What Do Lawn Care Services Do In The Winter

Push Prevention Over Replacement

Preventive maintenance is absolutely crucial when it comes to avoiding costly repairs or emergency work. The cost of preventive services pales in comparison to the costs of completely to redoing a system. Give clients data or images of past disasters. Let them know what kind of damage can occur with an improperly maintained system.

Showing customers your rates for winterization versus total replacement will drive home the importance of doing preventive work. Outside of the cost issue, remind customers of the additional landscaping needed to complete repairs. No one wants to think about additional hassle, so this will help push customers towards doing proper preventive work.Hot tip! Customers will occasionally mention doing winterization themselves with their home tools. When this happens, make sure you mention the difference industrial equipment can make in ensuring a job gets done right. Alternatively, if you have a storefront, offering any adapters or specialty tools will help you get sales from these DIY-ers.

Is It Worth It To Hire A Professional To Mow Your Lawn

Although hiring a lawn care company is more expensive than doing it yourself, it can be well worth the money. For starters, it saves you time and equipment maintenance, which may be justifiable financially. It also creates a more professional appearance. Plus, a pro can spot problems before they occur. This can save you money on expensive reseeding, aeration and other types of lawn repair down the road.

Dont Mow After The First Frost

Cold weather causes grass to become dormant, meaning it won’t grow again until warm weather returns. This typically occurs after the first frost. Mowing grass during a dormant period can cause damage to your lawn due to the dropping temperatures. All grasses, both cool and warm season varieties, require a minimum temperature and amount of rainfall for growth. Give grass a trim before temperatures plummet, and put the mower in the shed until spring.

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Controlling Weeds And Fertilisation

Theres plenty of opportunity throughout winter to control any weeds that may have appeared on the lawn and to prepare for any that may crop up in the spring. Key activities to carry out include applying pre-emergence weed killer, and feeding plants with a slow release fertilizer to ensure theyre off to a good start for the next year. Spring bulbs can be planted, and mulch can be laid particularly in areas without flowers, including often overlooked areas including beneath hedges to ensure soil moisture is maintained, improve the soil fertility and health, reduce weed growth, and make the area look more attractive. This time can also be used to work on any washouts or low spots by encouraging growth in time for the warmer months Better Homes & Gardens suggests using a mixture of lawn seed, slow-release fertilizer, and mulch for smaller patches or oversowing the whole area with a suitable seed for entire lawns.

Expert Lawn Care For Greener Lawn This Spring

At Superior Lawn Care, our Fall Special Offer can prepare your lawn for the winter, allowing you to enjoy a lush green lawn in the spring. Before winter comes to Pittsburgh, current customers can take advantage of our Fall Special Offer including lime application, overseeding, and aeration for a healthier lawn come springtime.

Contact us today to learn about how our Fall Special Offer and our other lawn care services can prepare your lawn and landscape for winter. We proudly serve southwestern PA, including Belle Vernon, Upper St. Clair, Greensburg, Wexford, Indiana, Uniontown, and throughout the Pittsburgh area.

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Add Pest Control Services

Just because the weather is cooling off, doesnt mean the bugs disappear.

A change in seasons is the perfect time to advertise your Pest Control seasons.

But what makes the Fall/Winter period so perfect for this service? RODENTS.

Rodents and insects love to find their way indoors when it starts to get cold. Use the Eek! A rat! angle to advertise this service, and your clients will shower you with money to deal with this pesky problem.

Your Lawn Should Be Shorn Quite Short Before Winter Weather Sets In

The longer you leave your grass during the cold months, the greater the chance for plant damage in chilly weather. If you havent yet experienced a hard freeze, its a good idea to trim your grass a bit shorter than normal. This will help your grass survive the winter and emerge in better shape in the spring.

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Provide Fertilization And Weed Control

Careful! This one depends heavily on what kinds of grasses youre treating. Warm-season versus cold-season grasses will need different fertilization times.

This is a big upsell, and can make you a very sizable chunk of profit-to-work ratio.

It also has a small window, so you may need to jump on fertilization before its too late.

However, the small window can work towards your benefit, as its easier to create a deadline rush when you .

From Pennington, heres an in-depth guide on how to get started with this service.

Groom The Grass At The Beginning Of The Season

Dont be surprised if your grass looks sad and worn down when the snow clears. The winter is a harsh challenge for any lawn. In the early spring, lightly rake the lawn to help perk up the turf ahead of the growing season. As soon as the soil dries out a bit, carefully clear away leaves and dead grass using a regular leaf rake. This will break up any matted areas and improve airflow the surface of the blades.

Wait to begin raking until the ground has dried out and firmed up in the spring. If the soil is muddy, you risk damaging the grass by walking and working on it. Also remember to be gentle. The old grass and new growth are fragile, plus moist soil makes it easier to pull the blades out of the ground.

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Preparing Your Lawn And Landscaping For Winter

With fall slowly giving way to the colder winter weather, it is time to start preparing your lawn for the snowy months ahead. Some people may think that the end of summer means the end of mowing the lawn and tending to the garden, but to ensure a healthy lawn, its essential to maintain your lawn through the fall, so it is healthy and strong in the spring!

Dont Walk On Your Lawn

Avoid walking on your lawn, especially if you live in an area with severe winters marked by low temperatures and abundant snowfall such as the Midwest or Northeast. Stepping on dormant grass can damage the turfgrass crown – the stem from which the rest of the grass grows, and continued foot traffic can lead to bare spots and compaction by spring. Instead, avoid damaging the grass by walking on paved walkways. Mark ‘walkable’ areas with reflectors, and be sure to keep paved walkways clear of snow to reduce chance of injury.

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What Does Lawn Care Include

Maintaining a healthy lawn in Bergen County, NJ requires ongoing care and a huge commitment. Many landscape companies offer lawn care services in addition to regular professional lawn maintenance and landscaping services. Borst Landscapes professional lawn care services include:

• Pest Control
• Grub control and chinch bug control
• Natural aeration & thatch control

How Often Should I Water My Lawn

• You need to water your lawn to supply the right amount of moisture, cool down the soil temperature and wash fertilisers into the soil. As clay soils hold moisture for longer than sandy soils, youll need to water grass planted in sandy soils more frequently. However, clay may hold onto water more intensely, preventing your lawn from utilising that high moisture content. Loam is the ideal soil mix and will retain just the right amount of water, while still releasing enough moisture.
• If you have loamy soil with a warm season grass, give your lawn a good soaking of water once a week, and perhaps just cool it off if the grass is under stress from extreme heat. The norm is 25mm of water per week. Place a container in each of the sprinkler zones and determine how long it takes to fill the container up to 25mm. This is the amount of time youll have to irrigate each zone once a week. Its better to give more water in one session to force the roots to grow down to a deeper level, than giving a little water every day.
• Cool season lawns need more frequent, shallower watering, as their root systems are not as deep as some of the warm season lawns.
• Water early in the morning as this is the coolest time of the day and there will be less evaporation. Youll lessen the chances of your lawn contracting a disease if it dries before nightfall.
• Water spots where pets have urinated immediately, or at least more frequently, using a watering can or hose.

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Keep The Yard Clear Throughout The Winter

As youre wrapping up yardwork in the fall, be sure not to leave anything behind. Rake away all the leaves and put away sprinklers, hoses, garden furniture, yard toys and decorations. If something is left on the surface, the grass will get matted down during the winter months. With the added moisture of rain and snow, this can also make the perfect environment for pests and mold to sneak in and damage the turf or kill it.

Fertilizing In The Winter

Late fall or early winter are the best times to fertilize cool season grasses. Since the majority of the lawns in North America are made from these grasses, like Bermuda and bluegrass, it is a good bet your yard has a typical cool season blend.

Before the first freeze, give your lawn a thorough fertilizing to replace all of the nutrients that can be lost from the soil during the hot summer months. Once the weather turns cold, the fertilizer will remain in the soil and feed your lawns roots all winter long.

When spring comes your lawn will be full of healthy, lush, green grass that has been feeding on good fertilizer nutrients underneath the snow.

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More Ideas Around Winter Income For Landscapers

While you may enjoy the snow, if you live in Florida or another warm climate state, you want to make money in the winter months. If you live in a snow-free area, or you have no snow one winter, here are some other ideas to keep your landscaping business open in the off-season:

• Fall yard cleanup is a cash cow as well as a service you can offer your regular clients. You can also market for more yard clean-up customers. Windy storms take down tree limbs, scatter leftover leaves and bring more trash onto your customers property.

• You can install holiday lights, take them down in January and store them for your customers over the year. You can sell your holiday lights and display services to commercial and residential clients.

• You can provide consulting services for homeowners, HOAs, and property managers. If youre offering this service to your existing clients, discuss how to make lawns greener and how you can design a flowerbed for them.

• If you provide landscaping services, you can draw up landscape designs for customers over the winter season. If a homeowner or a commercial company wants to add a pergola, a patio, or an outdoor kitchen, you can get a jumpstart on the design part.

• You can offer landscape design services to homebuilders. Some builders want to add basic landscaping to their buyers, so you can design patios, decks, and other outdoor living features for new developments or new houses.

• Power wash and seal driveways.

You Can Grow Crops In Winter

Its true that Floridas relatively chilly winter nights can potentially damage plants if necessary precautions are not taken. Yet many vibrant plants and varieties of crops can still flourish in the overall fairly mild season. Prepare for cold weather and ensure your Florida plants stay healthy with the following measures:

• Fruit trees Citrus trees should be fertilized and examined for scab disease. Now is also the time to plant new deciduous fruit trees so they will be ready for the spring, and already existing deciduous fruit trees should be fertilized and pruned.

• Flowering trees January is an especially great time to prune non-spring flowering trees and shrubs, in addition to your deciduous fruit trees. Roses and other shrubs should be fertilized early in the year, followed by fertilization and re-mulching of the beds to keep in moisture.

• Palms Palm trees are particularly susceptible to damage from cold weather. Closely examine your palms during steep temperature drops and frost, treating them for cold damage if dead branches or leaf tissue are found.

• Flower beds Keep a variety of annuals in your garden that are tolerant to cooler weather, such as petunias, pansies and snapdragons. Plant bulbous flowers like amaryllis in the winter, taking extra care to lay down plenty of mulch and regularly water them.

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What Can A Lawn Maintenance Company Tell You About Winter Lawn

November 7, 2020 By Tim Boyd

If you dont have a respected lawn maintenance company taking good care of your lawn, then its time to consider hiring a turf expert. Its really the only way to make sure you have a healthy green lawn year in and year out. People who manage their own yards tend to think that winter is a good time to kick back and take a break from their demanding lawn maintenance schedule, but the pros know better.

The work you put into your lawn this winter will help your grass stay healthy through the cool winter months. Plus, there are things you can do now that will give your lawn a leg up when it starts growing again in the springtime. Here are a few important things a lawn maintenance company can tell you about winter lawn care.

Keep The Lawns Looking Pretty With Fall Cleanups And Leaf Removal

Fall Cleanups are the first thing that come to most Landscapers’ minds. Here, youre mostly interested in freshening up your clients property.

That means:

• Trimming and removing dead plants
• And, of course, removing all the fallen leaves.

Fall Cleanups are big money makers before the new year. Theyre also easy to sell, if you use the right sales triggers.

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Fertilizing Your Lawn During Winter

Healthy lawns need three major nutrients: Nitrogen , for dense green top growth, phosphorus for root growth, and potassium for general health. Lawns also need micronutrients and fertilizers can help supply these nutrients. When buying lawn fertilizer, you will see three numbers showing the N-P-K values . The numbers represent the percentage of each nutrient however, they do not add up to 100 percent. The other ingredients are inert material.

Warm-season lawns respond best to fertilization when the grass is actively growing, the temperature is warm, and the days are long. In southern states with mild winters, fertilize in spring when the growing season is in full swing. Also, wait until you have mowed once or twice. If you fertilize too early, youre promoting top growth of the lawn at the expense of healthy root growth. Youre also encouraging weeds.

Cool-season lawns should be fertilized in fall, when temperatures are cooling off but the grass is still growing. Fertilizing in fall, when temperatures are still in the 50s, will help grass plants keep their green color into the winter. More importantly, it will promote healthy root growth, which helps grass get off to a good start in spring. Never fertilize when the soil is frozen as it serves no purpose, and most of the fertilizer will wash away.

Whenever you use fertilizer, follow the directions on the label. More is not better.

Atlanta Lawn Maintenance Guide

Warm-season grasses are native to tropical regions and do their best work in the scorching Southern sun. Warm-season grasses grow best in temperatures between 75 90 degrees fahrenheit and have the highest growth rates during the summer season. They experience winter dormancy for 3 5 months, depending on type and location, and usually green back up when spring rolls around.

Compared to their cool-season counterparts, warm-season grasses require less maintenance and are generally less susceptible to pest invasions.

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Warm Season Fall Growth

Now you friends with warm season turf such as Bermudagrass, St Augustinegrass, Zoysia, Centipede or bahiiiiiiagrass have a much different approach here in the fall for sure, but we still want to pump things up, just in a different way.Lets start out by looking at your growth calendar because its completely different than our cool season cousins:Our grasses are a little more methodical in their approach, simpler too. This is because we have a much longer growing season and in fact, in areas where the ground doesnt freeze, the growing season is year round. Lets think about that for a minute.Even though your turfgrass goes dormant once outside temps dip below 50F, there are always weeds and problem grasses that are adapted to grow at lower temperatures.So lets get a level-set there first and realize: If you have warm season turf, you should probably start looking at your lawn as a year-round endeavor, even if you are not mowing in January, you still will want to patrol and hand pick the weeds that like to take ground in winter. If your ground doesnt freeze, you also still need to keep your lawn watered! Yes you do: helps keep it turgid and healthy even if it doesnt show it, your lawn knows it.Our approach going into fall is this.