Category: Lawn care

One of the biggest challenges in keeping your property well-maintained is trying to mow underneath trees. Even just the thought of getting a mower underneath those branches to cut those weeds, tall grass and brush can be daunting. After all, there are a number of hurdles to clear so you can mow underneath trees.

For one thing, those overhanging branches can make it tough to get you and your mower in under the trees to mow. A lawn tractor, which often has a high center of gravity, can make it uncomfortable or even dangerous for you to get in to mow underneath trees. With branches snagging you or your mower, it may not even be worth thinking about using a riding lawn tractor with an attachment or riding lawn mower.

Can’t get in to mow underneath trees with a lawn tractor? Why not just use a walk behind finish

Fall can be an invigorating and colorful time of the year.

The crisp sting to the air and the sizzling red and orange leaves can give us a burst of energy that summer may have sapped.  The problem with those colorful leaves is that soon they will be on the ground, covering our lawns in a layer of red and gold.

That layer can make trouble for your lawn and garden, too. If left unattended, autumn leaves can turn into a thick cover over your precious grasses and plants, and it’s a cover that does a great job of keeping out the air and the sunshine that plants and grasses need to thrive. Lack of proper air and light circulation can lead to turf disease or, even worse, death to grasses and plants. What’s more, rain and snow can dampen that layer of leaves, making it [...]

Should You or Should You Not Be Weed Clearing?

Weeds certainly get a bad rap and, believe it or not, some of that bad rap can be undeserved. Many weeds out there, for example, are edible and/or have medicinal properties (and no, not just that weed!). Weeds can also act as a great indicator of the health of your soil, since many weeds will flourish in distressed or diseased soil. Just as a rash or other skin blemish can be a sign of poor health or illness for our bodies, so too can the abundance of weeds be an indicator of our garden’s distress. So, weeds aren’t all bad.

Even so, you probably don’t want them going bat-guano crazy and spreading all over your lawn or garden and in doing so take over your walkways and smothering the flowers and plants that you want in your garden. You definitely want to do some weed clearing, [...]

In my previous post, I wrote about some of the advantages to the homeowner of having a meadow or prairie, versus a traditional lawn. Both meadows and prairies (the former have more native grasses and fewer wildflowers than the latter) contain plant life that is native to that region, whereas lawns contain grasses that are known more for their durability than for being local. Because of this difference, meadows and prairies can be friendlier to local animal life by providing shelter and food sources; they are also better able to withstand variances in the weather such as drought and are more resistant to non-native, invasive species of plants such as Ivy. For these reasons, meadows and prairies can be a much simpler, cost-effective and low-maintenance lawn alternative.

Now that we’re familiar with just what makes meadows and prairies such a great lawn alternative, let’s take [...]

A Natural Meadow or Prairie Brings Us Back to Our Roots 

A little over a hundred years ago, hundreds of thousands of miles of grasslands covered just over a quarter of the continental United States. These native grasslands supplied habitat to an estimated 60 million Bison, not to mention a variety of species of grassland birds and other animals that made up the grasslands ecosystem. With the spread of agriculture across North America, along with the spread of the suburban lifestyle and the lawns that came with it, much of this native grassland gave way to farmland and lawns. Today, an estimated 24 million acres of lawn surrounds homes in America.

Recently many homeowners have begun to replace their lawns with a natural meadow and prairie that is made up of native grasses and flowers. Although the change to a native meadow can take some time and some elbow grease, there are quite a few [...]