Turf & Ornamental Maintenance

If your like me than you love having annual containers every year...the worst part is the water that annuals in a potted setting require which in most cases is every day watering.  There are some awesome drip/mister irrigation options that are available and can be either installed to your existing sprinkler system with ease or even set up to run off of your spigot.  If you're interested in saving time watering this summer, this is definately the way to go.  

The forecast calls for much warmer weather this week, with minimal chances for rain.  If you haven't done so already, we recommend turning on irrigation clocks this week.  Mother Nature has frequently watered this year so root systems will be expecting that to continue.  Turf and plants will stress if we get in the 90's and don't have moisture.  Please call us if you need assistance.

Disease season is here!!  Nightime temperatures and humidity are on the rise which will lend itself to diease development on Turf.  Diseases most likely on cool season turf are Dollar Spot, Brown Patch of Fescue and Summer Patch of Bluegrass.  If you start seeing curious brown, irregular spots in your lawn, please contact your Turf Manager immediately.

Yup, you guessed it...we're in our second extended drought of the spring!!  I noticed many drought stressed areas today both turf and plant material.  Extended forecast calls for 90's for the next 7 days with slim rain chances.  Please make sure your are watering properly and frequently to avoid drough stress damage.  We recommend 4 days per week.  30 minutes on rotor zones and 10 minutes on Spray/pop-up zones. 

Yellow nutsedge is a troublesome, difficult to control weed often found in turf areas.  Also known as nutgrass or swampgrass, yellow nutsedge is not a broadleaf weed or a grassy weed, but a sedge, and a thorough understanding of yellow nutsedge is required before it can be controlled.

Brown Patch    

[Rhizoctonia solani]

SYMPTOMS

Large crabgrass, a summer annual, is a member of the grass family. It is one of the most troublesome weeds in lawns. Crabgrass reproduces by seeds. It has a prolific tillering or branching habit. A single plant is capable of producing 150 to 700 tillers and 150,000 seeds. Crabgrass plants are very adaptive to mowing height. Plants can produce seeds at mowing heights as low as 1/2-inch. Crabgrass germination is related to soil temperature. When the soil temperature reaches 60 degrees F, crabgrass begins to germinate.

Fungus season is here....There are three main types of fungal diseases on turf to keep an eye out for when disease pressure is high.  They are Summer Patch on Kentucky Bluegrass, Brown Patch on Fescue and Dollar Spot on both types.  There a couple ways to determine if you have a fungus outbreak on turf.  First, you must judge the disease pressure factors which are heat, humidity, moisture content and nighttime temperatures above 65 degrees.  Once you've determined these factors are all present, the next step is to probe the soil of the stressed/brown area to ensur