Keep Mower Blades Sharpened Regularly
While mowing with a sharp blade is important for the look of the lawn, a sharp mower blade also plays an important role in a lawn's health. Below are some important benefits and reasons to sharpen mower blades regularly: A dull blade rips and tears the grass blade, leading to a higher susceptibility for disease [...]
Get to Know Your Grass Type
We get a lot of interesting questions about lawns and grass types. These are some of the most common grasses for our area: Why seed a tall fescue lawn with bluegrass? More efficient with water than fescue Resistant to most of the diseases of tall fescue such as brown patch Spreads to fill in the [...]
Train Your Dog Outside
You can eliminate burned grass and reduce the odds of stepping in dog poop if you train your dog outside. Teaching a dog to go in one area is relatively easy with a little patience and consistency. Follow these steps to train your dog outside: Identify a high area that is not prone to water [...]
Winter Grass Seedling Care
Grass seed that was planted in late August or early September may need mowing by early October. Seed that was not planted until late September, may not need mowing until the following March or early April. The later in the fall a lawn is seeded, the more care it will need over the winter. Care [...]
Oak Mites Descends Upon Kansas City
The oak mite has people and their pets scratching. Native to Europe, this pest was first detected in the Kansas City area in 1994. The mites cause itchy, red welts that have small blisters in their center Unlike chiggers that mostly concentrate in restricted areas around waste bands and socks, oak itch mite bites are [...]
Pulling Weeds Now Saves Work Next Year
September is crunch time if weeds have sprouted in lawns or shrub beds. Chemical control or tilling is often the most practical solution, but 100% control is rarely possible. Pulling weeds is always best for small-scale weeding. Most of next years weed seeds are being produced right now. Some of the worst weeds in our [...]
Verticutting and Core Aeration for Seed Preparation
There is no better time to improve, repair, or rebuild a lawn than late August through September. While seed selection and watering are critical (seed care instructions), seed preparation is the key to maximizing germination and roots. Stated simply, the goal of soil preparation is to provide good seed to soil contact. CORE AERATION Used [...]
Choose Grass Seed Wisely
Most lawn problems can be easily repaired, but the use of the wrong seed can ruin your lawn like nothing else. It is extremely important to choose grass seed wisely by: Never buying grass seed unless the label says it has at least an 80% germination rate, 0.0% weeds, and 0.0% other crop. Weed and [...]
No Need to Worry About Tree & Lawn Mushrooms
The Kansas City summer is coming to a rainy ending. Continuously wet soil has promoted more tree and lawn mushrooms than usual this year. Mushrooms are the fruiting body of a much larger fungus. Tree Trunk Mushrooms grow on tree trunks from fungi feeding on the dead wood of the tree. The only way to [...]