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Article about lawn care services.

The Emerald Ed

Information, resources, and articles regarding lawn care in Jackson County, MI.

Showing 1-4 of 4 articles.

Why You Shouldn't Wait to Control Weeds in Your Yard

Weeds take up valuable space in the soil of your lawn and landscaping beds, choking out grass, and weakening plants. Staying ahead of the game with proactive weed control and effective herbicide treatments helps prevent things from becoming unmanageable.

There are many reasons why you shouldn’t wait to control weeds in your yard, but they all boil down to prevention and minimizing damage.

Stay Ahead With Pre-Emergent Weed Control Treatments

We can target weeds before they even sprout with our pre-emergent weed control treatments. Our team uses an herbicide that is specifically designed to penetrate the soil to prevent germination of certain weeds like foxtail grass, crabgrass, foxtail grass, and more.

Treating beds and grass BEFORE weeds emerge will prevent root systems from establishing and weakening grass and plant roots. Invasive growths will soak up sunlight, water, and air that should be reserved for your grass, which can cause problems down the road.

Grass with weakened root systems and unhealthy soil are more susceptible to plant disease and insect infestation, making pre-emergent treatments extremely important.

Control Growth with Post-Emergent Herbicide Service

Our specially formulated herbicide is designed to ward off and kill weeds that may have already been established. After heavy rains, sunlight bakes into the soil, causing weeds to begin growing. Those seeds that survive the pre-emergent treatment can then germinate and begin to...

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When to Apply Fertilizer

During Spring

Spring pre-emergent herbicides (which are applied in the early spring) usually contain fertilizer, however, it is only a small amount, and not considered a full “feeding”. The fertilizer in a pre-emergent herbicide is added to maintain or slightly boost the growth in the grass while the herbicide restricts seedling development.

Don't' overdue a spring fertilizer treatment. an overly aggressive and heavy application of a spring fertilizer that's especially high in nitrogen will likely accelerate your lawn's growth. Sounds great, but the downside is all the early top growth typically comes at the expense of your lawn's roots, and during wet spring weather, an over-fertilized lawn can be especially vulnerable to lawn fungus, and quick top growth means more mowing. While some fertilizer is a great start to your season's lawn maintenance, in the spring consider a fertilizer with lower nitrogen content than you'd use at other times of the year, and be sure not to over-apply it.

Our spring treatment consists of no more than 3/4 lb nitrogen per K in a slow release formula (166 lbs per acre of 19-0-6), with a primary function of providing the pre-emergent crabgrass control product in order to provide the much-needed control from unsightly warm season crabgrass.

Early & Mid Summer

Our Cool-Season grasses of the Mid Michigan area which typically consist of Kentucky Bluegrass, Tall Fescue and Ryegrass varieties,...

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What is integrated pest management?

Picture a healthy weed free lawn, one that is well cared for, manicured, green and freshly mowed. A perfect place for lounging around cooking some burgers on the grill, listening to a Saturday afternoon Tiger;baseballgame as the kids practice;there soccer moves. Wow, what a real asset to you home your lawn provides.

Although it would seem unnecessary to state the obvious,did you know that your lawn (and how you take care of it) can also help the environment.

Lawn Areas Reduces Dangerous Greenhouse Gas:

Grass absorbs greenhouse gas and converts it into life-giving oxygen. Grass does this at a much higher rate than native plants because grass has higher leaf density and a faster growth rate. A 2500 square foot lawn converts enough carbon dioxide into oxygen to sustain a family of four!?

Grass Is Natures Air Conditioner:

Trees seem to get all the credit for naturally cooling the air because they provide shade, but grass lowers surface temperatures through "evapotranspiration" which is a process similar to that used by old-fashioned evaporative coolers ("swamp coolers") for home air conditioning. On a hot summer day, lawns will typically be 30 degrees cooler than asphalt, 14 degrees cooler than bare soil and a huge 35 degrees cooler than artificial turf! Aside from just creating a comfortable setting, grass also reduces energy demand by lowering the ambient temperature around a home.

Grass Purifies Water:

Turf (grass) roots act as a...
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What exactly is lawn fertilizer?

The days of ignoring the obvious are long gone... It is no longer acceptable or responsible to simply purchase any ol' bag of fertilizer, pull out the uncalibrated dusty spreader from the garage, and hope for the best.  We must strongly question what, why and how we are applying fertilizers to our lawns in an effort to provide only what is needed for a healthy, attractive lawn without waste or disregard for our environment.

Upon first glance of all fertilizer packaging you will find three numbers in bold print. These numbers represent the percentage of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, & Potassium found within the contents of the product, otherwise known as N-P-K, always in that order. ?These nutrients are the three most abundant in every bag of fertilizer. As an example, a typical 50 pound bag of fertilizer labeled 30-0-10 should be viewed as 30% nitrogen, 0% phosphorous, and 10% potassium.  So, a 100 pound bag of fertilizer that contains 30% Nitrogen would contain 30lbs Nitrogen. Keep in mind that bags are typically 50lb, so a 30-0-10 bag consisting of 30% Nitrogen actually represents 15lbs of Nitrogen, 50lbs x .3 = 15, for example.

Essentially, Michigan grass plants are in need of two of the three main nutrients: nitrogen and potassium. Nitrogen is what will give your lawn its rich, green color.? Potassium works to strengthen grass roots and to help your lawn ward off pests and disease. In other...

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