Thursday, March 28, 2013

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


Friday, February 1, 2013

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



Friday, July 6, 2012

Project Healing Waters

I wanted to share a new venture that I am a part of.  I am volunteering in a start up (in Dane County area) called Project Healing Waters.  The mission of Project Healing Waters "is to assist in the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active duty military personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings."


We are trying to get the info out to as veterans as possible as it is a free program.  We will be starting a 5 week short course introducing fly fishing to as many veterans as we can.  Please spread the word!


We will be meeting at the VA hospital in Madison starting on Thursday, July 19th from 7-9pm and ending on  August 16th.  Bldg 22 Rm 310 EERC


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Drought of '88 worthy...in 2012?

With the 10 day forecast showing little to no rain and temps consistently in the 90's, we are facing some pretty tough conditions for turf as well as our waterways.  The aquifers haven't been replenished in quite some time and waters are running low.


Your home lawn is suffering without the water and we are in the window now in which some parts of your lawn will not just be going dormant but actually dying out.  We will likely have many homeowners this fall re-seeding and aerating due to this summer's damage.
This sounds like a broken record but there are a few key ways you can help prevent die out of your home lawn.  Try to water for about an hour at a time in each place about every 2 days if you can through these difficult conditions.  Mow the grass at the tallest setting possible (4" usually).  These practices will help reduce some of the stress.  However, remember we are in the part of the country with what we call "cool season turf grasses."  That means that our grasses thrive between 60-75 degrees...not 90+ consistently with no rain.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns we will gladly steer you in the right direction.


Watering tips
http://madison.weedmanusa.com/watering-instructions.aspx


Thursday, June 7, 2012

2012 Weed Man June Newsletter

Check out or June Newsletter for summer lawn tips.  Learn proper watering and cutting practices during the hot weather.  There is also great info on turf disease and grubs/Japanese beetles.  Also, learn some great summer lawn games!

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs089/1101847878709/archive/1110032327664.html