Archive for the ‘Lawn Care’ Category
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Even with the lack of snow we have experienced here in Minneapolis this season, there are still some things we need to be aware of especially with the frequent rising and falling of temperatures and that is the accumulation of ice on sidewalks, steps, and parking lots.
Whether you are a homeowner or a business owner, it is your responsibility to keep those areas safe for those who want to enter your business, walk down the sidewalk in front of your house, or deliver your mail. Anytime we have melting during the day and sub-freezing temps and night, it can create potential hazards in the morning. These dangerous conditions can be dealt with using de-icing materials, mostly in the form of salt. Parkway Lawn Service has many customers that we apply de-icing materials to on a regular basis to their homes and businesses which reduces liability and creates conditions that are safe for their families and customers.
We also have completed ‘Voluntary Environmental Certification – Snow and Ice Control Best Practices’ that was sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. One of our customers who has been sued in the past over someone slipping and injuring themselves in their parking lot said it best when they said “It’s cheap insurance,” describing the de-icing service that we do frequently for them. Whether you are doing it yourself or would like Parkway Lawn Service to do the service for you, keep in mind the danger for your families, customers, and others this winter when icy conditions are present.
Tags: de-icing, deicing, fall, ice, management, minneapolis, minnesota, parking lot, parking lots, risk, risk management, safe, safety, salt, sand, slip, slippery, snow, snow plowing, steps, walks, winter
Posted in Lawn Care, Outdoor Care, Seasonal Lawn Care, Snow Removal | No Comments »
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Winter is a great time to trim certain types of shrubs and trees, especially if you want to trim them back significantly. Pruning while the plant is dormant is important for most types. If you trim too early in the fall while the plant is still ‘hardening off’ it may possibly damage the plant. Trimming too late in the winter could leave fresh wounds exposed and the plant will not have enough time to seal themselves before Spring and new growth starts. Generally February and March are the best months to do this in Minnesota. Another advantage of dormant pruning is the branch structure is very easy to see due to the fact you do not have any leaves blocking your view.
Parkway Lawn Service has an experienced trimming crew that will determine proper timing and techniques for specific plants. Contact us to set up a consultation today. If you would prefer to tackle the project yourself, here is a great article from the University of Minnesota if you would like to learn more:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/dg0628.html
Tags: pruning, shrubs, trees, trimming, winter, winter pruning, winter trimming
Posted in Lawn Care, Seasonal Lawn Care, Trimming | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Spring and fall are perfect times to check and see if your mulch needs replenishing. Mulch depth should be maintained at 2 – 3 inches thick.
When maintaining mulch be sure you use the same kind of mulch that you already have down or it will look patchy or layered. If using a new kind of mulch, remove the old mulch first.
Old mulch can bunch up so before applying new much rake the old mulch so it is even along the landscape, then apply the new mulch on top.
Make sure that mulch is not up against trees as it invites pest and rodent activity and encourages disease.
Tags: mulch, mulch maintenance
Posted in Lawn Care, Seasonal Lawn Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
During the last week of August you should have stopped pruning and feeding your roses to discourage growth. Roses need a little help getting ready for winter because they want to keep on growing and flowering if you encourage them. Leave the last flowers on the plant. This will convince it, as the flowers turn into hips (which contain the seeds), that it’s OK to go dormant for the winter.
Once the plant produces rose hips it is ready to go dormant.
Just after first frost mulch about 6-12 inches deep around the base of the plant to protect the roots. This is also a good time to give it one last watering for the winter, and to clear out all the dead leaves and detritus around the plant.
Tags: garden rose care, prepare roses for winter
Posted in Lawn Care, Seasonal Lawn Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Aeration is a service where small plugs are pulled from your lawn to allow air, water and nutrients to get to the roots of your grass.
If your lawn is looking thin or brown it may be because of a thick thatch build up. Overly compacted soil does not absorb water and nutrients as well as soil that has been aerated. Grass stems, roots, decomposing leaves and sticks can build up quickly on a lawn causing a thatch problem.
Core aeration revitalizes your lawn so it can get nutrients to make it healthy. Parkway Lawn will aerate your lawn to help control thatch, improve soil structure, help improve growth pockets for new roots, and open the way for water and fertilizer to enter your lawn’s root zone.
Give us a call today at 612-869-5878 for a free aeration quote from Parkway Lawn Service!
Tags: aeration, fall lawn care
Posted in Aeration, Lawn Care, Seasonal Lawn Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
Fertilizing your lawn should be done 3-4 times a year. The best times to fertilize your lawn are in May around Memorial Day, the first week of July and near Labor Day.
Most homeowners have varied results when fertilizing their lawns and end up with light green spots, dark green spots or stripes in their lawn. There are several reasons for this.
The product that you get in the store is usually different than the product that your professional lawn service uses. Store fertilizers come premixed in bags and sitting on the shelves for quite a while encourages clumps of various components of the mix to stick together.
Your lawn care professional has access to fresher product that is usually mixed more thoroughly as well as having special types of spreaders that distribute the product more evenly on your lawn. Light green spots or dark green spots are from clumps of fertilizer not being properly mixed and spread on your lawn. Storing fertilizer in the shed or garage allows moisture to collect in the fertilizer mix and can cause even more clumping making the mix more difficult to spread evenly.
Parkway Lawn can apply fertilizer and weed control to your lawn so you won’t have to deal with a spreader, bags of chemicals sitting in your garage or stripes and spots in your lawn. Call Parkway about fertilizing today at 612-869-5878.
To read more about our services visit: http://www.parkwaylawn.com/lawn-care-services.html
Tags: fertilization, lawn care, lawn maintenance
Posted in Fertilization, Lawn Care, Seasonal Lawn Care | No Comments »
Thursday, July 21st, 2011
The following excerpt was taken from an article published in Twin City Business on 7-19-2011
Heat Wave Challenges Outdoor Workers, Data Centers
Companies that employ construction and other outdoor workers are having to make concessions due to the weather, and data center operators are working extra hard to keep optimum temperatures at facilities where equipment is stored.
… “Parkway Lawn Service in Minneapolis—which has about a dozen employees mowing, fertilizing, and performing other outdoor tasks for clients—had to send two crew members home yesterday after they showed signs of extreme exhaustion. “We know their safety is more important than getting these jobs done,” said Office Manager Daryl Larson. The workers typically put in four, 10-hour days and take Friday off. But on Monday, the company called it a day at 3:30.
The heat has also affected the lawns of some customers. Those who haven’t been watering more frequently haven’t seen much growth of their grass, Larson said. Parkway skips lawns that don’t need mowing and collects only $10 from those customers—considerably less than its typical fee.
Larson would like to be able to get workers to job sites earlier in the morning to beat the heat, but most city ordinances prohibit construction and other outdoor work before 7 a.m.” …
Bottom line is that we will be a day behind on mowing this week and will finish up with mowing on Friday afternoon.
Posted in Lawn Care | No Comments »
Friday, July 8th, 2011
Watering Tips
To maintain a healthy, green lawn throughout the growing season, irrigation is sometimes necessary. The average lawn needs one inch of rain or irrigated water per week. If watering is necessary, one deep soaking is much better than several sprinkles. Watering is best done in the morning. Watering in the afternoon or evening promotes certain diseases. If a timer is used, watering can be started as early as 4:00 in the morning. This allows the water to soak into the soil, decreasing the amount of water lost to evaporation in the heat of the day.
Remember, one inch of water per week is for average lawns. If a lawn is on a slope or is in a hot, windy area, more water must be applied and applied more slowly to keep the lawn healthy and green. Lawns on sandy, well-drained soils require at least 1 1/2inches of water each week. Sandy, well-drained lawns may need to be watered twice each week in the hottest part of the summer. Just split 1 1/2 inches between the two applications.
An additional tip is to measure the amount of water you’re putting on the lawn. Take several empty tuna or cat food cans and set them in the area to be sprinkled. Leave the sprinkler on and keep track of how much time is required for the cans to contain one inch of water. This is the amount of time your sprinkler will need to run to ensure that your lawn is sufficiently watered for one week. Information provided by Bachman’s, Inc.
Easy Watering
It may not seem like a big deal, but using a simple device such as an automatic shut-off watering timer can make the watering process a whole lot easier. The timer attaches to your faucet on the outside of your house; your garden hose attaches to the timer. When you’re ready to water, simply place your sprinkler out in your yard, turn the water on, and adjust the timer to the desired amount of time you want to water. Then just walk away; the water will shut off by itself. Parkway Lawn Service has some of these timers available now. Give our office a call if you’d like to purchase one for a nominal fee.
Tags: lawn care, lawn maintenance, lawn watering
Posted in Lawn Care, Seasonal Lawn Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Lawn Mushrooms
Photo 1: Newly emerging lawn mushrooms. Bob Mugaas
Bob Mugaas, University of Minnesota Extension Educator
With some areas of the state receiving moderate to heavy amounts of rainfall over the past couple of weeks, mushrooms are beginning to randomly appear in lawns. Their appearance often causes people to be concerned about the health of their lawn and whether or not a serious disease might be getting started.
It’s important to remember that mushrooms are the ‘fruiting bodies’ of fungi living in the soil and thatch. They are responsible for the production of microscopic spores that in turn help propagate the fungus. The vast majority of those fungi are not associated with any lawn disease causing organisms. It’s quite common for them to appear during periods of moist conditions resulting from either natural rainfall or excessive irrigation. Again, they are not necessarily indicative of any particular lawn problem. The fungi are living on decaying organic matter in the soil and/or thatch layers. This breakdown of organic matter results in at least some of the nutrients contained in that organic matter being released back to the soil. At that point the nutrients are available for continued plant growth or used by other microorganisms. If you find the mushrooms offensive, simply knock them over with a rake and remove them from the area.
Photo 2: Typical lawn ‘fairy ring’ symptom. Bob Mugaas
The one exception to the above situation is a lawn problem known as fairy ring. Symptoms in the lawns appear as dark green arcs and/or circles; often darker than the surrounding grass on either side of the ring or arc. There are a number of different fungal organisms associated with the production of these arcs or circles. If you suspect this problem is in your lawn please view this link on fairy rings which is part of the diagnostics feature on the University of Minnesota.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/p316fairyrings.html
You might also want to visit the University Of Minnesota Extension on Gardening for all sorts of great information on gardening and more; http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/
Tags: lawn care, lawn fungi, lawn maintenance, lawn mushrooms
Posted in Lawn Care, Lawn Diseases, Seasonal Lawn Care | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Sodding
If you still have areas of your lawn that are in rough shape from the damage of last winter, we can restore those areas. We know what it takes to water and maintain new turf grass sod. Parkway Lawn Service specializes in small to medium size sod jobs. In a short time, we can help transition those dead grass areas into a healthy new lawn.
Tags: lawn care, lawn maintenance, lawn sod
Posted in Lawn Care, Seasonal Lawn Care | No Comments »
