Lawn Care Huntersville NC specialists provide comprehensive services like soil testing and fertilization, irrigation, weed control, and pest control. They also educate clients on lawn maintenance techniques and keeping their yards healthy.
Compacted ground prevents grass roots from breathing, leading to bare spots in summer and mud puddles in winter. Aerating the soil by renting an aerator or using a garden fork helps relieve the problem.
Lawn aeration and dethatching are long-lasting treatments that improve the flow of nutrients to grassroots. They address soil compaction, encourage root growth, and help fight weeds. Both are essential lawn care methods that can be performed individually or together to promote vibrant, healthy grass.
A thin layer of thatch is actually beneficial for your lawn, as it provides food for earthworms and microbes and insulates the soil during extreme temperature shifts. However, excess thatch is detrimental, as it tangles and prevents water, air, and nutrients from reaching the soil. Thatch should be removed before it gets to be half an inch thick. Dethatching is a process that rakes up the excessive material, and it’s typically done in late summer or early fall when grass is growing most vigorously.
Also called core aeration, this treatment pokes holes into your turf and pulls out plugs of soil and thatch. It helps loosen compacted soil, allowing air and water to reach the roots. You can rent an aerator or ask your lawn care professional to perform this service. You should aerate your lawn before it gets too hot or humid to handle.
Some experts recommend aerating the lawn in the spring, while others suggest that you wait until the fall. If your lawn has heavy foot traffic, you may need to aerate more frequently than less-traveled areas of the yard.
In addition to fixing thatch problems, aeration addresses compaction by loosening the lawn’s soil and giving it more air. Loose, more nutrient-rich soil stimulates microbial growth and decomposes thatch faster. It also allows for deeper root penetration, which gives grass a competitive advantage against weeds and helps it survive drought conditions. The looser soil will also encourage new grass to grow, preventing the need for overseeding.
Irrigation
Irrigation is one of the most essential lawn care services to maintain a healthy lawn. It ensures a consistent supply of water to the soil, compensating for insufficient rainfall and maintaining even moisture levels across the lawn. An effective irrigation system utilizes buried pipes, sprinkler heads and a controller to deliver a precise amount of water in the right places, at the right time.
It is important to know that different grass species have varying water requirements. Grass cutting height also plays a significant role in how much water is required to keep a lawn healthy and weed-free. The proper mowing height for your particular turfgrass helps promote deep root growth and is a key to drought-resistant lawns.
Having an automated irrigation system allows for more precise watering than is possible by hand and gives you the ability to adjust the schedule based on weather conditions. Watering your lawn in the early morning reduces water loss due to evaporation, which can occur as soon as the sun starts to heat up the soil.
A proper watering schedule can save you money by avoiding unnecessary water use. For example, by watering only the roots of your grass and not the leaves or shrubs, you can minimize evaporation and water waste. It is also recommended to water deeply and infrequently so that the water sinks into the soil rather than staying close to the surface where it can easily evaporate.
Irrigation services can help you optimize your watering schedule by analyzing a property’s soil type and climate to determine the best way to irrigate the area. For instance, sandy soils may need to be watered more frequently than clay-heavy soils. In addition, the amount of time that it takes for water to reach the roots depends on the soil. If you notice pools of water on the lawn after a watering, it is too much water and can damage the grass.
A well-maintained, healthy lawn improves the curb appeal of your home and can increase the resale value of your property. In addition, it can lower your energy costs by reducing dust and dirt in the air and filtering pollutants from the soil and water. It can also protect against soil erosion and prevent the runoff of sediment into lakes, streams and rivers. If your yard and garden need an upgrade, a full range of landscaping services can be provided by a professional lawn care company.
Fertilization
A well-fertilized lawn is healthier, greener and better equipped to withstand weeds, drought and other environmental stresses. Ideally, you should fertilize your yard two to four times a year.
A good lawn care provider will use a soil test to determine the specific nutrients your turf needs. The results will be used to create a custom fertilizer mix for your property. You should also look for the N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) ratio on the fertilizer label to determine how much of each element is in the product.
There are three broad types of lawn fertilizer: organic, inorganic and synthetic. Organic fertilizers are derived from plant or animal sources and work by slowly releasing the nutrients into the soil. This is a more natural way to fertilize your yard, but it’s also more expensive.
Inorganic fertilizers, on the other hand, are man-made and contain higher concentrations of nutrients. These are generally cheaper, but they’re not good for the environment. You should also avoid chemical fertilizers, which are often sold as “organic.”
The type of fertilizer you choose will depend on the type of grass in your yard and the season. If you have cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and tall fescue, you’ll need a spring fertilizer high in nitrogen to help them get off to a good start. For warm-season grasses such as St. Augustine, centipede, bahia and Bermudagrass, you’ll need a summer fertilizer that’s low in nitrogen but high in phosphorous and potassium to promote deep root growth.
For the best lawn, you should wait to mow until after fertilizing. This gives the grass a chance to absorb the nutrients and prevents the weeds from competing for the nutrients. The best time to do this is in the morning after the dew has dried but before it gets too hot.
You should always use slow-release lawn fertilizers. These release their nutrients over a longer period of time, so you’ll be getting the most bang for your buck. It’s also important to rake up the granules when you finish mowing. This prevents them from washing away in the rain (and polluting the bays and Long Island Sound) and allows them to return to the soil as a natural form of nitrogen.
Weed Control
Every lawn contains seeds of a virtual weed army. They blow in, are carried by animals or people, and germinate from soil that is too dry, overwatered or depleted of nutrients. To keep weeds at bay, lawn care must include a combination of prevention and treatment techniques. A thick stand of healthy grass is the best weed preventive since it shades the ground and keeps sunlight and moisture from reaching the weeds. Properly mowed turf also helps, as does keeping the thatch level low.
If weeds are already present, a pre-emergent herbicide can be used. These products work by blocking the weeds’ ability to take in carbon dioxide and produce energy, thereby starving them of their life source. They typically must be applied early in the season when weeds are just beginning to sprout. There are many types of pre-emergent herbicides, including dimethphenamid-d, flumioxazin, indaziflam, isoxaben, napropamide, oxyfluorfen and pendimethalin. Some are sold in combinations, such as dimethphenamid-d/isoxaben/napropamide or oryzalin/oxyfluorfen.
Grass-like weeds, such as crabgrass and spurge, may be easier to hand pull than broadleaf weeds, which are a bit more difficult to distinguish from the turf. However, pulling weeds encourages them to resprout, as they have extensive taproot systems. This is especially true of dandelion and nutsedge, which can regenerate from tiny tubers underground.
Once a weed is pulled, it should be destroyed immediately because leaving even a small portion of the root will encourage it to sprout again. Chemical herbicides are the easiest way to kill a weed, but they must be used carefully. Different types of herbicides target specific types of weeds, and it is important to correctly identify the type of weed before applying an appropriate treatment.
A non-chemical method for reducing annual weeds involves tilling the lawn and then hoeing out the young weeds when they are small. This approach requires repeated treatments over time, but it is effective in eliminating some weeds and can be combined with other cultural practices to improve results.
Killing weeds without correcting the conditions that led to their growth only invites more serious weed invasions. It is a good idea to find out what is causing the weeds to grow and then use cultural practices to keep them under control.
