Eco-Friendly, Natural Lawn Care Methods

Eco-Friendly Lawn Care

Our lawn care program is designed to be environmentally sensitive by employing the least amount of herbicide or insecticide to accomplish the task. We monitor and treat for problems rather than using a blanket of material over the entire lawn. This is an approach called Integrated Pest Management or IPM and it is strongly advocated by U.Conn turf experts. We use slow release Nitrogen to reduce leaching and waste and we are careful to blow off all hard surfaces to reduce run off and keep product where it belongs-on the turf.

IPM carries with it some level of compromise. Weeds and other problems appear fast, they are opportunistic and well adapted to take advantage of weather and open or compacted ground. Weeds simply out- compete turf grass in difficult situations. This is why we are finding aeration and liming to be very valuable parts of an ecologically sound lawn care program.

Ways to Reduce Disease and Improve Turf Health- NATURALLY

Mow regularly and with sharp blades. Buy a new set if you have to! Only remove 1/3 of the blade at each mowing to avoid stressing the turf. This means frequent mowing in Spring. DON’T SCALP! Leave blades at about 3in or more. Cutting short promotes a shallow root system, one unable to tolerate dry spells.

Do not remove clippings. (Unless you are having a graduation party or a wedding-then it’s allowed one time only!) Clippings break down fast and contain valuable nutrients as well as improving soil texture.

Water weekly. Turf grass needs about 1 inch of water a week delivered to the roots. Note: GRASS LEFT TALL REQUIRES NO WATER. One deep watering is best; avoid spraying the surface as much of the moisture evaporates.

Shrubs and Other Stuff
Things to cut back now include:

• Ornamental grasses
• Forsythia [after it finishes blooming].Cut back as hard as you like
• Lilac-cut it and bring indoors to enjoy-it blooms better next yr when trimmed back like this.
• PG Hydrangea[white ones- do not touch the blue]
• Roses-cut off all winter damaged branches and begin feeding, continue monthly fertilization
• Buddleia-butterfly bushes
• Any shrub that would look better thinned out or with fewer branches around the base. You may lose some flower buds but shrubs can recover well from pruning at this time. Examples include Rose of Sharon, privet, holly, azalea, spirea and rhododendron. Also remove any winter damage.
• Any tree with crossing branches, or growth that is outside of a pleasing form.

Any questions or concerns please feel free to contact Frank or Diana at greenscapeofclintonct@yahoo.com or call us at 860-669-1880. We look forward to hearing from you!

Please visit our website at http://www.greenscapeofclinton.com

Most common complaints- Mole Infestation

The most common complaints from our customers recently seem to be moles which are doing damage as they tunnel after earthworms…

Moles are VERY ANNOYING. Moles are insectivores: their primary diet is earthworms and other insects including grubs. An average mole consumes 45 lbs of food per year.

Many lawns have seen damage from moles this spring-but there are not many grubs in evidence. The moles are really digging after the worms, which are plentiful due to all the rain. This means that no lawn care application is going to get rid of them. They are really a sign of healthy soil! Moles are really extraordinary creatures: they can excavate surface tunnels at a rate of 18ft per hour and they can run through those completed tunnels at 80ft per minute! No wonder they are so hard to catch!

Traps are the single most effective way to get rid of moles. Find active tunnels by stamping them down in the early am and placing the trap in the runways raised again in the next 24hrs.

GRUBS are emerging from the soil in the next month or so but they do not feed heavily on turf roots at this time of year. We will treat for grubs later in the summer to intervene and make them less likely to damage lawns.

Please feel free to call us for further questions regarding mole treatment or other lawn care problems. We love to talk lawns!

Frank and Diana Byrne 860-669-1880

http://www.greenscapeofclinton.com

Lawn Program Applications

Your lawn is our business, we want it to look its best! Call us anytime with questions or concerns or visit our website at http://www.greenscapeofclinton.com

It was actually a great winter for turf, which grew and put down roots well into December and has enjoyed plenty of rain this Spring. Lawns are greening up fast and are benefiting from the cool soil temperatures. Now that spring is here we have come up with some information regarding our application process.

Lawn Program Applications

The first Spring application consists of: slow release fertilizer, broadleaf weed control for weeds such as dandelions and chickweed and pre-emergent crabgrass control to prevent crabgrass germinating. Remember that this application will also inhibit new grass seed from growing, so ideally save any reseeding until fall.

If weeds do break through we will spot spray them during the 2nd application- which is done during late May/June. On an as needed basis we treat for surface insects such as chinch bugs at this time and apply an additional amount of slow release fertilizer to last lawns through the summer. On an ongoing basis we check for crabgrass and spray it.

While weeds detract from the lawn we want to emphasize that our program is environmentally geared to use as few herbicides as possible. Ideally we try to eliminate weeds slowly by encouraging a healthy lawn to crowd them out.

A healthy lawn includes healthy soil -which should be at the correct PH of about 6.7.

We will be doing soil testing on many new and existing customers’ lawns and will then provide you with accurate liming recommendations.

After this application we wait until the summer to do GRUB treatment to the turf. The summer is the optimum time to prevent grub infestation -which can seriously damage lawns in late summer /early fall when they hatch and eat the grass roots.

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Any questions or concerns about your lawn care please call Frank or Diana and 860-227-6872
www.greenscapeofclinton.com