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Fall Lawn Care
Fall lawn care is an important part of ensuring your lawn is healthy and beautiful season after season. Below find tips on the best ways to care for a lawn in the fall, specific to northern and southern regions. Northern Areas Aerate your lawn Fall is the time when a lawn naturally repairs itself from the ravages of summer stresses. You can help this along by aerating to open up your lawn to allow more air, water and nutrients to reach the root z
Fall Lawn Care: Our Top 5 Tips
It’s that time of year again… time for some fall lawn care to-dos. The leaves are dropping, the air is getting colder and it is time to start putting your lawn and landscape to bed for the winter. In northern Illinois, we’ve already had frost form in some low-lying areas. Can you believe it? I also got word from a franchise owner in northern Wisconsin that they’ve already gotten a hard frost in his area. Brr… I hope this winter isn’t as cold and horrible
Winterizing Your Sprinkler System: How to Blow Out Your Sprinklers
If you have an automatic sprinkler system installed in your lawn and landscape and you live in an area where the ground can freeze during the winter months, the most important task to ensure the system will function properly next year is to winterize your sprinkler system. Not only are you removing the water from the pipes, you need to shut
Overseeding in the Fall: Tips on Watering and Raking
The following question came in on Spring-Green’s YouTube page; one of our viewers was concerned about how to best rake leaves after overseeding in the fall. To give your new seedlings the best chance possible, follow the tips below. “Hi Spring-Green! I just aerated and overseeded my lawn 1 week ago with
How to Get Rid of Wild Violets and Ground Ivy
Wild violets and ground ivy can be considered some of the most difficult-to-control weeds in a lawn. They can drive homeowners crazy with their efforts to rid their lawns of these weeds with little or no success. The key to getting rid of ground ivy and wild violets is knowing the best time to apply control products.
Why You Should Call the Pros to Winterize Your Sprinkler System
There are fall tasks that everyone needs to complete, such as raking leaves and stowing outdoor furniture. If you own a sprinkler system and live in an area where the ground freezes, you need to get the water blown out of the pipes. This process is often referred to as winterizing your sprinkler system. It is already the end of October, so this task needs to go to the top of the list. Why Can’t I Do It Mysel
Sometimes You Have To Take Advantage of Nice Weather When You Can
We are enjoying some terrific weather this fall throughout the Midwest. This fall, there’s only been one day that I actually saw any frost on the grass. Even then, it only occurred in a few low spots. In fact, this entire week has been close to or above 70 degrees, which is great, but definitely not the norm for northern Illinois in the first week of November. I was able to take advantage of the great weather when I took a vacation day. I started pulling up all of the annual flowers I planted earlier this year and cut back the perennials for the winter. The plants still looked great, but there comes a time when you have to get the work done while the weather is still good. It’s sort of sad to pull out healthy plants, but it has to be done.
Fall Yard Chores: Get a Head Start on the Spring
Yes, it seems crazy to think about the spring already while we're still enjoying the fall season, but now is a great time to get ahead and prepare for next year. For those planners and do-ers out there, here's our list of chores, tips and tricks to do now to be ready for the springtime: If you have a sprinkler system in your yard and haven’t had it winterized yet, now is the
How and When to Separate Hostas and Other Perennials
In keeping with the recent theme of fall gardening projects, now is a good time to divide perennials if you haven’t done so in several years. Most flowering perennials benefit from being divided or thinned out to allow for more room for the roots to grow and better develop. This is a practice that should be done every three or four years, depending on the plant. If the plant flowers in the spring or summer, fall is the best time to divide them. Conversely, if the plant flowers in the fall, y
Should You Overseed Your Lawn This Spring?
A common question we receive in the spring is in regards to overseeding your lawn. If you live in an area with warm season grasses, like Centipede or Bermuda grass, reseeding is not a very common practice and it does not work all that well. For those who live in areas where cool-season grasses like bluegrass or turf-type tall fescue grow, seeding can be a successful and a necessary part of caring for your lawn. The best time to overseed an existing lawn is late summer until early
Fall Leaf Removal: What You Need To Know
It's that time of year when leaves begin to fall from the trees and shrubs, summer annual weeds like crabgrass and spotted spurge die, and temperatures begin to cool off. A light scattering of leaves won’t harm a lawn, but excessive cover of several inches prevents sunlight from reaching it. The leaves seem to “glue” together as they get wet from rain and are on the lawn for an extended period. This will prevent the grass plants from making carbohydrates that are needed to carry it through the winter. Options for Fallen Leaves Other Than Raking and Bagging
Fall Chores: 10 Simple Fall Cleanup Tips For The Season
One interesting aspect about lawn care, gardening and landscaping is that no two years are ever the same. Up until the middle of October, the Midwest had been extremely dry and much warmer than usual. These conditions have delayed the normal fall chores, pushing back such jobs as leaf collection or final mowing to much later in November. In past years, most leaves have fallen by now and lawns are beginning to harden-off for winter. There are many, many trees that still have mostly green leaves and the fall leaf color change has just started in some areas. Although it will soon change, most annual pla
How Winter Mulch Can Protect Your Garden This Season!
Adding mulch around garden and landscape plants is a great idea as it will help protect the roots of overwintering perennials from the ravages of winter temperatures. When temperatures fluctuate during the winter, mulch helps to keep soil temperature around more steady than uncovered soil. Even though it is winter, plants still need moisture, especially evergreen plants like yews, junipers, arborvitae and many broad-leafed evergreen plants still require water. Common Mulch to Use in the Winter When bare soil freezes, the moisture in the frozen soil is less available to the plant, which can lead to wint
Answers to the Top 4 Questions Everyone Is Asking about Fall Mums
Chrysanthemums, more commonly referred to as "mums," are a top choice for any fall garden. Mums are a go-to way to keep up the color in your yard as summer draws to a close because of their bright beauty and hardiness through the fall season. However, there are a few things to note to keep these stunners making a splash in your yard this fall, even after your more delicate summer flowers are beginning to fade away. Don't let uncertainty about mums scare you away from your fall garden goals. The pros at Spring Green have all the answers to your top questions right here at your disposal.
Fall Composting Guide to Keep Your Garden Looking Fantastic Year-round
As summer comes to an end, the leaves begin to hit the ground and the temps dip, we embrace what some might call the best season of the year. Fall brings sweaters, football games and if you want your garden to thrive year-round, fall composting. Whether you’re brand-new to gardening and have no idea where to begin or an experienced pro in need of a fall composting refresher, the lawn care specialists at Spring-Green compiled (pun intended) the composting tips you need to get started! A No-Brainer Guide to
Fall Fertilizer Tips To Set Your Calendar By
Fall is right around the corner. That means it will soon be time to play football, pick out pumpkins and prep our lawns for the cold winter months ahead. Fall fertilizing can set your lawn up for success year-round, but timing does matter. The dates of the first frost in your area will vary by region, but here’s the drill down on best practices for fall fertilization and what else you need to know about fall lawn care. Answers to the Most Commonly Asked Fall Fertilizing Questions: Do I need to fertilize my lawn in the fall? Fertilizing your lawn in the fall i