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WE Work YARD FOR THE MONEY: A blog about lawn care, landscape and Family.
We want to help you set your Lawn and Landscape at your home or business up for success. We will be providing you with an easy to follow month to month check list of care and maintenance you may need to consider for your lawn and landscape.
You want your yard to look it's best? The key is proper routine & maintenance. It's hard work and requires a good bit of effort and investment of your time and money. Your yard is a living thing. There is grass, trees, shrubs, plants, and even water features. If not cared for properly your yard can be taken over by disease, pest, fungus, and invasive weeds. Improper maintenance can lead to damage from weather and other outside factors. Having even a basic Lawn Care and Landscape Checklist can help give you the lawn, the garden, and the outdoor space you have always wanted. Now we did mention it's hard work....we call that Therapy. Working in your yard can be just that! If you don't need therapy then of course you can reach out to an expert service provider such at J&S Landscape and Design to help do this hard work for you. This article will show you what you need to be doing so that you can start planning and get the best looking yard ever! Don't forget to down load the free Lawn care and Landscape Checklist and schedule.
Grass and your lawn:
Maintaining a beautiful lawn requires focus on your grass. You can have a full and lush yard if you properly maintain the grass. Maintenance is not limited to mowing the grass when it gets too tall for comfort. Grass needs water, nutrients, and protection from the things that can damage and even kill it such as pest, fungus, and disease. Be sure to download the Lawn and Landscape to do list for the month to month suggestions for your grass care. Here are the things that are covered in it.
Watering your grass: Your lawn needs regular watering. Now our region generally sees a good bit of rain but that does not mean there aren't times your lawn needs more than what mother nature has provided. Having a good irrigation system or watering plan will help keep your grass thriving.
Mowing your grass: Frequency typically depends on your grass type. Most grass mowing begins in late March/Early April and continues through late October/Early November. It typically is done every 1-2 weeks. If you wait any longer then you may find yourself wasting time and putting more effort on yourself and your equipment than you should. Cutting the grass and allowing it to "mulch" back into your yard helps with fertilizing and providing nutrients. Mowing also aids in preventing flowering weeds from seeding if you MOW REGULARLY.
Soil Test: For established lawns without pest, fungus, or disease concerns should test every 2-3 years. Your local ag extension offers free testing.
Fertilizing(feeding) your grass: We recommend fertilizing when it's warm. For the potential best results you want to fertilize every 2 months during the growing season (April-October).
Weed Control & Pre-Emergent: Weed control is done various ways based on the weeds present. Mowing can reduce weeds, various. It's also okay to have some weed tolerance...(some weeds like Dandelions are great to have). Various Herbicides may be used should you have a real problem. Know that when dealing with weeds it is not a one size fits all chemical that makes them all go away. Having a good water, mowing, and fertilizer program will help keep weeds at bay. We recommend as it cools down to put out a pre-emergent ****only if you are not putting out annual Rye grass seed. Do not put out pre-emergent if you are spreading grass seed for winter grass. ***
Aerating: In our area of coastal NC we do not typically aerate (one less thing for you to worry about).
Pest, Fungus, Disease: When dealing with a bad patch of grass or dying lawn it's best to let the experts handle this as there are so many considerations. Sometimes, a soil test is needed to confirm what is causing the damage (insect, fungus, or disease). Your lawn care expert can help you come up with an integrated pest management program. This may consist of improving your maintenance program, chemical applications, and organic applications. A lot of our climate provides an ideal space for pest & fungus to thrive if the lawn is not cared for properly.
Landscape, your plants, shrubs, trees, and flower beds: Part of your lawn and landscape is your beds that you have your plants, trees, & shrubs in. It's important to make sure you haven't planted anything that won't grow in our Plant Hardiness Zone 8a/8b.
Having a great maintenance plan is imperative to having a beautiful landscape to match your lush lawn. You will find a lot of similarities in your landscape maintenance checklist items to the lawn care check list. Here are some of the things we cover in the checklist.
Watering: Plants, Shrubs, and Trees need water. Typically you cannot plant it and forget it. Some plants are more drought tolerant and can survive on what mother nature offers but we aren't talking about surviving, we are talking about THRIVING. Consider a minimal landscape with more drought tolerant plants should you not be able to set up an irrigation system or watering program for your landscape.
Trimming & Pruning: All plants, shrubs, and trees have their trimming and pruning needs. Pruning is typically related to "small snips" of unwanted growth (suckers, cross branches, shoots). Trimming is cutting back the bulk of the tree or shrub to promote growth and help with other health concerns (pest, fungus, & disease) . Both are necessary when creating a maintenance plan for your landscape care. There is no one size fits all. We include some of the common plant, shrubs, and trees in our checklist that are specific to our plant hardiness zone.
Fertilizing (Feeding) your plants: Grass needs food, so your your plants. Similar to grass you typically "feed" your plants, shrubs, and trees in the growing season (April- October). Fertilizing your landscape beds will help the plants, trees, and shrubs flourish. Doing this helps make them strong to fight pest, fungus, and disease.
Weed management: Now weeds are their own plant. When considering them in your landscape think about your flower beds. Weeds when left unattended can over take a flower or plant bed in your landscape and certain weeds can choke out the intended plants, shrubs, & trees you planted. Weed management in landscape beds looks like: Landscape paper barrier (typically laid before planting), laying bedding material such as mulch, pine straw or stone, hand pulling (therapy), and herbicides.
Pest and Fungus: Similar to the grasses this is something that is analyzed and treated on a case by case basis. Some plants/trees we recommend application for pest/fungus as a preventative as they are prone to certain things. Our wet moist environment makes those pest and fungus happy!
Bedding materials: Bedding materials such as mulch & pine straw can help with so many things! Weed barrier, water retention, nutrient provider, insulation from the extreme temperatures, and it's aesthetically pleasing. While there is some maintenance to it, the benefits to your plants, shrubs, and trees outweigh the work you put into it.
Edging your beds: Edging your beds creates the distinct line between your flower and landscape beds from your lawn. It can help create a barrier to stop rogue weeds and grass from your lawn from encroaching into your beds. Maintenance to this can be done along with your bedding materials maintenance or you can consider a more solid barrier such as steel edging, paver/stone edging, or even a less expensive option such as plastic edging.
To sum it all up: To Maintain your lawn and your landscape you don't need to be an expert but if you want the best looking lawn and a thriving landscape you may want to consider what you are doing to make this happen. Working on your lawn and landscape is hard work but it's rewarding when you put the work into it. If you can't reach out to your local lawn care and landscape service provider, chances are they have a program that will work for you to take on the work you can't.
This checklist what our teams follow as a guideline for our services to our clients.
What are you going to do now? Download the checklist and let's get your working on having the Best Lawn around!
Happy Landscaping to your all! Our next We work Yard for the Money blog will be: How to Trim Crepe Myrtles?