May is when the grass starts growing and so do their buddies the weeds. Spraying of broad-leaved lawn weeds such as dandelion and plantain with a herbicide can begin as soon as the air temperature can be depended upon to stay 70 for several hours.

Creeping Charley (Nepeta hederacea) is called by so many names (such as gill-over-the-ground and ground ivy) that a description might be in order. This weed creeps along the ground, its thin wiry stems rooting as they lengthen. Its leaves are scalloped and round; its flowers are tiny spikes of typical catnip form. Creeping Charley thrives in shade. It can be killed with sprays containing material developed for it’s control. This material, marketed under several trade names, is widely available. Begin an insect-control program for your rose bushes as soon as the leaves on the canes are full-size. Remember that black spot, the most serious rose disease in the Middle West, can never be cured; it can only be prevented. Keep the leaves covered at all times with a combination dust. My pet combination is malathion and captan. This “combo” has worked well for me over the years.

Questions for The May Landscape

I don’t know about you, but it seems like this winter is never going to end. I have lived in the Midwest for almost 12 years now and this has been the longest, coldest winter I can remember. The good news is, however, that it will soon end just like it does every year. But will you be ready to tackle the lawn care and landscape?

It’s important to think about lawn care and landscape services now before the problems take hold on your green spaces. And believe me, there are plenty of issues that can crop up in a hurry if you arent paying attention.

You can also save money by getting signed up and locked up for the season with your local lawn and landscape pro.

With that in mind, here are some of the basics to consider for the 2009 lawn and landscape season.

Lawn Mowing

It has not been that long ago, that the first blades of grass were cut down about only 150 years ago. During those days people used as grass cutting scythe and did it all by hand, and many were lucky it even worked moderately. Nowadays, there are over a dozen different tools that have been designed that people use to keep their lawns in pristine shape.

The lawn mower is just the most basic of all lawn care tools and it is hard to imagine a living organism that actually needs to be cut and sliced off to be kept healthy. As a professional lawn care worker once said, Grass just likes to be cut, and to accomplish this a good, quality lawnmower is essential.

Though a lawn mower is an expensive investment, if it is taken care of it can last a lifetime. You will need to keep the blade sharpened, the spark plugs clean and the air filter changed if the mower has one, and change the oil as needed.

Using a few helpful lawn care tips can help you to improve the way that your lawn looks so that you can impress the neighbors with it. If you care for the outside of your home as much as the inside, then consider these tips to help you to make the most of it. When doing these things, you will see improvements. Doing things like maintaining a dense lawn allows for weeds to be nudged out. Keeping the grass the right length provides necessary health for the grass.

Water Tips

One effective lawn care tip you need is that with watering. If you use a sprinkler be sure that your lawn is watered as much as daily. You should not over do it, though, as you may be exposing the roots to too much water. Most grass types should get at least one inch of rain or watering per week, at the minimal. When grass is deeply watered, this adds to the overall quality, too. Use a tool to measure the amount of water that your yard is getting. When it is not enough, add additional watering to the yard.

Nutrients To Live

The economy is just not looking good right now. But that doesn’t mean you should give up and go live in a cardboard box for the next year. On the contrary, in times like this, those who are smart can excel and make money beyond their wildest dreams. Sound funny to you?… …maybe you should take a few tips.

Just follow these tips and you can make enough money to pay your debts and more.

Mowing Lawns For Cash

Believe it or not, the first day of spring is just a few weeks away, and that means homeowners are thinking about lawn care and gardening. In fact, once the weeds begin to pop up, they will all be going crazy trying to figure out what to do. This is where you can capitalize.

Since it is early in the year, most people have not prepared and called their lawn care pro yet, meaning you can swoop in and grab that cash for yourself! Get out this week and start leaving 100 fliers per day and I can bet you’ll end up with 10 customers before you know it.

As warm weather approaches many homeowners want a beautiful looking, lush and green, healthy lawn that all the neighbors would love to have. In addition any flower, bushes, and shrub beds need to have that neat appearance.One of the hardest job throughout the season is how to kill and control the weeds.

When choosing a weed killer there are general questions you have to answer so that you implement the best weed control plan for your situation.

There are a few different types of weed killers that you should be familiar with. They are;

When choosing a weed killer there are general questions you have to answer so that you implement the best weed control plan for your situation.

Total vegetation Ground Sterilizer – These will kill all vegetation sprayed on and becomes active in the soil to stop re-growth for multiple seasons. Common active ingredients include bromacil and prometon.

Selective Weed Killer- Most commonly called a broadleaf weed killer that will kill all broadleaf weeds such as dandelions, chick weeds and poison ivy, but not grass, flowers, or ornamental shrubs and bushes. Other weed killers kill Grassy Weeds (non-leaf) and not the grass. Active ingredients include 24D and mcpp

Most Americans enjoy a barbeque in their backyard with their spouse and children on weekends. It is a relaxation therapy for all of them. Yet has anybody ever thought about organizing a grill barbeque party? It is not a bad idea to plan a grilling cookout for your friends too. In fact it would serve the purpose of socializing very well. Regardless of whom you invite, whether it is relatives, friends, colleagues, associates or neighbourhood mates, a barbeque in your yard will be great fun for everyone.

It is obvious that you might not be able to invite a lot of people, since this depends firstly on the size of your yard. Such kind of open air party can be organised for your closest family and friends. Nevertheless, you can’t be relaxed and make a plan at the last minute. Rather, barbeque events would require proper planning or else all the concept may fail. Hence get up and start now if you feel like organizing a barbeque kind of party in your backyard.

Planting a fruit tree might be an easy task. It’s the growing bit that is a little difficult. If you are aiming for quick success out of your fruit tree, you will have to take care of the plant in the right manner from its first stages, or else your tree will fall sick and die out, due to poor care. If this happens, you will be left wondering what disease or pestilence affected the plant, and will have to start again from scratch!

Such an intensive care includes knowledge regarding the fruit trees various life stages. For example during the early stage of its life, if your tree starts growing fruits, it is absolutely necessary to provide support to its branches, since these are still not ready to hold such a great weight. If support is not provided, it is very likely that the branch will break as a result of the extra weight of the fruits. To avoid this situation, one must offer enough support to the tree. You can prop the branch up with a plank or even tie it to another branch, which is higher up. No sooner the tree becomes independent and gets the capacity to grow its fruits and hold them on it its own.

Right after the early spring cleanup up North is a good time to start the annual fertilizing program for the lawn. This early application is one of the most important of the season because grass soon will be utilizing nutrients when the weather warms. Fertilizer will help it to grow vigorously at a time when growing conditions are most favorable. And since a dense stand of grass is one of the best ways of keeping down weeds, lawns should be given every opportunity to grow with vigor, fertilizer is a key requirement.

There are a number of very good lawn fertilizers, these should be used according to recommendations of the manufacturer. A good standard rule for the amount to use is to apply one pound of actual nitrogen for each thousand square feet of lawn surface. The first number in a fertilizer formula refers to the per cent of nitrogen. Divide this number into 100 and the answer will be the number of pounds of that fertilizer to use for each one thousand feet of lawn surface.

Foundation Plants

Plants that set close to the foundation of your home are called foundation plants. The plants are of importance because it improves and beautifies the home, as well as relates the home to the landscaping proportions of the grounds. Evergreens are a popular choice for foundation planting not only because they thrive easily, but also because they look good all year long.

If you have not used evergreens before, it can be a mistake to use them for foundation planting. The contrast can be too sharp since the evergreens are likely to look a bit forbidding. There is a wide variety of other flowering shrubs, dwarf fruit trees, roses and other types of plants that will give color to your landscape design in the spring, summer and fall seasons. Japanese maples, floribunda roses and flower quince are just a few of the plants you can use.

It can be tempting to try one of the nurseries evergreen specimens in your foundation planting, however you should avoid this. On the other hand, you can try taller and shorter plant types, use pines or juniper, laurel or rhododendron.