- What if it rains after an application?
- Watering Facts-Guidelines
- Watering Scheduling for Established Lawns
- Watering Scheduling for New Lawns
- Mowing … and what about those clippings!
- When can I mow or water after a fertilizer application?
After an application, when is it safe for my children or pets to walk on the lawn?
- Core Aeration vs. “Power Raking”
- What kind of guarantee do you have?
- Weeds (three general classifications!)
- Are the applications harmful to my family and pets?
- Is there a charge for follow-up service calls?
- Do you have an organic (all natural) treatment plan ?
- Green Grass! (3 steps on how to get it and keep it)
- How Many Applications of Fertilizer Do I Need?
- What if my lawn has “ Brown spots”?
- Why Do Weeds Keep Coming Back?
- How often do you treat the lawn?
- Is Tender Lawn Care a member of the Better Business Bureau?
- Is Tender Lawn Care licensed?
- Why do I still have nutsedge?
- Do I have to be home when Tender Lawn Care comes?
- What about mushrooms?
What if it rains after an application?
Rain is beneficial following a pre-emergent, fertilizer, or lime treatment and will not affect results. If after 7-10 days, the weeds do not begin to shrivel and die out, please call and we will gladly re-treat the weeds at no additional cost to you.
Watering Facts – Guidelines
Proper water is one of the most important maintenance practices required for maintaining healthy, beautiful lawns and landscapes. Good water practices will also $ave you money!
This is only a guideline. Every sprinkling system needs to be fine-tuned. Once the best ‘normal' setting is found, routine adjustments must be made as weather changes. Do NOT assume the sprinkler clock can be left at the same setting all year just because the sprinkling system is ‘automatic.' And Please, don't water on your mowing day!
Environmental Considerations:
Watering requirements will vary with the amount of rainfall, sun / cloud conditions, wind conditions, relative humidity & air temperatures, sun / shade conditions, soil type, grass / plant varieties, slopes / flat areas.
Mechanical Considerations:
Each sprinkler system is different. Head type, spacing, nozzle size, water pressure, and volume may be different from one sprinkler system to another.
Plant Types:
Grass and annual flowers generally require more frequent watering and greater amounts of water than woody ornamental trees and shrubs. This is because grass and annual flowers have more shallow root systems. Some sprinkler systems have separate zones for the shrub beds. If possible these shrub beds should operate on a ‘B' program and the lawn area should operate on an ‘A' program.
Head Types:
Spray heads remain in a fixed position and usually cover a smaller area than a rotary head. Rotary heads rotate and cover a larger area than spray heads. Important: Generally, a spray head will apply approximately 2x more water than rotary heads. This means that a rotary head would need to run twice as long as a spray head to apply the same amount of water!
Water Requirements:
Depending on the environmental conditions, established lawns require 1 -2” inches of water per week. Use a rain gauge to determine rainfall amounts and then use your sprinkler system to supply the additional water needed.
Proper watering of your lawn is the most important cultural practice there is to maintain the health of your lawn. Yet many people do not give it the importance it deserves. No amount of fertilizer or other practices will improve the quality of your lawn if it does not receive proper irrigation. Lawns that do not receive proper irrigation become brown and do not grow. During periods of high heat and little rainfall, dry areas of the lawn may turn purple then quickly turn brown.
Researchers at Michigan State University have found that the old practice of deep and infrequent watering is not the best system for your lawn. The current recommendation is to water your lawn every day, in the late morning, for 30-45 minutes per area. This will give your lawn about 0.1" of water per day. You may have to adjust that recommendation according to your personal situation, but actual experience has shown that even watering every other day for 30-45 minutes give better results than soaking the lawn once a week. Also, be ready to adjust the schedule during times of excessive heat/drought or rain.
If you cannot water in the late morning, choose a time that better fits your schedule, but try not to water after dark. Moist, warm and dark conditions will encourage fungal diseases, something you definitely do not want to have happen.
Standard Sprinkler Settings for ESTABLISHED Lawns:
Spray Zones – 15 minutes
Rotary Zones – 30 minutes
Watering Frequency based on weather that is providing constant temperatures in the following ranges:
70 degrees = 2-3 times per week
75 degrees = 3-4 times per week
80 degrees = 4-5 times per week
85 degrees = 5-6 times per week
Note: Space watering times during the week. Please, do Not water the night before mowing day!
Standard Settings for ESTABLISHED Woody Ornamentals, Trees & Shrubs:
These are usually Spray Heads!
5 – 15 minutes / time
Watering Frequency based on weather that is providing constant temperatures in the following ranges:
70 degrees = 1 time per week
75 degrees = 1-2 times per week
80 degrees = 2 times per week
85 degrees = 2-3 times per week
Note: Check the soul moisture 6 – 18” below the mulch. Do NOT over water – this can cause leaves to turn brown and the plant may die!
Standard Sprinkler Settings for New Lawns:
Spray Zones – 5 minutes
Rotary Zones – 10 minutes
Watering Frequency based on weather that is providing constant temperatures in the following ranges:
70 degrees = 2 times per day
75 degrees = 2-3 times per day
80 degrees = 3-4 times per day
85 degrees = 4 times per day
Note: Space watering times during the day. Avoid puddles / channeling – water run off. The goal is to keep the lawn moist at all times without over watering!
Mowing
While the weekly chore of cutting the grass is rarely on the top-ten list of fun things to do (which is why Tender Lawn Care is here!), it remains an essential part of caring for your lawn. Just try not cutting the lawn for two or three weeks and see what your neighbors say, and how much more work it is to cut!
The general rule you should follow is to not cut more than one third of the blade of grass off at any one time. If you cut the lawn each week, that will usually comply with that guideline.
One of the most common mistakes people make when cutting their grass is to cut it too low. The kinds of grasses found in Michigan lawns are meant to be cut at heights of 2.5 - 3.0 inches tall. If they are routinely cut lower than that they will not be as healthy and may begin to thin out and die. Set your lawn mower at either the highest setting available or the second highest setting to achieve the correct height of cut. Only cut with a sharp blade. The blade of your mower should be sharpened at least once each year, if not more. If the tips of the blades of grass are frayed after you mow, the blade of your lawn mower needs to be sharpened.
Finally, Should I mulch or pick up the clippings . We like to encourage our customers to allow the grass clippings to remain on the lawn. With the restrictions on yard waste disposal and the benefits your lawn will receive, allowing the blades to stay on the lawn makes good sense. The grass blades will not contribute to thatch because they all decompose within about six weeks, adding about five percent more fertilizer to the soil! (Thatch from grass clippings accounts for less than 1/16" per year.) Landscape waste (including grass clippings) makes up 20% of all curbside waste. When you can, why not be Earth Friendly?
When can I mow or water after an application?
We recommend waiting at least one or two days before you water or mow. It is better to water a day before mowing to allow fertilizer to dissolve. Mowing is only a factor if you bag the clippings. You will be bagging up all of the beneficial chemicals or nutrients in the lawn. Remember summer applications need water more than others.
When is it safe for my children or pets to walk on the lawn?
When the application is dry, the lawn may be used as normal.
Core Aeration
Core Aeration is one of the best things you can do for your lawn. It is the process of making thousands of holes in the turf to open up the soil and break up thatch. The core removed by the aerator "melts" into the lawn and immediately begins to improve thatch breakdown.
What Does It Do? The root system of your lawn is constantly renewing itself by sending out new shoots. This new growth needs loose and open soil. If your lawn is compacted, has a lot of clay, or is saturated with water, the new roots will stay near the surface or grow in the thatch layer. Aeration breaks up compacted, heavy soils giving the roots a place to go. Water penetration will be better and rooting will improve as well.
Who Should Get It And How Often? Every lawn can benefit from Core Aeration. It is suggested that a lawn be aerated at least every other year, but preferably every year. There is no bad time to have your lawn aerated, as long as it has irrigation. Spring/Fall is often mentioned as a "better" time only because of the high level of activity of the root system.
Will It Control Thatch? Core Aeration brings cores of soil up from below the lawn's surface. We recommend that these cores be mowed back into the lawn. By allowing these cores to mix back into lawn surface, the soil adds back microbial agents which are needed to control thatch. This is not an immediate fix for a serious thatch problem, but is the best way to manage a thatch condition.
Thoughts on Power Raking/De-Thatching
Core Aeration is often suggested as an alternative to power raking or "de-thatching". We do not recommend these damaging processes. Power raking pulls as much or more good healthy grass out of the lawn along with the brown blades. This sets a lawn back several weeks from normal development. All those brown blades are not thatch, either! Those blades will decompose all by themselves in 6-8 weeks. Thatch is an underground network of roots, rhizomes, and blades that form a dense mat. The only way power raking will remove real thatch is to set the machine all the way down to the soil and remove all of your lawn.
What kind of guarantee do you have?
We will return, at no additional charge, to take care of any weeds that remain or to add any additional fertilizer after an application has been made, upon being notified by you, the client. Tender Lawn Care will do everything reasonably possible to make sure that every one of our clients is satisfied.
Weeds
Nobody wants weeds in their lawn. But the fact of the matter is that weeds are always going to be there. Weeds grow from seeds that are either deep in the soil or blown in from neighboring areas or dropped by birds. Weeds ca be divided into three types of groups: Grassy Weeds, Easy to Control broadleaf weeds and Hard to Control broadleaf weeds.
Grassy Weeds: This includes the weeds Crabgrass, Foxtail and Goosegrass. These weeds are best controlled on a preventive basis. They are an annual weed which means the seeds germinate in the late spring and then the plant dies in the fall with the first hard frost. If you see something that you think is crabgrass, and it is in April...it's not crabgrass! It is probably a wild grass, and that's a whole different problem. If grassy weeds were a problem last year, then an application of a pre-emergent material may be recommended. Easy to Control broadleaf weeds: This class would include the ever popular dandelion and other common weeds. It is safe to say that there is nothing to be done to prevent weeds from popping up in your lawn. While there is a product that will prevent most weeds from germinating, it is very expensive and not used a lot for homes. (Note: It is available and very effective. Ask about it!) Typically, these weeds are handled by either a spring or fall weed control application. Interestingly, the fall application may be even more effective than the spring service, even though it is in the spring when we see the yellow flowers.
Hard to Control broadleaf weeds: This would include weeds such as clover and ground ivy (creeping charlie). These weeds are harder to control than most due to their leaf size and a waxy surface that repels the weed control products. However, there are products available to professionals that can handle even the toughest weeds. And usually with only one application!
How To Get Rid of Weeds: As mentioned above, typically an application or two of a weed control product is needed to get weed populations under control. However, once that has been accomplished, good healthy turfgrass will prevent most weeds from growing. Keeping your lawn well watered , properly cut and fertilized you will eliminate most weed competition.
Are the applications harmful to my family and pets?
All of the products that we use are mixed and applied according to the stringent requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency. In their diluted form they are considered by the E.P.A. to be “practically non-toxic”. There is not a single credible study linking lawn care products to any adverse health effects. In most every case, the products we use can be purchased by consumers at your local garden store.
For more information on pesticide safety, please visit pestfacts.org
Is there a charge for follow-up service calls?
Please allow 7 days for the fertilizer and weed control to take full effect. If, within 6 weeks of your application, you need more weed control or fertilizer, simply contact our office. We will send your technician out free of charge. Applications are scheduled approximately 6-8 weeks apart. If a service call is requested and it has been 6 weeks or longer since the last application, the next application will be applied instead of a service call.
Do you have an organic (all natural) treatment plan?
We do provide organic lawn treatments! “All natural” lawn care products are available, please call Tender Lawn Care to learn more about our “organic” applications.
How Do I Make My Lawn Green
Everybody (okay, nearly everybody) wants a nice green lawn. How do you do it? It's not so hard really. First start by watering properly. As glib as that may sound, it truly is that important. Without proper watering, nothing else you do to the grass will make it turn green. Read our Watering FAQ for all the details. Next, apply a little fertilizer over the course of the summer. You can read the Fertilization FAQ for specifics, but without some nutrients consistently added through-out the growing season, the grass will fade and become less green than it can be. Since you are watering and fertilizing, the grass is going to grow. If the lawn is cut improperly, it will not be as green as it can be. Simply put, mow high and let it lie. You'll the 'cutting details' in our Mowing FAQ .
Put these three practices together in the right combination and a green lawn is actually quite easy. But remember, once it gets green, there is a maximum level it will be. Once it's looking good, enjoy it and don't keep trying to make it greener still. You'll be putting the lawn into a stress condition, which will eventually cause major problems.
How Many Applications of Fertilizer Do I Need?
The answer to this question has more to do with how you want your lawn to look, than what it needs. Current recommendations from Michigan State University 's Extension Service indicate that 4 to 5 pounds of nitrogen should be applied per area over the course of the summer. This amount should never be applied all at one time. Decide how many applications you are willing to make and divide up the nutrients needed. You can see that somewhere between 4 and 6 applications are needed to be sure your lawn gets the nutrients it needs to be healthy.
Of course there is a price to pay for fertilizing your lawn - - it grows! That means its going to need water and then it'll have to be cut . Be sure to see our recommendations for these two critical lawn care practices. Just remember, the more you fertilize, the more the lawn will grow.
Brown spots
Diagnosing the proverbial "brown spot" in a lawn can drive even a seasoned professional crazy. There are just so many things that can cause the lawn to turn brown and die in a spot. One thing you never want to do is to apply a control material without knowing exactly what the problem is. If you apply the wrong stuff, you may end up causing more problems than you are trying to solve.
So where do you start? Have you been watering correctly? Lack of water will cause lots of yellowing and spots. Plus other problems will become worse if a lawn is not watered correctly. Over-watering can also yellow a lawn and can kill trees and shrubs! What about mowing? If a lawn is mowed too short or not often enough, brown spots can and do appear. Is it a problem from pets? Both dogs and cats can cause spots...even if you don't own one of your own.
If all that has been taken care of, we start to look for diseases or insects. While there are millions of different insects in this world only 5 or 6 will cause damage to a lawn and about a dozen on trees and shrubs. So it is pretty easy to know what to look for. Diseases are a little harder to pick out, but again, there are only a relative few that routinely cause damage, so knowing the symptoms and signs can help narrow down the cause.
A good diagnostic book from a garden center will help you know the symptoms...or, if you are a Tender Lawn Care client, a trained service technician will come and check out your lawn or landscape for free.
The bottom line is this: There are too many different things that may cause a brown spot in a lawn or turn leaves on a tree brown. Take the time needed to properly diagnose the problem before jumping in to start controlling something. You'll be glad you took your time.
Why Do Weeds Keep Coming Back?
Weeds are a pain, aren't they? Just when you think you've got them under control, back they come. The problem is that they are usually an annual plant that always has a lot of seeds. Therefore when you kill a weed today, it dies, but seeds from other weed plants blow in and will germinate. Even in the very best situation, there is little you can do to totally prevent weed growth forever.
Here are a couple of suggestions to make it less annoying. First, understand that weed control is an annual or semi-annual event. Nothing lasts forever, including weed control. Second, treat the area with a broadleaf weed control product to control what is there now. Read and carefully follow label directions. Third, (and this is important) fill in the bare areas so that the sun does not hit bare soil. Seed or sod in grassy areas. Use rocks or gravel or sod or mulch or something that covers the dirt in flowerbeds and long fencerows. If the sun and water keep hitting bare soil, weeds will keep growing. In flowerbeds and fencerows, try to use a pre-emergent weed and grass control product ("Preen", etc.) to prevent any seeds from germinating in the bare soil. Read and carefully follow label directions. In these tougher areas, you'll have to make the applications every spring and fall, but it should not be quite as bad as it has been if you use the pre-emergent material.
How often do you treat the lawn?
We treat the lawn about every five to seven weeks depending on the weather.
Are you a member of the Better Business Bureau?
Yes, we have been a member of the BBB since 1984!
Is Tender Lawn Care licensed?
Yes we are. All commercial lawn care applicators are required by the Michigan Department of Agriculture to be licensed, bonded, and insured to apply pesticides of any sort. All lawn care application technicians are required to be tested, certified, and recertified every three years.
Tender Lawn Care is also licensed for residential and commercial snowplowing!
Why do I still have nutsedge?
Nutsedge (yellow and purple), and crabgrass are the most common summer grassy weeds in our area. The pre-emergent that we put on the lawn is designed to control crabgrass, not nutsedge. Please be patient with summer weed control.
Do I have to be home?
No. Most of our lawns are serviced during normal working hours. Unless otherwise instructed, your technician will complete his work and leave an invoice at your door.
Mushrooms
The presence of mushrooms means there is some decaying organic matter is present in the soil. Mushrooms are a result of organic matter (old tree roots, wood, etc.) decomposing in the soil. Don't worry it won't hurt your lawn and there is nothing you can do about it. They also indicate that there is plenty of moisture in the soil. Usually the mushrooms appear after a rainfall. Once the soil dries out a little, give it about 3-5 days and the mushrooms will probably go away. The only way to eliminate the mushroom growth is to remove the organic matter and the surrounding soil. A very big task, indeed. Mushrooms are a sign of life in the soil...and that's a good thing. Unless you are thinking of eating the mushrooms (and I really don't suggest that!) you can stop picking the mushrooms. Bear with them for a short time and they will disappear. Or, when mushrooms do appear, simply mow them off. And no, there is nothing to do to prevent them.
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