See spot run

Hopefully with this weather we've been having you've still been watering the lawn- one deep watering a week is sufficient, or about 1" worth.

And I trust everyone has their mowing height at the highest possible setting if you're even cutting it at all? Three inches will keep your lawn drought tolerant and able to survive the dormancy that comes with the Summer heat and lack of rain.

If you haven't been doing this then you probably have seen the crabgrass encroaching, yet again, from the pavement and lawn edges where it oh-so loves the heat.

The bad news is there is nothing that can be done to control it at this time of the year. Dimension and Acclaim are no longer options and Corn Gluten?...well, you're asking a lot from an organic control in these conditions...so you have crabgrass.

The good news is, crabgrass has a shallow root system, so it's easy to pull up when on the perimeter. However don't let it get to the point of germination, otherwise next year the problem could be a whole lot worse.

The next problem in the heat is Chinch Bug- a top feeding insect that sucks the juice out of your grass rendering it lifeless.

Chinch also love drought and can take out a lawn pretty quick if not dealt with. If you want to know whether you have Chinch, locate a patch of lawn where it is stressed, preferably before 10 AM, and use your fingers to rub the grass vigorously. Then peel back the grass blades to the soil and look if you can see either the nymphs, (black with red on their backs), or the adults, (black with white on their wings).

Ways to combat this insect are to keep the lawn watered and the thatch layer to a minimum (aerate/ rake). I would have said Neem Oil but....oh yeah that organic has now been banned by the PMRA.

Now are you ready for the catch 22 of this whole situation?

So you've been watering regularly, the grass is a decent length, there's no sign of Chinch and the crabgrass is minimal or non existent. You're pretty pleased with your effort until you see signs of Grub damage- a circular brown patch in the middle of the lawn that isn't responding to water and seems to come up like a carpet because the root system is gone.

The beetles have to lay their eggs somewhere and they'll have better success in a nice juicy lawn like yours over one that is burnt to a crisp, dry and hard like concrete.

Unfortunately the only options here are to watch your lawn disappear to an all you can eat grub Thanksgiving, or apply nematodes.

However, know this; the earliest an application can be done is mid August, it has to be performed in rainy/cloudy conditions, or at dusk because UV will kill the microscopic nematodes.

Oh, and you must, must, must water for three days following the application to effectively flush your nematodes into the root zone.

If you're going to do it yourself, be aware of expiration dates and the nematodes must remain refrigerated until use...man, no wonder people tell me they don't work.

Do all this and grubs shouldn't be a problem and you won't have raccoons and skunks digging the hell out of your lawn either.

Yet, there is one way to help combat all this, but it will take time. Over seed every fall with an endophytic grass seed, preferably one that will establish a deep root system and is drought tolerant like Eco Lawn.

Even with all this there are no guarantees anymore. All it takes is one misstep and with Mother Nature tripping horribly over the last two years we might as well turn to Lady Luck after all it couldn't get any worse....right?

Say goodbye to it.

Are you kidding me? Neem oil has been banned?

Am I to believe now I can't even use organic products to keep a lawn healthy?

Wow! What a bunch of idiots!

But where to lay the imbecilic blame?

Could it be those lawn companies that were actually foolish enough to tout Neem oil as a Chinch Bug control in their promotional materials, when they knew it was not registered in Canada as anything but a foliage sheen?

Could it be some of the distributors who saw profits rise when the pesticide ban came in? Psst we have something for Chinch Bug. Meet me in the ally in five minutes.

Could it be the PMRA who wouldn't recognize this ORGANIC product for anything else than making your plants sparkle?

They're all to blame in my books.

Not once was I ever stupid enough to promote Neem for Chinch. Sure, I used it in my applications and labeled it as a foliage sheen to my customers. I knew I couldn't legally say it was an effective Chinch deterrent. Hell, I didn't even list it as a possible control when discussing Chinch on my website.

Yet, here we are and Neem is now off the table as an application....man, someone in the government sure has a hard-on for the lawn care industry.

Why don't you dudes just show up at my house and put a bullet in my brain. It would be preferable to this slow death you're currently putting me through.

And mark my words, Fiesta will suffer the same fate one day. After all, it's an organic control too. When I see what the liquid iron is doing to my equipment, I wonder about all those companies out there applying blanket applications and the amount of product leaching into the ground. At least, for the most part I only do spot applications.

I can't help but think about a story I heard once concerning going green by getting more electric cars on the road. Then someone realized that all those electric batteries have to be replaced and discarded from time to time. Suddenly the idea didn't seem so green after all.

And this is no different. Every time there's one solution two new problems crop up in its place.

Just telling it like it is...because really, what else do I have left to lose...fertilizer?

Maybe I'm getting my panties in a knot over nothing? There will be another product to replace Neem down the line, but what about now...in this heat...on lawns that are already drought stressed?

Sure you can water because the Chinch don't like well maintained lawns, but the municipalities want you to conserve the precious liquid.

Sure you can aerate to break up the thatch layer, but I'd rather run my machine over concrete than compacted, drought-stressed clay.

Sure you can over-seed with an endophyte enhanced grass seed like Eco-Lawn, but you'd have better results finding a brothel in the Vatican then getting seeds to germinate in this heat.


Get ready to raise the rent people, because the Chinch bugs are moving in.

The buffet just opened and it's on your lawn.

Bite the hand that feeds

Last week I finished up the final Summer applications and was appalled to see the crabgrass starting on many of the lawns.

OK, crabgrass loves the heat and you usually see it at this time of the year, especially under these toasty conditions. The problem for me is, since crabgrass was also rampant last year I added pre-emergent treatments to all the programs this year in an attempt to avoid the same situation.

However, since the only tool I have to treat it is Corn Gluten, (an organic that is very hit and miss), I seemed to have dumped a ton of money into a product that doesn't work very well.

I did two separate applications; some got granular and some got liquid to the same result.

I'm sure my supplier will tell me that the product was not applied at the recommended rate and that's why it didn't work.

I can assure you, since I don't employee students and did many of the applications myself, it was correctly applied.

What we have is simply a product that doesn't work very well, yet costs twice as much and someone is making a lot of money off my back and your wallet.

But who has to field the complaints?....Moi!

It's the same deal I have with Fiesta, sometimes it works well and others I don't even want to talk about it (just look at your clover and chickweed this year and tell me what's wrong with this picture). Bad enough that the customer's confidence is already on the edge with this product because of Weed-B-Gone- a dumbed-down version of what I use. Thanks very much Scotts. I'll bet you're not hurting for money?

With grub season about to start I'm faced with the same issue in nematodes. Last year- one of the worst in some time- I did every single application myself. They were done in cloudy, or rainy conditions, they were watered in properly yet some of my customers still had grub problems come Spring. Thank you very much Environmental Factor. No wonder all the Dragons Den bought into your product....ka-ching!

Oh by the way that spray tank I bought back in the Spring is leaking somewhere else now. Thank you very much Rittenhouse.

Funny thing, I have a spray tank on one of my trucks that I paid $400 for, is God only knows how old and works without fail.

You'd think in the technological age we live in, someone would be able to deliver a better mouse trap, but not so. Products are not as good because there's no money to be made in stuff that lasts.

Before the pesticide ban, I used Dimension and no one had crabgrass and if they did I used Acclaim and wiped it out.

Before the pesticide ban, I used Merit and no one had grubs.

Before the pesticide ban, I used Par III and no one had weeds.

The customer was happy, I was happy. Now if you want to see what your lawn used to look like you have to play golf.

In fact, the only product that hasn't let me down is Eco-Lawn the low maintenance grass seed. Thank you very much Wildflower Farm, you guys still rock!

I guess it's evident that I'm pissed, but if you don't want to get called out as a company with inferior products then give me better stuff so I can do my job and keep my customers content at least. I'll happily pay for things that work properly, but when they don't, I feel it's my duty to inform others...and if you've read this you can consider yourself informed.

If it quacks like a duck

Breaking news: Pesticide ban lifted!

Oh, how I wish it were April 1st so this would actually make sense.

Seems the largest lawn care company is up to their old tricks again. The latest, in order to woo more customers, they are actually saying, "the Provincial Government has lifted the ban on pesticides for the control of weeds again."

NOT TRUE!

Neither is the fact you have to take an entire program to get weed control (Fiesta), or your socks periodically escape from your dryer in an effort to challenge your pairing skills. You see, there's just not a lot of money to be made if they give you a one-off weed spray and these companies know that, hence the lies.

The problem is, there will always be people out there who are so fed up with the way their lawns look, they will want to believe and be drawn into this vortex of untruths.

Remember you can't spell "believe" with out the "lie".

Oh, how I wish I could write posts on lawn care instead of this dribble.

On Wednesday of last week I had the Ministry of the Environment here to inspect my premises- which I passed without any problem. When I asked them about some of the statements others have been making they told me, they have no jurisdiction and a company is allowed to market their programs and products in anyway they see fit- fibs included. That's why we have the Better Business Bureau, the Complaints Board and sites like Homestars, they told me, so the home owner, once duped and parted from their money have a forum from which to warn others.

However, not everyone has access to these tools, or thinks of researching the free-fall before they leap. So much for those poor sods I guess.

Yet the Ministry seemed less concerned with these developments and more intent on running scenarios by me like, if I spilled Fiesta and a duck swam by, drank it and got sick, what would I do....?

Really?

What do they think, I'm out there every morning dumping $180 bottles of concentrated Fiesta into the drain like ketchup on fries?

Isn't the Ministry of the Environment there to protect us from ourselves? Enforce the bylaws? Safe guard the environment?

If some companies are out there spreading propaganda that pesticides are back on the table for public consumption, isn't that a mixed message?

What we need is a consumer watchdog in place to not only protect, but call these companies on their misinformation. Educate the customer for godsake! Not someone more concerned about the possible upset stomach of aquatic water fowl.

The representative from the Ministry wouldn't even refer to Fiesta by name and kept calling it a pesticide as if to reinforce that her job had not become obsolete.

And perhaps she's right? I mean four years from now when they realize we've put a hell of a lot of iron into the soil the song and dance routine may change. Fiesta might even become the next outlaw with a picture at your local post office.

Seems the Ministry still likes to think they have teeth but when it comes to those operating a lawn care business they only bite down with toothless gums.

I guess the 2 bills I fork over every season for my operating license is just a cash grab too?

Forget the duck. You don't think I get an upset stomach from swallowing that every year?

Oh how I wish I had picked a different business to go into.

...Pants on fire

It truly is alarming to consider that very few in the lawn care industry seem to care about the customer anymore once the cheque is signed, or the Visa is swiped.

Sure, you can eventually get someone on the phone if you're mad as hell about something, but why get your customer to the brink in the first place?

Here are some lessons in the glowing examples of blatant lying in order to get the money and run.

Now take into consideration a few of these come through the words of others and are classified as here-say, yet you should know what is apparently going on out there.

Lesson #1: I find it troubling to see the ads on a few garden centres' readerboards touting the use of nematodes to get rid of your grubs. Yes nematodes do work provided they are applied in the right conditions, after being stored in the right conditions, with the faith that these microscopic worms are even in the package in the first place instead of baggy of vermiculite, or a sponge with a brown blob on it.

However, selling them at the end of May....really?

I guess they are counting on the average customer to be dumber than a sack of hammers and desperate to try anything.

I've even heard of a few retailers who don't even bother to refrigerate the little buggers.

Good luck getting those dead nematodes to work.

Yet, even the manufacturer, who is making money hand-over-fist, is stocking the shelves while they know the more effective time to apply is in mid August.

Oh well....they can sell them to you again in the summer.

Man, no wonder I have so many people telling me nematodes don't work.


Lesson #2: There are a few companies out there, that I covered in a previous post, who seem to have lying to customers as part of their mission statement, all in an effort to expand the coffers with the almighty buck.

It has been everything, from erroneous information about the current weed killer of choice, Fiesta, to the constant upsell of products your lawn probably doesn't need, to -egad!- faking your confirmation of service and billing you for unwanted applications.

And if you're OK with all that then I have some swamp land in Florida you might be interested in.


Lesson #3: This one comes from personal experience so I have no problem dropping the name of the company- Rittenhouse.

This year I spent over 4G's on a new spray tank for one of our trucks only to have it leak Fiesta all over the back of the flatbed in only the second day of use. On the third day the spray gun fell apart because they decided using a plastic connector between the gun and the hose would be more efficient than spending $3.00 more to put a brass one in.

Hey don't believe me....check out the pics.




All this in the middle of the busiest part of the season.

Now, they did send me a replacement piece for the tank and why not? A plumber friend of mine told me they had attached it too tight in the first place and cracked it.

But the spray gun? I was told the tank and gun are not suitable for organic products like Liquid Corn Gluten and Fiesta.

Hello! You do know there's a Provincial bylaw now? Have you even heard of the PMRA...Ministry of the Environment....are you even listening?

I have another used tank that I bought for $400, 3 years ago and other than replacing the odd hose, it has given me no trouble at all spraying organics.

So you can understand why I am royally pissed.

I guess no one ever told these idiots that happy customers are repeat customers and they'll just soldier on with their P.T. Barnum way of thinking and caveat emptor.

*clapping* Way to screw yourself out of the potentially thousands of future dollars I could have spent with your company...was it really worth it?

This is one former customer who has no problem posting his displeasure with extreme prejudice to a world wide audience.

Here ends the lesson.

I fought the lawn and the lawn won

You're mad, upset, frustrated, weed-infested and ready to pull out your turf as well as what's left of your hair and it isn't even the end of May.

I feel your pain brothers and sisters. You're not the first person to complain about weeds and threaten to pave over your grass with concrete and paint it green.

The good news is, it's never too late to start with a program and do something to improve the curb appeal that has abandoned you since the bylaw came into effect.

Depending on your situation this might mean a soil test. Understand what is going on in the soil and you can fix the problems. Many times I'll show up to assess a lawn and there is something going on in the soil that I can't see, but I know is wrong. A soil test will analyse the soil and take all the guess work out. It will let you know if the ph is too high, or low. It will register the amount of organic matter, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium and sodium in the soil and how to fix it.
Let science be your panacea for about $40.

Or perhaps your lawn isn't that far gone and you simply want to fight a decent fight?
There are products available to help you out whether you do it yourself, or call the professionals.

For the D.I.Y.s there's Weed-B-Gone a dumbed down version of the Fiesta the pros use. It does work provided you spray to the point of run-off on the target weed. Yet, be aware this product is not systemic and the weed will push through again. That's why it is important to spray twice within 30 days of application to get effective control. Unlike the old methods where you had to wait weeks before seeding, Fiesta allows you to do so a few days after application.

As far as grubs are concerned? Right now forget about it. They are done feeding and going into the instar phase. No more damage will be evident until late July, early August when the new eggs hatch and the grubs start to feed. Plus even if you were to put down your nematodes, the grubs are too big to control effectively at this time of the year. So seed the damaged areas and wait it out until August when you can ambush the new larvae.

A healthy, thick lawn is the best defense against all; grubs, weeds, turf disease, and over-seeding is your golden ticket to achieving this goal. However, be careful in the Spring if you are using Corn Gluten as a pre-emergent/ fertilizer. This application will help suppress crabgrass and new weeds but it also impedes good seed from germination.

My advice is to wait until the fall if you are using this product on your lawn, otherwise, you are not going to be able to seed again until the end of June and that could be a tough sell for any seed.

One further note about Corn Gluten: Think of this application (approx. 20lbs per 1,000 sq. ft.) as a shield on your lawn that will protect it when the dandelions go to seed. Whatever you do, don't aerate the lawn after you've applied the corn otherwise you punch holes in that shield and render the application useless. Wait until the Fall for your Core aeration and use it in conjunction with your seeding.

You may not win the war, but you can win a few battles.

Je ne sais quoi

"How come my neighbour's lawn looks so much better than mine when he does nothing to it?"

The answer is, "I don't know".

After all, you live next to your neighbour, I don't. Yet I am assuming you have a job and go to work everyday, you do social activities, go away for weekends/ holidays, have a life to live?

In other words you're not sitting in front of a window with a telescope pointed at your neighbour's lawn 24/7...or at least I hope you're not?

So how do you really know what your neighbour does to his, or her lawn?

Of course if they sneak back a little weed-and-feed, or grub killer over the border every year on that trip to Florida their lawn is going to look excellent. But are they honestly going to divulge they put a little something-something down when they know it's illegal?

I know this is going on a lot more than you think, because many people have told me they are doing it to keep their lawns under control. Is your neighbour one of them?

Again the answer is, "I don't know".

I do know the weed gnomes do not magically appear at three in the morning and haul away all the dandelions. And I also know a healthy green lawn doesn't get that way by itself- it takes some effort.

Look, I too, have a few neighbours who don't have lawn companies and who I never see working on their lawn other than cutting it. Yet both their lawns look as lush and green as mine...sometimes even better.

I fertilize, I aerate twice a year, I over-seed, I apply commercially mixed Fiesta for weed control and still they have no problem keeping up.

Understand this, the lawn care industry still has many tools to help your lawn get to where you want it- soil testing, low maintenance grass seeds like Eco-Lawn to name a few- it's just, without the old methods, it doesn't transform overnight. Yet, whether you use a razor or a butter knife you can still cut a rope and every year they are developing a better butter knife.

So back to your neighbour for a moment and his certain something.

Let me ask you this:

If your neighbour dances over the grey line to get a few bucks back on taxes does that bug you too?

Under the current bylaw there are only two paths to choose from here - play by the rules, or cheat. At fines that range to $200,000 a lawn I think I'll stay on the safer road.

Oh and BTW, the picture above is one of the lawns I take care of with a butter knife.

So, how come your neighbour's lawn looks so much better than yours when they do nothing to it?

The answer is, "I still don't know for sure, but I have my suspicions".