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Lawn Diseases: Caring for Warm Season Grasses Like Centipede Grass
I recently attended the South Carolina Landscape and Turfgrass Association annual conference and tradeshow in Columbia, SC for the second year now. Since I’ve lived most of my life in northern Illinois, I always welcome the chance to learn more about warm-season grasses, and this show provides some appreciated insight. Warm Season Lawn Disease: Centipede Decline One of the presentations I attended was ab
Lawn Care Expert Harold Enger Celebrates 37 Years | Spring-Green
February 20, 1978 was the day I first started working for a lawn care company. I have been asked many times about why I started working in this industry, and I’ve always said that it was fate that enabled me to start a job that I really knew nothing about when I first started. I had worked for a couple of landscaping companies while in high school, so I was familiar with landscapes and plants, but working for a lawn care company was new to me. After
How to Get Rid of Monkey Grass
The following question came in to our Ask the Expert blog, where lawn care authority and Spring-Green franchisee trainer Harold Enger fields a variety of questions. This particular individual wanted to know one thing: how to get rid of monkey grass. “I have a lot of monkey grass in my yard; do you recommend mowing to cut it back or do you recommend a trimmer? Thanks” "Mr. Morris, Thank you for submitting your question. I am not sure if you are looking to control and remove your Liriope (monkey grass) or just want to keep it in check. There are two varieties of Liriope that look very similar. One variety usually stays in small clumps, but the other variety spreads by underground roots called rhizom
Lawn Care Tips for the Pros: Go Inside Spring-Green Lawn Care Training
Every year for about the last 15 years or so, I have geared up to conduct 17 training sessions at regional locations across the US, offering lawn care tips and working with the field staff as they get ready for another year of servicing your lawns. It may be snowing in northern Illinois, but weeds are growing in the south and customers expect us to take care of them. I will be starting my lawn care training sessions in North and South Carolina, before moving on across the south to Tulsa, OK and Lake Charles, LA. I will make a quick detour to the Seattle area as they usually don’t experience the same cold winters as the rest of the northern states. From there, I will slowly work my way across the US to the Northeast and Midwest. It all comes to a close at the end of March in Green Bay, WI.
Bird Feeding 101: Using the Right Bird Seed and More
Let’s talk about birds; I love them and I’m passionate about feeding them. For years, I’ve put out bird feeders and have done my best to keep them filled, especially in the winter months. In the past, I’ve always purchased a premium bird seed, but I started to wonder if the mix I was purchasing was really the best for the birds that visit my feeders. I started to notice that I end up with quite a bit of seed on the ground each year. So, I asked myself, “Am I really usin
Will There Be Freeze Damage to Your Lawn This Winter?
Answering whether or not there will be freeze damage to your lawn this winter is almost impossible, since there are a few things to understand about how turf adjusts to freezing temperatures first. If your lawn has had a chance to become acclimated to the cold through a period often referred to as the “hardening-off” process, it has a much greater chance of surviving freezing temperatures. If the freeze occurs very quickly without giving th
How to Plan a Garden: Garden Design Tricks and Tips
Planting season for 2015 has started, sort of. It may seem strange to begin thinking about planting at this time of year, especially when the high temperature today won't even reach the freezing mark, but this is the time to do so. Besides (if you live in the northern states), there really isn’t much else to do at this time of year besides going shopping, watching sports on TV, and eating leftover Christmas cookies and candy. So l
Deer Deterrents: How to Stop Deer from Eating Your Plants
Imagine it has been your lifelong dream; a house in the country away from all the hustle and bustle of the city. A place where the air is clean, the soil is fertile, and where ”the deer and the antelope play”. It may be great to live in a forested area, but when it comes to planting flowers, shrubs, and all the other plants to beautify your home, you may not be thinking about the feeding habits of the forest creatures… namely deer. Why Are There Deer Everywhere? It is estimated that there were 500,000 white-tailed deer in the US in 1900. The most recent estimate is that the population has grown to over 25 million. The damage caused to both agriculture and residential property will exceed 1 billion dollars. Nature has always kept animal populations in check, but the suburban envi
Spring-Green Volunteers at the Northern Illinois Food Bank
On December 15th and 17th, ten of us from the Spring-Green Support Center traveled to the Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva, IL to help sort food for those in need throughout 13 counties in northern Illinois. More than 425,000 people each year rely on the food that the food bank supplies, and they currently provide over 50 milli
Salt on Grass and Plants: How to Prevent Salt Damage to Your Landscape
To put it simply, the best way to prevent salt damage to your lawn and landscape is to not use it. Unfortunately, that is not always an option, and you can sometimes find yourself with salt on your grass and plants. There are products out there that claim not to damage grass or plants (like calcium chloride or magnesium chloride), but if you use too much, it can still cause damage. In reality, most people end up using plain old rock salt since it