Forget the ground hog...

Here are the true signs spring is coming:

January-  the Tommy Knockers appear.
No this isn't about the Stephen King novel of the same name. This is about an occurrence that starts annually in the early part of January---Weedman door to door sales.

It's not that I begrudge this tactic- what ever works, right?  For a company this size it's simply a numbers game as it is with Trugreen, Nutrilawn and other medium to large-sized lawn businesses. However, there are a few things you should be aware of before you dip your big toe into the thought of lawn care for your property.

You may not be interested in signing at your front door as dinner gets cold on the table,
but you may be saying yes to a phone call from a closer sometime in the near future just to shoo the kid in the neon yellow vest away. Now the company has carte blanche to call you repeatedly....and they will.
It's a common thread I hear from ex-customers of the lawn giant.

The price may be high at first but with every "no" a counter offer may come into play. Anyone who has suffered the onslaught of a time share seminar will understand. You must ask yourself, "why didn't I get the best price from the start." Not exactly the solid foundation of trust I want to start a relationship on.

Yet, that, "too good", price you find yourself negotiating may be just that. Once the smoke has cleared at the end of the season you may find you've paid for a lot of upsell....some of which you may not have even ordered.

If this is a service you are considering for your home, then like all things, you should do your research, or proceed with caution. Homestars, I find, is an excellent place to start for those who want to read others experiences with the company you are considering before jotting your John Hancock on anything.

February- by now most lawn care companies have started to call/ email/ send out renewal notices. You may wonder with snow on the ground why they just can't wait until the end of March when you are more in a spring-like mood.

I don't want to show up and start work on a lawn that was green-lighted last year. Circumstances change, people move, or some may want to D.I.Y. this year. With an extensive customer base it takes time to contact everyone and routes for the trucks need to be set long before the season starts so February makes sense.

March- Many times before the last remnants of snow and ice disappear you can see the ubiquitous workers of Property Stars pushing their aerators up and down the streets trying to entice you into a early spring aeration.

It may sound like a good deal, but consider this. Too early in the season the ground is still frozen and you don't get the benefit of a deep core. Too soggy and more damage than good is caused to the lawns composition.

There is also the weed-seed factor to keep in mind as dormant seeds will be disturbed and exposed to the elements. There are hundreds of weed seeds in your lawn per square metre just waiting for such an opportunity.

If you want an aeration done properly, at the appropriate time, wait to the last weeks of August or September and do some over-seeding with it. Your lawn will be much more forgiving.

Spring may start, officially, March 20th, but the preparation begins long before.

A tale of two seasons

As we approach the end of another lawn care season I'm reminded of this year and the duality it represented.

Lawns looked fantastic to about the middle of July. In fact, many of our customers commented, it was the best their lawns had ever looked under our care. Then things took a turn.

With the heat and drought conditions, crabgrass exploded over night, chinch bugs marched forth in wave after wave with voracious hunger and white moth/ sod webworm made their presence known in bled, softball-sized pockets of brown, dead grass that lasted into mid September.

Not all lawns were affected, but enough were to keep us jumping through the summer months. This is why it is so important to make sure your lawn gets at least one deep watering a week during periods of high heat and it is cut properly- 3 inches high with no more than a third of the blade removed when mowing.

With the fall. most lawns have recovered nicely, as they usually do, but with grubs on the increase the raccoon damage north of the city has me worried for next season . Since we are entering a period where summer heat will be consistent over the next several years, I expect insect and weed issues to remain on the high to severe side - a sequel I'm not looking forward to.

Character development, conflict and eventual resolution might be great reading, but when it comes to your lawn...not so much.

If you want excellent curb appeal, stay away from the bargain-bin, dime-store novel and keep your lawn on the best-seller list.

Triple threat

At this time of the year it can be hard to tell what is affecting your lawn.
If you are not watering, or you haven't been cutting properly, the issues may be many.
In some cases you may not know until the fall, when lawns begin to recover from the summer heat and your grass does not, what the cause is. But here are the big three in terms of summer grass problems.

Drought stress, summer patch and brown patch are the most common. Simply, if it's not raining and you're not watering, the lawn will begin to enter into a state of dormancy. If it does, it is best to just let it run its course and revive it come September when cooler temperatures return. Turf diseases like brown patch, on the other hand, show up with shifts in humidity and affect mostly Kentucky Blue, bent and some fescue grass types. To avoid all turf diseases, it is best to water the lawn early morning instead of evening, wait for the affected area to grow out and bag clippings when cutting, which should be, every other week at this point.

Chinch bugs are top feeding insects that love it hot and love it dry. They have been active for about a month and can destroy a lawn in short order if not dealt with. Again, if your lawn is predominately  a non-endophytic grass-type like Kentucky Blue grass, or you're cutting your lawn too short you are susceptible. Although, I have seen this insect take out fescue lawns in recent years. Your best defence is to douse the affected areas with soapy water, avoid those who preach nematodes for control and call a professional if the damage continues. Every fall make sure you over-seed with endophytic grass cultivars.

Sod webworm, white grub are root feeding insects. If your lawn is infected- and by that I mean ten grubs per square foot, or six per with webworm, damage will soon be evident as we are entering a new cycle of larvae hatching.

With webworm, look for baseball-sized, circular, brown patches you may have mistaken for pet urine burns. The webworms tunnels may also be evident as is their green pellet excrement known as "frass".

With white grub those circular patches will snake outward and the grass will come up easily like a carpet. You may also see signs of predator digging (raccoons, skunks)

The most widely used treatments are nematodes, (SC for webworm, HB for grubs). You need  to know what insect you are dealing with, but both strains of nematode must be applied in ideal conditions, kept refrigerated until use and they have an expiration date. It is of the utmost importance that you follow directions if you choose this method of control. Even then studies range between 50%- 70% control which might be ok when playing roulette, but do you really want to gamble with your lawn?

Remember, this is Mother Nature's top of the batting order and if you want to make the post season with healthy turf, you'll need to prepare your defence for anything that is thrown at you.

Wynne- lose

Usually I post tips and advise about lawns, but today I'm going to take another road.

Last week I was privileged to speak at an OSEB success night. OSEB is an acronym for Ontario Self Employment Benefit. It is an awesome program that taught me every aspect of running a business when I had no idea.  It is a 42 week guidance initiative, with seven weeks of class room, financial assistance, monthly business coaching and the creation of a top notch business plan suitable for any bank. As a result, eight years later, I was asked back to speak with a new class of entrepreneurs about what has made me successful and pass on advise to these new businesses.

I was sad to learn on my visit, the OSEB program will be shut down in 2016 by the Ontario Liberals.
I guess they need the revenue for some other venture, another gas power plant perhaps? That's right the people have a long memory Kathleen/ Dalton.
No one should be surprised. After all, this is the same government that says it is ok to eat produce treated with pesticides, you just can't walk it...well, unless you're playing golf, or sodding the lawn. That is permitted.

All I know is, this program was one of the few bright lights to come out of any governing body. It was able to transition people from welfare to creating jobs and add to the small business engine that helps run our economy.

Most of my alliances are graduates of the OSEB program and exceptional people who do outstanding work. It is unfortunate the level of consistency and passion will end if we stand by and do nothing.

If you want to add your voice to those who wish this program to continue, go here. Hopefully the roar of discontent will be loud enough to alter this program's fate.

Yet, if the decision, like the one to cancel OSEB, becomes final, there's another acronym the Ontario Liberals should get used to from the small business community- GFY!

Here comes the crabgrass...

Every year at this time we start to field calls about crabgrass.

Crabgrass loves the heat, especially around pavement, interlocking and anywhere the sun exposure is at a maximum on your lawn. Smooth crabgrass is light green in colour and can ruin the uniform appearance of your turf almost over night.

I wish I had better news for you concerning this weed, but I don't. There is no post-emergent crabgrass control on the market in Ontario.
What about pre-emergent?
You can waste your money on corn gluten every April/May if you want, but after giving it the old college try for a few years when the by-law was implemented, I would not be one of those people.
Corn gluten is expensive, must go down at 20lbs per 1,000 square feet, only works for about six weeks until you get crabgrass anyway....yeah...so no.
We already give the best instruction to our customers at the beginning of every season when we advise raising the mower height to two and a half inches and by June to three inches. This helps keep the soil temperature cooler and the spread of this weed less likely.
For the most part, the lawns we see with crabgrass are, generally, cut too short.
Still, there are no guarantees and unless you want to pull relentlessly until this annual weed dies-off in the fall, there aren't any alternatives.

That is why mowing height is so important along with over-seeding every fall. Create a strong and healthy root system able to withstand the crabgrass invasion and you'll be much happier when Mother Nature brings the heat.

I spy...

...with my little eye, something that is yellow.

Really, there's no need to guess. I'll tell you it's Birdsfoot Trefoil.

"So what", you might say, "Big deal!"

It actually is a big deal. This is a weed that is nature's calling card for something more devious and devastating --- Chinch bug, and yes I am starting to see signs of feeding on some lawns.

Remember the last post about watering your grass? Here is another example why it is so important to keep your turf hydrated. Chinch bug don't like water. They like it hot and dry. When these conditions prevail and you don't water, your lawn is ripe for attack. If the past two years are any indication, we could be in for another rough ride in the summer of 2015.

Make no mistake, this insect's appetite is voracious and it can move PDQ though most lawns.  The damage usually occurs around garden areas, or sidewalks and paved areas. Any area of heat really. With only organic controls available, there's not much one can do to combat this foe. They hide in the thatch layer of your lawn and can be difficult to reach.

Watering I mentioned, but soapy, water-flushes to the damaged area is even better. Sunlight, or Palmolive dish soap mixed with water should do the trick. Some people prefer to cover the affected area with a tarp after watering and wait for the Chinch to cling to the surface of it before removal. However, if you find the area of affliction is of considerable size, this might not be an option.

Please don't waste your money on nematodes, or Met 52 to control Chinch bug as the results will be far from satisfactory. Especially with nematodes, I have not seen one study where these microscopic worms did any damage at all.

Ultimately, over-seeding every fall with endophytic perennial rye grass and fescue is the slowest course of action, but the most effective. Endophytes are a naturally occurring fungus in the seed that help prevent devastation from insects like Chinch bug.

Also, annual aeration to break up the thatch layer is beneficial and should be part of any lawn regimen.  

They may seem like small things to do, but if you do them, chances are far greater you won't have to deal with these small insects in the future.

As for Birdsfoot Trefoil?

So what....big deal!

Rain, rain

As I write this, we have had one of the driest Mays I can remember. Last year I couldn't buy a sunny day to apply weed control and those cutting lawns were way behind schedule.

There was so much rain I could toss a handful of fertilizer out the window as I drove by and the lawn would still look great.

This year some lawns look like they are already in the middle of August, which just goes to show you, Mother Nature is a fickle beast marching to the beat of her own drum.

When I see one of our lawns lush and green and another right next door that is dry and stressed, it is a tale of two clients, one who waters religiously and one who does not. It might also have to do with proper mowing, with one property raising their mowing height to keep the grass drought tolerant and the other scalping like a putting green.

I could go into the three legged stool analogy again, but when the weather refuses to co-operate and the home owner doesn't hold up their end, there's only so much I can do....there's only so much any lawn service can do.
Water is the fuel that feeds the lawn. Without it...well just look at some of the lawns in the neighborhood.
So far this season, with few exceptions, everyone has had exactly the same applications of fertilizer and weed control, so when there is such a drastic difference between some of them, common sense can lead you to the simple solution.

If you go away, please have someone maintain the lawn for you so you don't come back to a toasty pile of hay....

...or if you simply are too lazy and don't care, don't throw your money away. You certainly don't need me or anyone else attaching their company name to a property that looks like crap. Just get out the fiddle and watch your lawn burn Nero.