Aeration and over seeding are the last guests, but don’t confuse aeration with that party crasher - dethatching!
   
Not every lawn in Harford County needs dethatching. If your lawn has a layer of dead organic matter that is more than ½ inch above the soil, then dethatching is in order. A liquid dethatcher will break down the layer and turn it into soil. Be careful about raking the thatch – this can damage the roots of the grass.

Lawns in Baltimore County and Harford County do need aeration and over seeding to complete the season. The soil in your lawn has been compacted over the last year due to foot traffic, heavy rains and snow, creating a tight layer. Aerating your lawn makes room for the food, water, oxygen and grass seed by creating space, or “plugs” where the nutrients can get into the root system. By over seeding – or adding more seed over the aerated soil, the chances increase that these seeds will germinate and create new grass.
 
The result: a full, lush lawn in the spring! Aeration and over seeding should be done 45 days before the first frost, which averages between October 29 and November 3 in Harford County.  

You’re invited to a party – for your lawn! Harford County lawns have stood up to heat, drought and hurricanes this season.  Now is a great time to celebrate your lawn and keep it in shape for the coming year. So bring your rake, mower, seed, and fertilizer and let’s get started.

First, remove leaves from the grass by raking or blowing. Leaves left on lawns will trap moisture, causing fungus or pest invasions.  They will also block sunlight that keeps the grass green.

Keep mowing your lawn regularly, but cut it high. Taller grass keeps moisture in the soil and protects the root network. Consider leaving the grass one-half inch higher on the last mow of the season.

Seed your lawn in the fall, both to fill in bare patches and to make the overall growth thicker and richer in the spring time.

Top it all off with fertilizer for cool season grasses only. (These grasses are common in Harford County and Baltimore County.) Warm season grasses do not need to be fertilized because they are preparing for dormancy.

Finally, if you want to aerate your lawn, now is the time. Aerating creates space in the soil for air, water and nutrients to reach the roots. Your lawn will need these over the winter.       

Now, sit back, relax and enjoy the lawn party!

  

With all of the rain and hurricane downpours this summer, the lawn mowing frequency has hit an all time high for August.  Usually you can get away with two mowings for the whole month, not this year. The lawns in Maryland are requiring weekly mowings. Some may welcome this, others may view it as an extra chore cutting into pool or recreation time.  The result will be better looking lawns this fall and an increased need for fertilizer and weed control applications. If your lawn has become weedy and thin this summer, now is a good time to jump start it with a fall program from HillSide Lawn Service. We can eliminate your weeds, fertilize the soil and aerate/seed the lawn producing award winning turf this fall and into the next season. 

Wow!  I think this is the earliest and most severe grub damage I've seen this early in the year.  This lawn in Cecil County, MD is half destroyed by white grubs which are the larvae of japanese beetles.  At this stage the grubs will need to be treated with a curative, contact insecticide to stop the smorgasbord they're having on the lawn.  Grub control is usually applied in June to avoid this costly situation.  If you have these pests in your lawn call us right away for an evaluation. We can help!

Just to be sure that we all know what mature crabgrass looks like, I thought I would post these late July pictures of crabgrass reaching maturity.  Two of these pics show the plant in mulch beds, unscathed by a mower, you can see the true size and shape of the unsightly lawn weed. Notice how the runners are creeping out onto the sidewalk, just like it creeps through your lawn.  All of these runners will put out seedheads, which will produce next year's crop of this invasive, annual grassy weed.  If you have crabgrass in your lawn, call HillSide Lawn Service for a free lawn analysis and a plan to get rid of your crabgrass for good.

Why do you think this photo of a local farm pasture is so green and healthy in a July heat wave?  Most home lawns are currently showing signs of heat/drought stress with brown and dormant areas throughout.  Heres why:  a pasture is mowed at 8-12" and can grow higher than that in between mowings.  The tall grass blades shade the soil line preventing the soil profile from drying out (and new weeds germinating).  This allows the grass plants to remain vibrant and green.  Also, pasture grass varieties tend to be drought resistant.  That's why we recomend mowing your grass at 4" and using Turf-Type Tall Fesque for seeding.  Your Maryland lawn may not be as green as this pasture all summer, but following these basic tips will help with the heat/drought stress issues.     Picture taken July 7, 2011.

We are starting to see a lot of Nutsedge Grass appearing in the lawns.  This unsightly grassy weed occurs naturally in the soil and cannot be stopped by pre-emergence herbicide.  It can be controlled with a specialty herbicide such as Manage or Sedgehammer sprayed low volume when the leaf tissue is exposed as in this picture.  If you don't want to use the pesticide approach, then you always have the option of pulling it by hand, which can be effective.  I recomend waiting until the Nutsedge is finished its growth spurt in mid July to pull by hand.  You can call HillSide and we can provide a quote to treat the growth areas with the herbicide.

Cottony maple scale can be unsightly and a general nuisance in the landscape.  It can also damage the plants, so HillSide recommends treating with dormant oil or the appropriate insecticide for good control.

Oftentimes, as in this picture, it can be hard to find because it occurs in the middle of the plant, on the stems.  That's why if you see this insect activity you should call a HillSide Lawn Service professional for a free tree/shrub analysis of your entire landscape.

It's true. Heat stress on Maryland lawns is already evident.  Areas of "localized dry spots" have developed into unsightly brown areas with the onset of 90 degree days in late May.  These are the same areas we see every year as the soil dries out for the first time. They are usually areas of full sun exposure as well.

What to do?  Watering will help, but be sure you are watering correctly.  For more detailed information, call HillSide Lawn Service today for consultation from one of our trained representatives.