Author Archives: mike

Mike’s Top Ten Winter Landscape Tips 1.      Lawn Renovation– Winter is an excellent time to do lawn renovation.  From filling holes or just leveling areas, dirt work can and is of often done in early winter.  You’ll have to remember that seeding this time of the year is considered as dormant seeding and you will not

The Importance of Fall/Winter Fertilizing As a professional lawn care applicator, I tend to have many people questioning the importance of fall and winter fertilizing.  For many people it simply makes no sense to apply fertilizer on the frozen and sometimes snow covered lawns in November or December.  The truth remains that these applications are

Is It Time To Aerate Lawns? Lawn aeration is a widely recommended turf grass practice that mechanically removes soil cores in turf grass.  Many homeowners have asked many question about this practice and these are a few of them: What are the benefits of aeration?   Answer:  Aerification helps lawn s in several ways by reducing

As many of you walk through your lawns you might see that your shoes are discolored with an orange tint.  Rust disease is caused by a variety of different fungi and usually affects taller mown turf such as residential lawns, low budget athletic fields and golf course roughs.  Common names for this disease are leaf rust,

Just like last year we are already beginning to see many landscape plants and trees that are showing signs of stress from a variety of factors this year.  Excessive heat, drought, insects and disease are among a few and most of your landscape plantings will show stress from these in a variety of different ways. I have already

Yellow nutsedge has been popping up in lawns in East Central Indiana for the past 3-4 years but the presences of this noxious weed have become quite populated this summer.  Nutsedge is not actually grass but a true sedge and is most easily identified by solid stems, triangular cross section with a waxy leaf.  It

Although the date of their arrival differs every year we can only assume the ever so painful Japanese beetle to arrive soon.  While thinking ahead this year I wanted to take some time to explain their biology and control of this pest. The Japanese beetle adults pupate from larvae in late spring and they begin

One of the many problems that I come across in landscaping is establishing a nice turf grass in shaded areas of lawns.  Shade trees play a vital role in our landscapes by providing shaded areas for the cooling of our homes and outdoor living spaces.  Although we reap the benefits of shade trees we also

Here we go again trying to catch those pesky critters that are heaving up large piles of dirt in our lawn and making a maze of raised trails throughout.  Moles have become an increasing problem for many of us and most homeowners have wanted to know what to do to get rid of them.  As