Have a question? Ask the expert!
What to Do First: Reseeding or Top Dressing? - Spring-Green Lawn Care Tips
Lawn Care Tips: Reseeding and Top Dressing The following is a question-and-answer exchange between a homeowner and Harold Enger, the Director of Education at Spring-Green. Harold provides some expert tips on two important lawn care practices—reseeding and top dressing—and stresses the importance of doing them in the right order. He also addresses the best time to weed and feed. Question: "I planted about an acre of grass last spring. It has come in nic
Fall Lawn Care: Our Top 5 Tips
It’s that time of year again… time for some fall lawn care to-dos. The leaves are dropping, the air is getting colder and it is time to start putting your lawn and landscape to bed for the winter. In northern Illinois, we’ve already had frost form in some low-lying areas. Can you believe it? I also got word from a franchise owner in northern Wisconsin that they’ve already gotten a hard frost in his area. Brr… I hope this winter isn’t as cold and horrible
Overseeding in the Fall: Tips on Watering and Raking
The following question came in on Spring-Green’s YouTube page; one of our viewers was concerned about how to best rake leaves after overseeding in the fall. To give your new seedlings the best chance possible, follow the tips below. “Hi Spring-Green! I just aerated and overseeded my lawn 1 week ago with
How to Control Algae in Your Lawn
As I sit in my office staring out at about 12 inches of slowly melting snow, it’s nice to know that there are parts of the country where grass can be seen and lawn care has started. I recently received a picture from one of our Field Service Professionals in Opelika, AL of some algae growing in one of his lawns. Although lawn algae do not infect the grass plant, they can be a significant pest problem in home lawn
3 Ways to Get Rid of Creeping Bentgrass in Your Lawn
Have creeping bentgrass in your yard? Read how Harold Enger, our lawn care expert, tells a reader the three best ways to eliminate it. “I have question about creeping bent grass. It's all over my lawn in splotches. I watched your video about it but you didn't mention what I could use to get rid of it. Help! I just want a gorgeous lawn and am at a loss with it. Thanks in advance.” Thank you for sending in your question. Controlling bentgrass can be a daunting task. My recommendations are based on the assumption that your lawn is composed mostly of bluegrass, ryegrass or turf type tall fescue. If you have other varieties of grass in your lawn, please let me know and I can provide you with recommendations to use for those grasses. Dealing With Bentgrass - Expert Lawn Care Advice<
When You Should Core Aerate and Reseed Your Lawn
What Is Core Aeration? You may have heard about core aeration from a local lawn care company or have read about the procedure in gardening publications. Simply put, core aeration is a process where a machine travels across a lawn or turfgrass area and removes and then deposits plugs of soil and thatch back onto the lawn. This process opens up the lawn to provide more air, water, and nutrients to the root sys
The Best Time to Aerate Your Lawn, for Cool and Warm Season Grasses
September is here and the amount of sunlight is becoming less and less each day. Less sunlight means that the leaves on trees will start to show their fall colors, summer weeds will begin to slow down growing and another summer is coming to a close. Early fall lawn projects are on homeowners’ minds, and many are wondering if this is the best time to aerate their lawns. Aerating Your Lawn in the Fall Works for Cool Season Gr
Resuscitating a Dead Lawn with Core Aeration and Overseeding
Harold Enger, Spring-Green’s Director of Education, received a question from a homeowner about fixing his dead lawn. After hearing about the problem, he recommended core aeration and overseeding to help revive the lawn. “My lawn is brown with few things growing (even weeds). I believe it’s the result of rock hard soil. Last year a small patch of lawn was ripped up (gas line installation) and that patch now has gr
Tall Fescue Lawn Care
A reader sent in this latest question about his Tall Fescue grass not looking its best. Harold gives him some great advice on how to care for Tall Fescue, a common transition zone grass type. “Harold, I have a tall fescue grass in southern California, and cannot get it to stay a deep green. I have a few dead spots that even reseeding won’t cure, and my entire lawn is starting to turn a light brown. Any suggestions on getting my lawn normal? I water once a day for 4 min, also. Thanks!”
How to Avoid Green Slimy Ooze From Growing On Your Lawn.
What is this Green Slimy Ooze? During the last couple of years, I’ve received several questions about a strange green slimy ooze growing in lawns. So after doing some research, I learned that it is a type of cyanobacterium, formerly called blue-green algae. This green slimy ooze has been called many colorful names over the years, including witches, butter and star jelly, which is based on the belief that the ooze was indeed the remnants of shooting stars. Why do I have it? Nostoc Algae wil
Avoid Doing This To Your Lawn...
In one of my recent training seminars, one of the Field Service Professionals, Jason who works in our Plainfield, IL office, sent me this picture of a lawn with a good deal of damage. My first thought was that the homeowner applied too much fertilizer to the lawn using a drop spreader, but the more I looked at it, the more I started to second guess the cause of all of the browning. The reason why I don’t think it is caused by fertilizer is that the browning is too consistent, although there are several areas that appear
Fairy Rings: Everything You Need To Know!
I subscribe to several university newsletters that are dedicated to lawns and landscapes. This year, Ohio State University changed the format of their monthly newsletter to short news flashes about many interesting topics. The university still publishes their Buckeye Yard & Garden online newsletter, but I do enjoy reading all the brief articles on interesting weeds, insects, diseases and other oddities of nature. They recently posted a news brief about one of my favorite diseases, Fairy Ring. I always like to learn something new about this annoying, but usually not serious, disease. Ironicall
When Is The Best Time To Aerate Your Lawn?
The best time to aerate your lawn is based on 3 conditions: Type of grass in your lawn Weather conditions in your area Amount of moisture your lawn has received Aeration can take place at any time of the year, but the best time is usually in the spring/early summer or fall.
5 Fall Gardening Chores You Shouldn't Ignore!
For much of the country, fall means the end to working outdoors for another year. There are always many tasks that have to be completed before the first snowflakes start to fall. 5 Gardening Chores to Accomplish this Fall: Pull Plants - Within the next couple of weeks, I will be pulling up my vegetable garden plants and all the flowering annuals that I put in this past spring. I will probably wait a little while before cutting back the perennial plants. As long as the sun continues to shine, those plants will continue to grow
Be Nice to Your Lawn and Have it Core Aerated
Lawns around our houses, businesses, churches, hospitals or lawns that are used for sporting events, playgrounds or parks are not natural systems. Therefore, they need to be maintained in order to grow and stay healthy. Lawns that are not properly maintained are thin and usually full of weeds (not just dandelions). By caring for your lawn and ensuring it is growing well, you are making a big difference environmentally such as: Reducing pollution Preventing floods
Rejuvenate Your Lawn with Core Aeration and Reseeding
For cool-season turfgrass, fall is a time of renewal and recovery from the stresses of summer heat. As the temperatures start to moderate and rainfall increases, the turf plants will start growing new roots and new plants to replace those that were damaged or even killed during the summer. Spring may be the time when other landscape plants start to grow, but fall is the time of regrowth for cool-season turfgrasses with core aeration. Cool season turfgrasses like Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, fine fescue and tall fescue have varying degrees of tolerance to heat and drought: <
Has Spring Finally Sprung? Tips For Your Lawn This Spring Season!
Spring has taken its sweet time to arrive for most of the U.S. If you live in the more northern states like Minnesota, Wisconsin or Michigan, you may be thinking that spring may never arrive since these areas still have snow. Receiving some snow at this time of year is not uncommon for these folks. Even the lawns in the warmer parts of the U.S. are greening up at a much slower rate than normal. Warm season turfgrasses such as Bermuda or Zoysia, often turn brown during the winter months and don’t begin to start growing until temperatures are consistently above 70 degrees. There have been wa
Large Patch & Take-All Root Rot: Warm Season Grasses Patch Lawn Diseases
Summertime is for baseball games, playing in the park, taking bike rides and enjoying picnics with friends and families. It's also the time for patch lawn diseases to become more noticeable in yards. The patch diseases that can affect warm season grasses such as Bermuda, St. Augustine, Centipede and Zoysia, and affect much of the South and South East lawns include: Large Patch and Take-all Root Rot. These lawn diseases are present in the United States where weather is hot and humid. Although it may be too late to prevent these lawn diseases, there is still time to help your lawn recover from the effect of Large Patch and Take-all Root Rot. Large Patch Lawn Disease The prime conditions for Large Patch to occur on warm season grasses include: Zoysia, Centipede, St. Augustine, a