Dejong Lawn & Landscape DeJong Lawn & Landscaping Lawn Care Tips

DeJong Lawn & Landscape provides these tips to help keep your lawn in top condition, as well as help you understand and choose the right applications for your lawn care needs.

GET A CLEAN CUT - Sharpen your blade

Ideally, the sharper your mower blade is the better. Blades that are really dull tend to hack at the grass leaving frayed ends that can turn brown, or worse, invite disease because of the large wound site created at the end of each blade of grass. A sharp blade produces a much cleaner cut. If your blades are really dull, sometimes your mower will start to leave grass blades behind, uncut and bent over. Lots of browning and missed blades can really affect the aesthetics of your lawn.

A mower blade will begin to dull even after just one mowing. The more lawn you have to mow, the more often you will need to sharpen your blades. For residences, mower blades should be sharpened at least once a season. For commercial lawn care businesses, at least once a month during the growing season. These are minimum guidelines, not a maximum: if you’re avid about your lawn then, by all means, sharpen more often.

MOWING

A lawn that is properly watered and fertilized has few problems with weeds and disease. The mowing height recommended for bluegrass is 3" to 3½". Mowing too low probably ruins more lawns than any other practice. Bluegrass, which is cut high, is more disease resistant and can compete more with the weeds and insects. The rule of thumb for mowing is when the grass grows, only cut ½" or less off per mowing.

FERTILIZER

Dollar for dollar, fertilizer does more to improve lawns than any other management factor. Nitrogen in fertilizer is essential for shoot growth, density, root growth, and to prevent damage from disease, heat, cold and drought.

Momentum: This broadleaf herbicide chemical contains 2, 4-D MCPP and Dicamba formulation. Broadleaf weeds include: black medic, buckhorn, burdock, clover, dandelions, ground ivy (commonly known as Creeping Charlie), nut sedge, pigweed, plantation, poison ivy, purslane, sandbur, and spurge.
Liquid Iron: Iron promotes vigorous growth and dark green color. Most soil in Iowa has a high pH. Turfgrass grown on this alkaline soil may show signs of iron deficiency.

INSECTICIDE

This aids in control of Japanese beetle, oriental beetle, billbug, and mole crickets. For optimum results of white grubs, watering or rainfall after this application helps move the insecticide into the soil. Avoid mowing the grass until after watering or rainfall occurs. Mach 2 offers 4-6 months control.

WEED CONTROL

Weeds germinate and grow during all seasons of the year. Many people fail in trying to control the weeds themselves since they will use a weed control product in the spring only and then wonder why they have weeds in the summer. Weed control products need to be used regularly just like the regular fertilizing schedule. Most people will use a "weed and feed" product that contains weed control products and fertilizer together. This is the easiest way to do both tasks. There are two types of weed control products. Pre-emergent and Post emergent. Pre-emergent products control weeds before they germinate and come up. Post emergent products kill existing weeds. Another reason the average home owner will get discouraged after attempting weed control is that often the wrong type of weed killer is used on the wrong weed. Good weed control is achieved only when you use the right product for the right weed at the right time. Broadleaf weeds include: black medic, buckhorn, burdock, clover, dandelions, ground ivy (commonly known as Creeping Charlie), nut sedge, pigweed, plantation, poison ivy, purslane, sandbur, and spurge.

YEAR-ROUND LAWN TREATMENT

For the most beautiful lawn, a year-round course of treatments is best. Follow these steps for Iowa applications.

Step #1 - Pre-emergent (applied in April thru May). Apply a liquid or granular fertilizer and herbicide for the prevention of crabgrass and foxtail before germination.

Step #2 - Spring Treatment (applied from May thru June). Apply liquid fertilizer and herbicide for broadleaf weed control.

Step #3 - Summer Treatment (applied from July thru August). Apply liquid iron and Mach 2 insecticide for white grub control. (DeJong Lawn & Landscape offer flea control options as part of our year-round treatment packages as well.)

Step #4 - Fall Treatment (applied September thru November). Apply liquid fertilizer and herbicide for broadleaf control.

Step #5 - Winter Treatment (applied in November). Apply slow-release granular fertilizer to nourish your lawn through the winter.

AERATION

The benefits of aeration are well worth the effort. Air can reach the root zone, stimulating new roots for the grass blades. If thatch is a problem, the holes punched by the aerator allow water to penetrate that barrier, helping to decompose the thatch. Turf suffers when soil is compacted — aeration keeps clay soils from packing down, affecting root development. Be sure to go across the lawn in both directions for better coverage.

PLUG PLANTS

Plan ahead this March and buy your summer 'Plug Plants' at your local nursery to save money in the long run. These are small partially-grown plants with an individual root cell. You can then plant these in larger containers to grow and at the time you decide to plant them outside they will be larger and fuller than the regular plants that you would buy in a trays from a retailer. This will give your garden some fullness with better healthier plants.

EARLY VEGETABLES

If you have a soil that is the consistency of clay try planting your early vegetables in raised beds, this lets the water drain better and the beds will warm up earlier than if you were to plant them in "in-ground" beds. Also, cover some of your garden beds with black plastic where you have chosen to plant those early vegetables for a couple of weeks before you want to plant. This will help to warm up the beds earlier. Remove the plastic before you decide to plant the seedlings or cut small holes in the plastic.

TREES & SHRUBS

Late winter is the time to think about your addition of shrubs and trees for spring planting. Deciduous trees and shrubs with a bare root system should be planted while they are still dormant from winter. This is about one month before the average date of the last frost in your area. Container-grown or B&B (burlap and ball) trees and shrubs can be planted at anytime with the exception of harsh cold weather.

This is also a good time to prune your broadleaf evergreen trees before the new spring growth begins. This will let the tree grow over the cut surfaces and enclose any bare inner braches. Winter may have brought harsh freezing rain or heavy snow. It is suggested that right before spring you check your root system on your small trees, shrubs and bushes to ensure they have not uprooted from the weight. Also, excessive wet soil will complicate this problem. If you have any that are uprooting, replant them and add mulch up to at least 2 inches. The mulch will reduce the temperature fluctuation and keep them stabilized.