Seasonal Lawn Maintenance

Jay Nygaard: Jay Nygaard here, owner of Great Outdoors Landscape & Patio, here today to discuss with you seasonal lawn maintenance. Part of that seasonal lawn maintenance is controlling problem areas throughout your lawn. These problem areas could be compaction of soil in high traffic areas, thatch build-up from clippings deposited in a lawn and also dry areas from inadequate sprinkler coverage.

Now in high traffic areas the soil compacts to a point where it does not allow root growth throughout your yard. If this happens, the best way to mitigate that would be lawn aeration. Now what lawn aeration does is actually pull plugs of soil 2-3 inches in length out of your lawn and allows for air, fertilizer and water to penetrate the surface far below encouraging root growth and repairing that area of high compaction.

As discussed in our previous segment, thatch areas build up by clippings, excess clippings being deposited in your yard that don't compost before the next mow cycle. These clippings, if are left to build up to a thickness of more than a half an inch will cause problem areas throughout your yard.

To alleviate the problem, there again, aeration is the best solution. You can rake the lawn, but in doing so, you'll pull out roots that are healthy in addition to pulling the thatch out and correcting the problem in that manner. It's best to do an aeration that's least invasive and you'll have a better result and a healthier lawn because of it.

Another common problem throughout your lawn is dry areas. Dry areas can be caused by sprinkler malfunctions, heads that need to be adjusted and/or replaced, also causing dry areas could be soil compaction and extreme exposure to some light. These areas can be mitigated by adjusting your sprinkler system and correcting water issues which will be discussed in a segment coming up.

Now here to discuss further, seasonal lawn maintenance, is Dillon Hicks, our project site supervisor. He will cover the topics of fertilization and applications of herbicides and pesticides. Dillon.

Dillon Hicks: Thank you. There are three main ingredients when it comes to fertilizing. There is nitrogen which helps in the growth of your lawn, potassium which helps control pests and disease and then there is phosphorous which helps develop a deeper, healthier root system which can help your lawn be more drought-resistant.

In early spring, when your lawn starts to green up, you can use a granular, time release fertilizer which will help your lawn to become more lush and develop a deeper root system which will help it become more drought resistant. In early summer, before the summer heat hits, you can use a weed & feed which will help defend against dandelions and crabgrass and other weeds which might come into your lawn.

This application also help defend against those ninety-degree days which will otherwise fry your lawn. In early fall, you can do one more cycle of a granular fertilizer, which is time released which will help the lawn, recover from the summer heat and one month before the last frost, you can apply a winterizer which is high in phosphorous, which will help develop a deep root system to help the lawn get through the winter months.

Now to help explain application of these fertilizers I have talked about, I'm going to toss it to Jay.

Jay Nygaard: Fertilizer application is about the easiest thing you can do when it comes to lawn maintenance. A hand spreader such as this, all you need to do is fill the hopper with a time released granular fertilizer, pull the trigger and then apply it to your lawn as you walk at a normal pace throughout your entire area.

Now in doing this, with a time released granular, the chances of you burning your lawn are much less than using another type of fertilizer that isn't time released. So really it takes all of the guesswork out and makes it an easy item for you to scratch off your honey-do list.

Next up we're going to talk about pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and what you can do to keep a healthy lawn and a disease-free soil area.