LAWN CARE PUEBLO COLORADO

One of the ideas of lawn edging is by raising your garden bed.

Beautifully raised garden beds that are made from prefab kits may look like a million dollars. I mean, having an idea of raising a garden bed will make you think that you initially need a landscaper to have that neat look. But here in Lawn Care Pueblo Colorado, we always come up with ideas that has the potential to save money and provide value at the same time.
 
With a little bit of creativity, you can raise a vegetable garden bed using inexpensive, or free, materials. Below are some of the things that you can use to raise your vegetable garden bed.
 
Log
Not only do logs provide support to raising your vegetable bed, it will also give it a rustic barn look on it. Fallen logs or newly cut wood can be used to make an appealing vegetable garden bed. Cut the logs to the desired length and secure them to the soil to form the borders of your vegetable bed. Then fill it with soil.
 
Rock and stone
Using rocks and stone will make the borders of your raised vegetable garden bed look natural. The key is to look for rocks that are similar in size then line them up on the perimeter of the bed. To make it look more natural, take the time to seat the bottom of the rocks on the soil. Fill in the stone with soil around its base first to secure them in place then fill the remainder of the vegetable garden bed with soil
 
Recycled lumber
You can find these from old pieces of wood or lumber left over from construction projects. There is no standard size for a raised bed. But experts say it would be best to keep the width of the raised vegetable bed up to 4 feet or less so that plants can be accessed easily. This helps you reach the center of the vegetable garden bed with ease from both sides. Cut the wood to your desired size and build a rough box. Then place it in a sunny location and fill it with soil. Remember to line the bottom with landscape fabric or canvas to create a weed barrier
 
Wooden crates
Try to look for any unused wooden crates from your attic. You can also find them on yard sales and flea markets. Wooden crates are usually small. Try to combine several sizes and shapes to create a rustic barn look. Then use them as is by putting them in a sunny location and filling it with soil, or carefully remove the bottoms to expose the soil underneath.

Need further lawn edging ? Please call or fill up our form to avail our lawn edging services.

Myths doesn’t exist in story books alone. Lawn care has its own share of myths are well. But these common myths will cause harm than good in the long run and unfortunately, homeowners still practice them even today. On this topic, we have busted 6 common lawn care myths that we hope can be helpful to you.
 
 1. Using spiked shoes to aerate your lawn. While it’s true that spike shoes does the same thing as using a lawn aerator, the former does more harm than good because walking on your lawn with solid spikes will further compact your soil and the spikes itself will suffocate the grass roots as it puhes the grass and dirt deeper into the soil. Remember that common lawn core aeration tools have hollow tines and these remove the soil plugs instead of pushing them down.

2. Shorter grass equals to lean looking lawn. Lean looking lawns like the one you see on golf courses or football fields are the best example of a well-maintained lawn to most homeowners. While it looks good to have the same on your lawn, please try your best not to do the same on your lawn. Cutting your lawn shorter than the usual length helps unneeded weeds survive by exposing them to sunlight and other nutrients that should be for your turf resulting for them to spread further. Shorter grass also develops shorter roots, making it harder for them the necessary water for them to survive specially on dry conditions. As a rule of thumb, do not cut more than a third of the grass blade length when lawn mowing.

3. Disposing your grass clippings – Yes, you are right. Your lawn will definitely look dirty if you left it on your lawn. But believe it or not, they provide benefits for your lawn by giving back vital nutrients that help fertilize the soil and even lessen the amount of thatch. It would help if you can distribute the clippings evenly on your lawn to somewhat mask your lawn from looking dirty.

4. Water your lawn every day – This myth is wasteful indeed. Remember, the key to better water your lawns is by doing it for longer periods and thoroughly. This will allow your lawn to develop longer and deeper roots so they can be more resistant to heat and drought.

5. Seeding your lawn during spring time – Spring time is always believed to be the start of new life. And most homeowners have the same thing in their mind when it comes to their lawn. Even though its true you can use a fall lawn fertilizer, your new grass have better chances of surviving when you seed during fall season because most weeds go dormant in fall. This means that your grass is not required to compete heavily with the weed for it to grow. Also, temperatures are more modest and steadier at fall season without the threat of extreme heat from the summer season.

6. Dethatching your lawn annually during spring time – While this is a common practice to dethatch your lawn annually, this process should be done once your thatch is more than ½ inch thick, regardless of how fast or slow your thatch develops. Not all lawns are the same, so dethatching your lawn once it reaches the recommended limit helps your lawn absorb air and its needed nutrients efficiently.

Our lawn care methods are tested and proven efficient an effective. Please call or fill up our form to know more.

Lawn aeration is the process of punching small plugs, or cores into the lawn turf and the underlying soil structure in order to penetrate the root and thatch layer, thus allowing water and air into the soil to reach the grassroots. This process will allow the grass to consume the water and air efficiently, and as result, letting your grass better absorb the nutrients it needs. Usually, this can be with a motorized machine. Machines that aerate your lawn are mostly rented because unlike lawn mowers that is being used often every time your grass growth is long; your will only need to aerate your lawn few times a year. So, we recommend either you rent a lawn aerator or hire Lawn Care Pueblo Colorado to aerate your lawn for you.
 
Why should I aerate my lawn?
Lawn aeration is the solution to a heavily compacted soil. Soil compaction happens when your lawn has heavy foot traffic or if your lawn is planted on a soil base that is heavy in clay content. If you experience soil compaction, it is advised that you aerate your lawn at least once a year. You might dislike the appearance of your lawn after lawn aeration is done. If so, you can rake up the soil that got scattered in the process. But they will eventually break up and decompose when left on the lawn.
 
When is the best time to aerate my lawn?
It is recommended that the very best time to aerate your lawn is in the fall when you have cool temperatures already, when weed occurrence is minimal and when you grass is actively growing.
 
Spring season is not the ideal time to aerate your lawn, but this depends on the condition of the lawn. Grass cannot grow on compacted soil. If this happens then you will need to aerate your lawn. We highly discourage lawn aeration to be done in spring because this is the same season that weed seeds germinate. Weed seeds germinates best underneath the soil thus making aerated lawns a perfect breeding ground for them. If your soil is extremely compacted of your turf is excessively thin, it would be better to wait until late spring season to aerate your lawn because weeds have already been established but before they flower and go to seed again. This occurs around Memorial Day in most climates.

Please call us or fill up our form to avail our lawn care services.

Watering your lawn with the correct timing will result in the greenest and the healthiest lawn that you can get. You might say that lawns need water all the time but it’s a bad idea in a long run to feed them in a wrong time.
 
Okay, so what are the times on when we should not be watering our lawn?
Simple answer is when the sun is at its highest or at the middle of the day. Because the water will simply evaporate from the heat that comes from the sun. And if the water evaporates quickly, then there is no chance that the water will reach the root of your lawn. End result is waste of money, water and effort. It’s also worth taking note that some cities prohibit watering a lawn during certain times.
 
Then what are the best times to water our lawn?
Usual timings are before 10:00AM or after 6:00PM. Yes, the sun is still up but it is not at its highest point anymore. If you will be watering your lawn around those times then the water will have a better chance of reaching the roots of your lawn. If you water by hand, make sure you have enough time after getting up in the morning to prepare and to finish watering your lawn before 10:00AM or to water them after 6:00PM and to be finished before going to bed.
 
But the very best time of the day to water your lawn is at very late nights or early in the morning before sunrise. Those are the best timings to water your lawn because you don’t have to compete with the sun evaporating the water on your lawn during daytime. Another benefit that you can get from watering your lawn at those times is you will be using less water that you usually consume when you water in daytime. Because virtually all the water will be sucked by your lawn and nothing will be wasted. If this is the case then there is no need consume much more water just to factor in the chances of the water evaporating before it reaches the roots of your lawn.
 
A water sprinkler will be very useful at this point because anyone will find it inconvenient to water their lawn manually on those times. Simply set the timer of the sprinkler to your desired time within early morning or late at night.

We install and maintain sprinklers for any types of lawn. Just give us a call or fill up our form.

Usually we ignore bumps on our lawn. But as time goes by ignoring these bumps, mowing your lawn will start to become difficult and its usage will be limited. But don’t think that fixing it requires rocket science or a set of specialized tools. And we promise, sorting it out will be easy.

Below are the things that you’ll need to know on how to fix your bumpy lawn.

First, let’s discuss the solution that is pretty much popular - using a lawn roller. But is this method good or bad for your lawn?

Straight answer, it's bad for your lawn. It’s true that it flattens the lawn. But it can only do it on small bumps and depressions. Not on areas that are more uneven. And since its main job is to flatten out the lawn, its side effect is that it will also compress the soil. And doing this on the soil is the exact opposite of aerating your lawn. Soil aeration is important because it will let your lawn breathe oxygen and consume the needed soil nutrients more efficiently.

And we hope this explains why using a lawn roller is a bad idea on flattening a lawn.

Now we proceed on how to smoothen your uneven lawn with your hand. Do not worry as this will be easy. Doing this will save you on renting or borrowing a lawn roller and it will also provide you with an easy, long term solution for lawn bumps and depressions of all sizes.

1. Find all the uneven areas of your lawn. You can do this by giving your lawn a close cut and as long as the grass can obscure the uneven spots. You will need to do this carefully on your yard for you to see all of the bumps and depressions so for it to be fixed at once.
2. Find out the reason why those uneven areas occur. In most cases, it is because of water pooling or running off in large amounts. If this is the cause then you may consider looking into new drainage solutions and try to see where your gutters are depositing the water into your yard. Bumps are usually caused by anything that could be buried under your lawn (ex: rock, root, tunnels caused by moles, etc.) By correcting the causes of the bumps, you can be sure that your yard will remain flat.
3. Once you have found the causes of all the bumps and depressions, then it's time to fix it by placing topsoil on all of them. Try to keep the topsoil thin if there’s grass underneath for the grass to grow through. After putting the needed amount of topsoil, use a leveling rake to go over it and to break up any clumps or chunks of rock from it. Try your best to get it as evenly close as possible. You may need a leveling tool if necessary.
4. If needed, perform grass reseeding for some bare spots on where the grass does not grow through. You will be amazed on how smooth and even your lawn is once the new grass grows out from those bare spots.
5. For those areas of your lawn that have huge bumps or depressions, you will need to pour in a lot of topsoil. If this is the case then you will need the new topsoil to settle. In order for you to do this, you will need to thoroughly water the new soil, then leave it to settle for a couple of days. Remember that this is an important step for the new topsoil to remain in those areas. Then check your lawn if it remains leveled and there’s no water pooling or settling has occurred in the unleveled or low areas. If there is no water pooling that occurred then you have successfully smoothen your lawn. If not then you may level it out some more.

Here are some answers that you might have in mind before or after doing the steps above to smoothen your lawn.

Will this method fix my sloping yard?
The process of leveling a sloping yard is much more different and in depth than the leveling of a bumpy lawn that we described above. Leveling a sloping yard usually requires re-grading your lawn. And before you re-grade your lawn, you need to find the highest and lowest points then measure the angle or grade between them and correct accordingly. Re-grading your lawn is a considerable project that homeowners choose to address on a DIY basis. It would be better to hire a professional landscaping company to re-grade your lawn if needed.

Will the uneven areas remain level?
Yes. Your lawn should remain level for many years to come as long as you have fixed the cause of the unevenness of your lawn to develop in the first place.

Can I use sand to level my lawn?
Yes, but using sand will not make the leveled parts of your lawn “fully green” again. Because grass cannot draw nutrients on sand. This in turn will result with very pronounced thin spots in your lawn. That is why we recommend using topsoil.

In conclusion, by doing the steps above and using topsoil, you should be able to cover up the bumpy and uneven areas in your lawn with minimal difficulty. But you might consider doing the steps two to three times to get your lawn completely level. Rest assured it will be worth it once you have an even, beautiful yard for your friends and family to enjoy.​

Crab grass makes your lawn look ugly and is one of the culprits that steals nutrients that should be for your lawn. Removing crab grass is an easy process if done correctly. But if these are left to its own devices, it can definitely threaten the health and beauty of your lawn.

Other than the usual weed control measures, there are varying methods of controlling crab grass, depending on the scope of its occurrence.

But first, what is Crab grass?

Crab grass is a variety of weed that grows and spreads rapidly throughout the US and some parts of Canada. In a warm season, it can spread over 100,000 seeds.
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These weeds take away the nutrients needed by your turf grass and if left untreated, can ruin a lawn or garden resulting in bare patches and dead grass.

What’s the difference between Pre-Emergence and Post-Emergence Herbicides?
Herbicides is an effective method to removing crab grass. It’s purpose is to kill the crab grass without harming the plants on your lawn. Make sure that the herbicide that you will use is specifically formulated to kill crab grass. Using an all purpose herbicide may hurt other plants and your natural turf grass.

Pre-emergence herbicide is applied before the appearance of crab grass in the spring. Post-emergence should be used on already sprouted crab grass. Herbicides in liquid or granulated form are equally effective. Homeowners should refrain from applying pre-emergence herbicides after grass seeding.

How to apply herbicide to kill grab grass
For pre-emergence herbicide:

1. At the start of spring time, wait until the weather begins to warm up but before the crab grass sprouts to apply the herbicide.
2. Apply the herbicide uniformly throughout the yard.
3. Water the lawn after application for it to soak into the soil.

For post-emergence herbicide:

1. Make sure that a dry weather is expected for several days before applying the herbicide because rain will wash away the poison and will render it less effective
2. Spread the herbicide on the areas where crab grass sprouted the most
3. After one week, reapply the herbicide to kill the germinating crab grass that may have missed on the last application
4. Dethatch your lawn to encourage the growth of turf grass on the affected areas
5. Perform grass seeding in areas left bare by the weeds

Issues with herbicides
Possible side effect with herbicides is that an individual may notice their natural turf grass is turning brown. Cause of this issue is over application of herbicide. This can be fixed by frequent, deep watering of the lawn. This washes away herbicide residuals and cleanses the plant roots. Making sure that the herbicide to be used is specifically intended for crab grass reduces the risk of damaging the turf grass. It is preferred to use eco friendly herbicides for the safety of your family and pets.

Another method for killing crab grass.
If the infestation of crab grass is minimal, you may try to manually pull the existing crab grass and allow the roots to dry out. This will kill the crab grass and prevent it from producing seeds.

Please call 7194227744 or fill up our form to avail our weed control services.