Practice Lake-Friendly Leaf Management

This fall, show your love for our lakes by keeping leaves out of the street gutter in front of your home.  Instead, use the leaves that fall on your property to improve the health and beauty of your yard.

Learn about 3 ways to use your leaves this fall - just click "Read More"!

Clean Lakes Alliance - Loop the Lake!

Weed Man is proud to have participated in this year's Clean Lakes Alliance Loop the Lake bike ride! We were among 1,600 people supporting the Clean Lakes Alliance, and helped raise $30,000 for our lakes!

Clean Lakes Alliance works hard developing partnerships, providing technical and financial assistance, and leadership to achieve phosphorus reduction goals in our local watersheds. Their efforts are important to our community, and as we are a company who believes in environmentally responsible practices, we could not be happier to show our support!

Common Spring Issues

Spring is here! Most everyone is excited for warmer weather and beautiful green lawns. However, your lawn may not be the lovely emerald field you had hoped for this spring. We have included 3 common spring issues that plague lawns this time of year, and some helpful tips to navigate the next month or so while your lawn starts to repair itself.

Seeing Spots? Learn how to tell these two issues apart!

Seeing spots? Necrotic Ring and Dog Spot are common lawn ailments you should watch out for. See below for simple ways to identify these problems, and find solutions!

For more information, keep reading after the jump!

5 Fall Lawn Care Tips to Reinvigorate Your Turf

What comes to mind when you hear “fall”? Perhaps it’s pumpkins, vibrant colors, cozy sweaters, Thanksgiving, football…the list could be a long one! How about lawn care? More than likely, your lawn drops to the bottom of your priority list at the first sign of changing seasons. While it may be tempting to shift your focus to the cooler days ahead, hang on to that lawn care “to do” list for just a little bit longer.

To help keep you in a lawn care state of mind, I have included a checklist for homeowners looking to prep their lawns for fall. Read on for more information!

Improve & Repair Your Lawn This Fall

As we all prepare for fall, we often think of leaves, fall clean up, and organizing our efforts to preserve our turf over the winter months. After a year of stressful conditions (warm, wet conditions, drought, and extreme heat), your lawn needs help repairing itself before the added stress of the winter arrives. The best ways to preserve the health of your lawn, and help repair any damage from this year, are aeration, overseeding, and organic topdressing applications. Read more after the jump!

Lawn Diseases Galore!

During the summer months, we often see lawn diseases popping up across the midwest. Lawn diseases are often a result of excess moisture, improper cultural practices (mowing too short, mowing in the early morning or when the lawn is wet), and more. While these diseases are far from aesthetically pleasing, they are rarely hazardous to the health of your turf, and will often fade over time once proper cultural practices are adopted.

We have selected 3 diseases that we will discuss after the jump! Click "read more" below to learn more!

June is Grub Season

Grubs have arrived! These munching machines eat away at the root system of our lawns, killing otherwise healthy grass. Unsightly discoloration, loose turf, and bare areas are only the beginning. Read more after the jump for information on grubs and how to control them.

Ascochyta vs Leaf Spot

In the past two weeks we have received countless calls, photos, and SOS messages asking for help regarding two particular culprits. Ascochyta and Leaf Spot, two common lawn diseases, have appeared on homeowners lawns across the midwest. These diseases are an eyesore, but are manageable with some helpful tips and tricks. Click the image above for some great information on how to distinguish between the two, and how to help stop them in their tracks!

Honoring Memorial Day

In honor Memorial Day, I wanted to say thank you to all of the brave men and women serving our country. At Weed Man Lawn Care, we are giving away one free lawn care program to a military family with a currently deployed serviceman / servicewoman. Weed Man has taken care of military families in the past through Project Evergreen's GreenCare for Troops program, and would love the opportunity to give back once again. 

If you would like to nominate someone, please click the flag above, or click HERE. Upon arriving at our Facebook post, please tag the name of the person you would like to win in a comment. A random drawing will be held on Memorial Day, May 25th at 1:00 pm to determine the winner. 

Thank you,

Good Morning Madison! - 1310 WIBA - May 11th, 2015

Looking for some guidance in the world of lawn care? Tune in to 1310 WIBA Monday mornings around 6:45 - 7:00 am to hear Robin Colbert, John Colbert, and I discuss current lawn care issues and topics. Missed us this week? No worries, listen to our broadcast below:

Topics this week:

- Lawns "Seeding Out" (@ 0:20)
- Mowing Height (@ 1:08)
- Crabgrass & PreEmergent (@ 3:37)
- Win Free Lawn Care! (@ 4:39)

Clean Lakes - Everyone Doing Their Part

Yesterday, we hosted a table at the Clean Lakes Alliance "Save Our Lakes Breakfast" annual event. As a "Friends of Clean Lakes" board member, I am extremely proud of what we are accomplishing in the Madison area for our lakes.  This organization is a non profit that is bringing business, government and the community together in partnership to continue progressing and cleaning our lakes.  In a day and age where most parties point fingers, we have and will continue to accomplish a lot.  We raised more than $29,000 yesterday alone for our lakes.

May is... Dandelion Takeover!

Spring can be unpredictable - weather conditions and temperatures seem to fluctuate daily! However, one thing is for sure: dandelions will be making a visit to a lawn near you.

Read more after the jump for answers to questions like:

Why do these pesky weeds continue to bother me every year?

What can I do to stop dandelions from taking over your lawn? 

When should a lawn care company treat for dandelions?

April is National Lawn Care Month

I know everyone has been salivating for any reason to get outside this month after the toughest Winter in recent memory.  Get outside and enjoy your lawn!  There are so many benefits a healthy lawn delivers to the environment as well as your family.

Click Here for more info on your lawn, and keep reading after the jump for some helpful infographics!

How to Choose the Right Lawn Care Company

I thought it would be a good time to re-post this for those making lawn care decisions now or soon.  Temps are on the rise and now is the time to plan ahead.  Remember, last year had some extreme conditions on your lawn with flooding in the early summer followed by drought conditions in the summer.

I was asked how one goes about choosing a lawn care company.
My head started really spinning as this is very important for homeowners that are flooded with all sorts of options that all state they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Here are a few ideas that are important to verify with companies you are choosing from...

Ask The Experts and Spring lawn discussion

I was on Ask The Experts on WIBA last Saturday.  Had a great talk with Terri on all things LAWN for the spring.  Even took some great questions on drought recovery, seeding, compost applications to increase organic matter in the soil, weeds, etc.  Take a listen!

De Thatching vs Aerating, Voles and More Spring Lawn Care Tips

With last year having the worst drought in close to 100 years there has been a lot of attention on what to do to help turf and your home lawn recover.  We have had multiple media outlets reach out to us for help and education.  

Terry was on NBC 15 last week to help with the education, good piece.  

For the second week of my weekly spring lawn care tips with 1310 WIBA we focused on discussions on de thatching vs aerating, voles and how to help your lawn bounce back as fast as possible.  

Click Here to listen to the broadcast for some great tips and advice.  

Spring weekly segment with WIBA radio for lawn care tips

Check out the first weekly segment on lawn care tips this Spring with me on WIBA.  I spent time discussing the impact of the drought of 2012, what you can do this spring to help your lawn recover and things like snow mold and its impact on your lawn.

Click Here to listen to the Podcast

Prepping Your Lawn for Spring

Prepping for Lawn Care Season

Are You Ready for Warmer Weather?

As a lawn care lover, you may be raring to get started on perfecting your outdoor landscape.  When the warmer weather hits, will you be truly ready to take on your winter weary yard?  Small efforts over the next couple of weeks will save you valuable time (and money!) when it really matters.  To help you prepare, I have compiled a list of simple lawn care prep tips. 

Click Here for your spring clean up tips

Are You Contributing to Runoff and Pollution by Not Fertilizing Your Lawn?

It is a little after 8am and the temperature is -8.  This must have shaken a few cobwebs upstairs and reinvigorated me to get on the blog again.  It has been way too long and I apologize for that.

There has been some exciting new research that proves that NOT fertilizing your lawn (or improperly fertilizing) actually is contributing to sediment and phosphorus runoff.  The research proves that a well fertilized home lawn reduces runoff substantially and is much better for the environment.  Those that believe that fertilizers are contributing to runoff, pollution and environmental degradation are strongly mistaken.  The reasoning behind this is that a well fertilized lawn is thick and healthy and traps most moisture and anchors sediment.  A lawn that has not been fertilized and has been maligned causes significant compaction and open soil in which is prone to runoff during large water events.  See the short video in the link below, great insight and really easy to follow.

Click Here