Lime and Your Lawn

The coming of spring means a number of things: thorough cleaning, lighter clothing, warmer weather, and for homeowners, lawn care. As the dangers of snow and freezing temperatures pass, it becomes necessary to prepare for the planting, growing, and nurturing of grass, flowers, and other vegetation. Before anything goes into the ground, however, you must first ensure the health of your soil; no amount of caring for your plants will be of any use if the soil they are to grow in will not support that growth. That is why it is important that you consider the necessity of liming your lawn.

Symptoms Calling for Lime

Briefly, your lawn is in need of liming when the soil is too acidic. Since the majority of plants and grass will not grow properly in acidic soil, you may observe your lawn losing its usual vigor if it is suffering from excess acidity. Grass may turn yellow, and weeds, which do thrive on acidity, may abound. You may also observe the appearance of lawn moss and an increase of harmful insects. All of these changes can occur when the pH level of the soil is too low, and lawn treatments for these problems may not have good results when faced with acidity.

Mulch Madness

As we upgrade the landscape during the spring and add new plants, we keep consistency in mind, so our yard looks fabulous and well-put together. Mass plantings and focal points in the yard benefit significantly from a covering of attractive mulch. Use the same product for all your beds to add a uniform appearance. Mulch offers many other benefits.

Mulching:

• Helps hold in and conserve moisture
• Shades weed growth to keep them from sprouting
• Insulates plant roots, keeping them somewhat cooler in summer and warmer in winter
• Breaks down to improve soil and provide nutrients to plantings
  

Prepping Your Lawn and Landscape for Spring

When the weather warms up in spring, don’t you just itch to get outside and start prepping your lawn and landscape? That’s a good thing because your yard needs attention after the long winter. In that spirit, here are a few things you should work on the outside when the weather begins to warm up, but before spring begins in earnest.

Remove Dead and Dried Foliage on Perennials

Begin by removing the foliage from last year on your perennials. In most cases, you would have removed it last fall, but plants like ornamental grasses and hydrangeas retain their foliage all winter. This provides interest in your landscape during the winter months, but the dead stuff has to be removed in spring, so new growth has all the room it needs to grow and thrive. Pull it or cut it off just above ground level and trash it or add it to your compost pile.

Build Compost for Your Home Garden

Composting is an inexpensive, simple, effective means of adding nutrient-rich humus to your soil. Recycle waste from your kitchen and yard while creating a natural fertilizer that’s great for the environment.

Compost Pile

This option is free to set up, assuming you have the materials on hand. You’ll need a space approximately 3’ square, the perfect size to allow your compost pile to reach the optimal temperature for breaking down organic material.

Gather your materials:

• Brown material: dead leaves, wood chips, nut shells, hay, corn and other husks, breads, etc
• Green material: fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps, grass, weeds and green leaves
• Soil material: manure, mature compost, or soil
• Cover: this can be a plastic tarp, wood, or even carpet pieces. You’ll want to cover the compost pile enough to control moisture and heat, but not so much that oxygen can’t reach it
  

Not Mowing Your Grass During the Winter

You’ve probably heard experienced lawn care experts recommend suspending mowing during the winter season. What science underlies this advice? Why not cut your grass at this time of year?

Dormancy: An Important Rest Period

Most grasses continue growing very slowly during the winter. However, just like trees, grass plants react to the marked change in environmental conditions during colder months of the year. They experience a period of dormancy in which their rate of growth slows down significantly. The plant instead directs energy towards its root system.

Every time you cut back a growing plant (including grasses), you cause some degree of physical stress. While verdant lawns sustain regular mowing during warmer seasons, the consequences of cutting grass plants during cold months may prove fatal. Just as you would not want to prune a tree too heavily, it remains a wise precaution to avoid imposing a lot of unnecessary stress on your lawn during bitterly chill periods of the year. Grass simply does not grow at a rapid pace during colder months.

Control These Winter Weeds

If you’ve longed for a rich, lush green lawn, you may have taken steps in the past to sow grass seeds and apply fertilizer and soil amendments to nourish the turf. While little growth seems to occur during dormant winter months, in Maryland and Virginia some categories of weeds actually begin thriving during this time of year. Without the implementation of effective control measures, some unwelcome weeds may monopolize available resources when spring arrives and interfere with your plans to maintain attractive expanses of grass.

Protecting Your Deck Throughout Winter

Your deck has been your friend during summer; giving you the perfect spot for entertaining friends, basking in the beautiful outdoor weather and often displaying your spring and summer blooms and foliage. Keep your deck in proper condition by preparing it for the winter. Things you can do include:

Begin by clearing the deck. Remove the plants, the grill, the seating and anything else that’s on it. Autumn is the ideal time for this project, but it’s not too late if you missed that opportunity. Here in Alexandria, VA, we might still have some pleasant and warm days before the cold is consistent with us. If you just do not have the time or inclination to clear the deck you can always call on the professionals.

Preventing Damage to Steps and Walkways from Freeze and Thaw

Here in our area, of Alexandria, VA we understand that rain, snow, and freezing temperatures are a guarantee in winter. Our steps and other outdoor areas often become victims of the freeze/thaw syndrome. This problem affects all of our outdoor hardscapes but is especially dangerous on the steps our children, and we use to enter and exit our home.

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Brightening Up Your Landscape in the Winter

It’s no secret that, in winter, everything tends to turn the same color: gray. Gloomy gray skies hover over gray, salt-encrusted roads and cars, and gray landscapes with leafless gray trees and grayish-green grass just waiting for warmer weather to be able to flourish, once again. Is there any way to brighten up this gray landscape, then? Or are you stuck dreaming of a green spring, or planning a quick trip to someplace tropical? The answer is that you can, absolutely, transform your landscape into one of color, even in the coldest and darkest months of winter.

Make Your House a Home of Color

When some people think of adding color to the exterior of their home, they think of an eccentric artist’s home splashed with every color under the sun. While this certainly isn’t bad, if that’s your style, if something more traditional is more to your liking, you can still brighten it up with a few pops of well-chosen color. For example, if you have a fence on your property, consider a beautiful, deep blue to liven it up. Or, perhaps you have a large front door that would benefit from a handsome red color, or even a daring yellow. There are plenty of ways to brighten up your home without having it look like a children’s painting.

Five Lawn Care Tips for the Winter

Having a great-looking lawn is a year-round commitment to ensuring the grass and other plants have the nutrients they need, as well as the proper growing conditions to allow them to thrive. Even as winter comes closer, it’s essential to prepare your lawn to ensure that when spring arrives, your lawn will sprout quickly, and look great all season.

Mowing Right Along

Don’t give up on mowing, just because the weather turns cooler. Until the temperature takes a nosedive, your grass will continue to grow, especially if it’s healthy. Until growth slows or stops, keep mowing to keep the grass at optimum height. Failure to do so could result in matting and snow mold once the long winter months set in.

Fertilize

Your lawn’s grass can still absorb nutrients as the weather turns colder. Feed it well and set it up for success by continuing to fertilize it until the first frost. Since your grass doesn’t get much in the way of nutrients during the winter months, give it what you can while it can still absorb them, so that it has all it needs to come back strong in the spring.