Just because the kids are going back to school soon, doesn’t mean the summer is over, at least not for your lawn and trees.  In fact, we are just embarking on the best growing weather you can ask for when it comes to your lawn.

After a tough summer of heat and drought stress, fighting the difficult battle against weed grasses (like bentgrass, annual and rough bluegrass, crabgrass  and the like), fertilizing just to keep the grass you do have and watering just to keep the lawn alive,  THIS is when your hard work starts to pay off!

The nutrients are in place, the weed grasses and broadleaf weeds have been weakened.  Now it’s time to continue with your proper care regimen of frequent mowing and deep watering, over-seeding, as well as repairing and renovating weaker areas in your lawn.

After all, grass grows actively until the ground freezes which can be as late as December in Southern Ontario!  That’s right, the top growth might slow down by early November, but the roots will keep growing and building up reserves to fight back with a vengeance next spring!

Here’s a quick recap of what to focus on:

1. Mow frequently- every 5 or 6 days, often enough to make sure you never remove more than 1/3 of the blade. If you don’t have many weeds and are mowing often enough, you can leave the clippings on the lawn- which makes this job even easier.

2. Mow high- 3″ is the ideal height for Kentucky bluegrass and perennial rye-grass if you want to crowd out the weeds and undesirable weed grasses.  Don’t work against your selves, these grasses were meant to be this height, you can’t change it!

3. Water deeply- proper watering through the late summer months is essential.

4. Fight the weed seeds!- Bag your lawn clippings if the weeds are in seed (flowering), this prevents working against yourself.

5. Rip out the Crabgrass- Crabgrass is an annual plant, so it doesn’t even matter if you get the root system out.  It’s going to die after the first frost. The goal here is to remove the seed heads that can put out 100′s of seeds per plant that will grow back next year, if you let them have their way!   Don’t let the seeds stay- rip them out too!

6. OVERSEED – anytime through the late summer and early fall is a great time to seed bare spots or areas that contain weed grasses.  Be sure to vigorously rake to rip out what you can of the old stuff, loosen up the top inch or 2 of soil, spread the seed, step on it and keep it moist!

7. The goal here is to get your lawn back into shape so you can return to the #1 position on this list, and in the neighbourhood hierarchy of lawn heroes!

PS.  Don’t forget your trees, After a long hot and dry summer, Your trees are thirsty and can use a nice deep watering using LawnSavers slow drip method.  You may also want to consider deep root feeding them this fall!

It is sweltering hot and humid out there!  Many homeowners like you want to know how you can help your lawn and garden make it through this heat.
Forecasts highs of 34 deg C (93 F) today and 37 deg C (98 F) for tomorrow will likely break and achieve all time heat records.  Then when you add in the humidity, we are well into the 40′s C (100-115 F)!
This kind of heat is the equivalent of planting your lawn into a sauna and expecting it to survive.
Here are some quick tips and reminders on how to help your lawn and valuable trees, shrubs and flowers make it through these difficult times.

WATERING TIPS
- Recognize that all plants have different watering needs, turf needs on average 1.5″-2″ of water per week over one to two waterings.  Annual flowers may need daily watering, especially if newly planted or in elevated beds or pots that dry out more quickly.  Trees need at least one good soaking every 3-4 weeks using our slow drip method (below).
- Water deeply and regularly using our guidelines:  high temperatures and wind can dessicate the ground very quickly so the soil will need replenishing. Shallow and frequent watering causes more harm than you think.  Sprinkler systems that go on every day for 10-15 minutes don’t create healthy plants and only create a false state of security.
- Water in the morning or early evening:  to prevent water loss from evaporation.  If watering at night, you may encourage some leaf diseases and fungal issues.  These normally won’t kill plants and are more aesthetic.  Better to water at night then to never water at all.
- Water the soil, not the leaves:  This helps reduce disease and leaf injury from sun scorch.
- Get a hose end timer!:  One of the main reasons people don’t get around to watering is that they don’t have the time to hang around and turn the hose off.  Well, these relatively inexpensive devices will turn off the water for you after a predetermined interval.  Budget about $25-$100 depending on manual vs. digital.
- Dont forget your trees!: They need deep watering too.  Use our slow drip method; turn the hose on just enough to achieve  a slow drip or trickle, place the hose at the base of the tree and go away for a while…  Have a cold drink and only move the hose after you see the water puddling up on the surface.  Depending on the size of the tree, you may have to move it around a few times, this method ensures the roots get a deep soaking.  Spruces are particularly vulnerable to drought stress and damage from this year often shows up in later years.  A single medium to large tree can take 3-5 hours to do this right.
- Thunderstorms are useless!:  Seriously, just because we get 3″ of rain in 10 minutes, doesn’t mean the soil absorbed any of it!  Check for yourself, grab a shovel and check a small spot after a storm, you’ll be lucky if the water soaked the top inch of soil.  The ground becomes so hard in the summer with the heat , that soil can become hydrophobic, and actually repel water, especially clay soils.  If this is the case, water in intervals until it starts to absorb (water for 15 minutes, wait 30 minutes, repeat). I recommend to disregard thunderstorms as a source of beneficial water entirely.

MOWING TIPS
The first rule is that if you follow the rules, mowing will be easier!
- Throw out your calendar: Grass cant tell if its the weekend or not, it needs to be mowed when it needs to be mowed.  This depends on the season and the weather, no matter how important or busy you think you are, the lawn doesnt care…humbling, I know!
- 1/3rd rule:  Mow as often as necessary so that you are never removing more than one third of the blade at each mowing.  The good news is, this prevents having to rake and bag clippings.  The lawn can easily absorb and decompose clippings of this size without causing excess thatch.  It will even add some nutrients back into the soil.
- Mow high: No not literally, we are talking about turf-grass! Keep the lawn at 2 3/4- 3″ high, not because I said so, but because whoever you believe created grass, made it that way.  It needs to be at the height to achieve a healthy root system and give you the nice lush look you want.  Any thing lower, reduces the abilty to produce a proper root system, and also cuts off the main leaves that give you the thick lush look, plus the leaves are the food storage- If you want the look of a golf green, then buy a $4000.00 greens mower, be prepared to water daily, install a $50,000 drainage system under your lawn, fertilize weekly, have plenty of fungicide on hand and plant bentgrass or annual bluegrass that were made to grow and be mowed that short!
- Bag clippings when weeds are in seed: The only time you really need to bag clippings is when the weeds are in flower (seeds come right after the flower), this helps to prevent the spread of weeds and is an important tenet of organic lawn care.
- Sharpen your blade: One of the most common problems we see with lawns is the “torn-look” of mowing with a dull blade.  Not only does this make the grass tips look brown, fuzzy and ragged, it invites disease by increasing the surface area for pathogen entry.
- Change up your pattern: Mow in different directions to prevent rutting, compaction and pr0duces a more vibrant stand of grass.
- DONT MOW when the lawn is stressed: especially with heavy machinery and big tires that only further rip already weak and stressed blades. Take a break, the lawn probably hasn’t even grown that much (see throw out your calendar, 1/3 rule, etc.)

Yellow-headed sawfly are attacking spruce trees right now.

If something is eating the needles on your Spruce, you have Sawfly.

These voracious eaters strip needles from spruce, and those needles will NEVER grow back. In three years, they can kill a tree. If your spruce is under attack DO NOT PRUNE the stripped branches. The bud at the tip is still alive, and will produce new needles next Spring which will disguise the damage.

The adult sawfly - a tiny, non-stinging wasp

The adult stage of sawfly, Pikonema alaskensis, is a small, non-stinging wasp. It’s young, the larvae, are what is eating your spruce.

Sawfly larva starting to devour a new needle

They’re hard to detect at first, because they take on the colour of the needles they eat as camouflage. Look for them carefully though, as waiting until you see damage can result in this:

A healthy tree can end up like this very quickly

If your spruce is infested, WE CAN KILL THEM, starting as low as $79.95 + tax. Give us a call right away!

Your best defence is to be proactive. Watch for damage or larvae throughout June. If you find only a few larva, and you only have a few trees, you may be able to take care of them yourself.

You can just pull this pest off with your fingers

Look for the larvae at the tips of the needles. They can be picked off with your fingers if there are only a couple.

If you have many trees, a pressure-sprayer loaded with a mix of 5 ml (1 teaspoon) of plain liquid dish soap in 4 l (1 gallon) of water can be used to blast them off temporarily.  Call LawnSavers if you need our help managing this destructive pest!

The sawfly only has one breeding cycle a year, so get them quickly and have peace of mind!

Scales have a waxy & fuzzy looking protective cover

Magnolias are always recognized as the harbinger of spring.  Their flowers are grandiose and magnificent.  Magnolia scale threatens these trees and is one of the stranger insects you’ll see.  Becoming noticable at the end of June and all through July, it is normally only noticed once the tree is infested.  Scale covers itself in a whitish dome for protection, so it is often mistaken for a fungus or other growth- but is actually an insect. It looks a lot like the puffs on a pussy willow. Scale is a serious concern – if left unchecked it will weaken and eventually kill the tree. We have been seeing them more often in the last few years, and it only seems to be getting worse.

The scale insects drink the sap from the tree, robbing it of nutrients. Then, adding insult to injury, they excrete a waste product called honeydew. Honeydew is a clear, sugary, sticky fluid. It drops onto cars and patios making a gummy mess, and attracts lots of stinging bees and wasps to your yard.

A fungus called sooty mould also grows on the sticky honeydew, turning the tree’s leaves and branches black.

Prevention is the best defence.  If you have magnolias we can prevent this problem with an insect management spray when the nymphs emerge in September or October. If the weather co-operates, we also have a narrow window for prevention in Spring before the tree’s new buds open.

If your magnolias are infested right now, we can reduce the problem with a special injection each year. And as always, fortifying your tree’s health in the Fall with a deep root fertilization will strengthen the trees natural defences by replacing the stolen nutrients.

Price is based on size and number of trees, so contact us right away when you find scale on your magnolias. The sooner the problem is identified, the sooner we can act to protect your tree’s health.

You can also help protect your trees. Scale can be scraped off of lower parts of the tree with a soft, dull plastic knife. Higher in the tree, a strong spray of water can knock some of them off. Do NOT use a pressure washer, though. That will harm the tree’s soft bark.

Multiple scales begin to suck the life (literally) from a Magnolia.

Other common scale insects are “euonymus scale” which appear as tiny white flakes on the stesm and leaves of those shrubs.

I got another interesting question recently. We handle tree care as well as lawn care, and you’d be surprised how much overlap there is.

“Spruce needles (lots of reddish brown needles) have fallen from very old trees onto my lawn, the trees cannot be saved, but what do I do with the lawn?  Can I leave the needles or do I have to remove them?”

Evergreens drop some needles annually as part of their growing process, especially when they are old or sick. This is a problem for turfgrass because when the needles break down, they make the soil very acidic.

Once the pH of the soil starts going down, it is very difficult for the grass to absorb nutrients. That’s the main reason why you never see really healthy grass underneath pines and spruces.

You can improve the situation with regular limings – that will help bring the pH back up. Still, you will never get the grass under your evergreens to look as nice as the rest of your lawn.

Another fix would be to find a more suitable landscape idea for underneath trees, and just mulch under the base and the outer perimeter of your trees. That way you could have thick, lush grass up to the dripline of the trees with a clean transition to attractive wood mulch. Much nicer than your lawn just petering out in sickly-looking tufts.