The American Lawn - Lawn America March 2008 Newsletter

Our previous issue of The American Lawn spoke about proper pruning of trees in recovery from our ice storm in December. Hopefully, your trees are either removed or pruned by now, with all limbs sitting in a mulch pile somewhere. It’s been a real challenge for all I know. Now we’ll turn our attention to looking at replacing some of those beautiful trees that you may have lost, or will loose over the next few years.

As a “grass guy,” loosing trees or thining trees with proper pruning often helps the turf, with more sunlight and air circulation. You may have areas that were fescue in the shade that are now full sun. If so, you’ll need to consider converting to a more sun-tolerant turf, such as bermudagrass. Fescue will perform well in sun also, but you will need to have good irrigation during the summer, and know that you’ll be overseeding every fall to replace turf that burns out during our hot summers. Remember—Fescue is a cool-season grass, and it’s not too cool in Oklahoma in July and August in the full sun!

Spring and fall are the best times to plant trees if you want to replace ones that were lost. We prefer the fall, but you may not want to wait. A great website that has a lot of information in relation to trees and the ice storm is: http://tulsamastergardeners.org/blackbox/icestorm.htm. This is information from OSU Master Gardeners, with links to several other good information sites.

First, here is a list of tress NOT to plant, especially in regards to being susceptible to ice damage occurring again.

• American Elm
• Ash
• American Linden
• Austrian Pine
• Black Locust
• Bradford Pear (Are there any left in Tulsa?)
• Cottonwood
• Hackberry
• Mimosa
• Mulberry
• Pin Oak
• River Birch
• Siberian Elm
• Silver Maple
• Willow

Features that we look for in trees which make them more tolerant of ice damage include:

• Strong wood
• Loose their leaves in early fall
• One with fewer branches, with strong attachments to the trunk and stems
• A more cone-shaped crown structure

There are other factors to consider when choosing a tree, such as size, heat tolerance, fall color, shallow roots, and excess fruit structures. For example, while a Sweetgum tree has good resistance to ice damage, the surface roots and all the stickery sweetgum balls make it a poor choice for urban lawns.

Here are just some of our favorites that are somewhat “ice-tolerant” with other desirable features:

• Eastern Red Cedar
• Ginko
• Kentucky Coffee Tree
• Lacebark Elm
• Chinkapin Oak
• Northern Red Oak
• Swamp White Oak
• Chinese Pistache
• Crabapple
• Redbud (How could we not like the state tree of
Oklahoma?)

As to where to purchase your trees? There are several good local nurseries in Tulsa, including Southwood and Sanders to name a few. I don’t recommend going the Home Depot or Loew’s route for plant material.

Question: Should I be scalping my lawn now?

Answer: I know that some people are just dying to get the ol’ mower out on the first warm weekend of spring, or that your mowing company may be chomping at the bit to get to work on their cash flow, but you really should hold off. If you mow down your dormant turf too low, you’ll be removing much of the insulating value of the brown dormant turf. We can still have some fairly hard freezes in Tulsa before April 15th or so. If so, even a temperature in the mid to upper 20’s can set back and damage bermudagrass coming out of winter dormancy. I’ve seen this several times over my 24-year career, with warmer early spring temperatures greening up Bermuda quicker than normal, combined with mowing down the turf exposing the crown of the plant to freezing temperatures.

We recommend waiting until all danger of a freeze is gone—around mid-April—before scalping your turf. Now you could just mow it down some to clean it up, or to remove any dying weeds that were sprayed. Just don’t go overboard and take it down to close. In mid-april, scalping or just mowing down short will help to warm up the soil temperature faster and lead to faster spring green-up of your bermudagrass or zoysiagrass. NEVER scalp a fescue lawn!

We’ve improved our Showcase Care Program for 2008 to include a special supplemental mid-spring weed-control treatment and slow-release fertilizer. This liquid treatment is applied sometime during mid-April to mid-June, when your lawn can be under heavy weed pressure. In between your regular Step 2 and Step 3 fertilization/weed-control treatments, your lawn will be sprayed with this special treatment which will provide the following benefits:

• Better Nutgrass control with both pre and post-emergent control.
• Superior Crabgrass control, with a second treatment of pre-emergent.
• Better Broadleaf weed control, applied at the time when summer broad
leaf weeds are emerging.

LawnAmerica will be applying a brand new product named Echelon with this special treatment. Echelon is unique in that it’s a combination of the active ingredient in Barricade (our pre-emergent herbicide) combined with Dismiss, which is a new product for Nutgrass control and other weeds. This should significantly improve control of Nutgrass, which was prolific with last year’s rainy conditions, and seems to be getting worse every year. We’ll also add a product called Quicksilver for better broadleaf control. Your lawn will also receive slow-release Nitrogen fertilizer with this special treatment, giving you a little extra fertilizer to help provide a greener lawn during spring and early summer.

With lawncare, as with anything else, you generally get what you are willing to pay for. If you want the best lawn possible, or if you’ve had trouble with weeds such as Nutgrass, our NEW and IMPROVED 7-Step Showcase Program with the new Echelon Herbicide should really make a substantial difference on your lawn. Plus, the fact that we will be visiting your lawn more frequently during the critical mid to late spring period will improve results.

It’s Not Too Late to Upgrade Your Program!

We want to provide our customers with the best lawn possible, and we can do that with Showcase Care! Don't Wait! Contact Us Today about Showcase Care!

If you would like to upgrade to Showcase Care, just contact us and we’ll change your records to take care of that for you. You may also call us at 918-249-LAWN and let the office staff know you would like to change to Showcase Care.

Just a reminder that we have partnered with Tulsa Habitat for Humanity to raise $60,000 to build a new home for one special family that is in need. We are now receiving donations online through the Habitat for Humanity Web site. For every dollar you donate, LawnAmerica will match 100% towards the construction of the home.

You can donate financially online towards the LawnAmerica Habitat House by clicking here. Be sure you specify the gift as a tribute to "LawnAmerica House" so we can match your donation—otherwise we have no way of knowing that you made the donation toward our project and we cannot match your gift.

All of us at LawnAmerica are excited about this opportunity to give back in a small way to the community we love, and help one special family with a home they will love. Plus, I guarantee it will have the nicest lawn and landscape in the neighborhood after we are done!

Setup Your Account Today!

We now have a new area on our Web site (for our Tulsa location only) called Customer Assistant that gives you the opportunity to have real-time access to important information for your account. The information is on a secure site and provides our customers access to check:

• Basic information about your customer account
• Dates and descriptions of scheduled services
• Our most recent promotions and discounts for service
• Make payments & view real-time payment history
• Request new services & estimates
• Refer friends to receive our service

To use this service, all you’ll need to do is visit our site at www.LawnAmerica.com/tulsa and click on the link to Customer Assistant. You will then be taken through a few steps to setup your private account. Be sure to save your login information in a secure place!





			Our previous issue of The American Lawn spoke about proper pruning of trees in recovery from our ice storm in December. Hopefully, your trees are either removed or pruned by now, with all limbs sitting in a mulch pile somewhere. It’s been a real challenge for all I know. Now we’ll turn our attention to looking at replacing some of those beautiful trees that you may have lost, or will loose over the next few years. As a “grass guy,” loosing trees or thining trees with proper pruning often helps the turf, with more sunlight and air circulation. You may have areas that were fescue in the shade that are now full sun. If so, you’ll need to consider converting to a more sun-tolerant turf, such as bermudagrass. Fescue will perform well in sun also, but you will need to have good irrigation during the summer, and know that you’ll be overseeding every fall to replace turf that burns out during our hot summers. Remember—Fescue is a cool-season grass, and it’s not too cool in Oklahoma in July and August in the full sun! Spring and fall are the best times to plant trees if you want to replace ones that were lost. We prefer the fall, but you may not want to wait. A great website that has a lot of information in relation to trees and the ice storm is: http://tulsamastergardeners.org/blackbox/icestorm.htm. This is information from OSU Master Gardeners, with links to several other good information sites. First, here is a list of tress NOT to plant, especially in regards to being susceptible to ice damage occurring again. • American Elm • Ash • American Linden • Austrian Pine • Black Locust • Bradford Pear (Are there any left in Tulsa?) • Cottonwood • Hackberry • Mimosa • Mulberry • Pin Oak • River Birch • Siberian Elm • Silver Maple • Willow Features that we look for in trees which make them more tolerant of ice damage include: • Strong wood • Loose their leaves in early fall • One with fewer branches, with strong attachments to the trunk and stems • A more cone-shaped crown structure There are other factors to consider when choosing a tree, such as size, heat tolerance, fall color, shallow roots, and excess fruit structures. For example, while a Sweetgum tree has good resistance to ice damage, the surface roots and all the stickery sweetgum balls make it a poor choice for urban lawns. Here are just some of our favorites that are somewhat “ice-tolerant” with other desirable features: • Eastern Red Cedar • Ginko • Kentucky Coffee Tree • Lacebark Elm • Chinkapin Oak • Northern Red Oak • Swamp White Oak • Chinese Pistache • Crabapple • Redbud (How could we not like the state tree of Oklahoma?) As to where to purchase your trees? There are several good local nurseries in Tulsa, including Southwood and Sanders to name a few. I don’t recommend going the Home Depot or Loew’s route for plant material. Question: Should I be scalping my lawn now? Answer: I know that some people are just dying to get the ol’ mower out on the first warm weekend of spring, or that your mowing company may be chomping at the bit to get to work on their cash flow, but you really should hold off. If you mow down your dormant turf too low, you’ll be removing much of the insulating value of the brown dormant turf. We can still have some fairly hard freezes in Tulsa before April 15th or so. If so, even a temperature in the mid to upper 20’s can set back and damage bermudagrass coming out of winter dormancy. I’ve seen this several times over my 24-year career, with warmer early spring temperatures greening up Bermuda quicker than normal, combined with mowing down the turf exposing the crown of the plant to freezing temperatures. We recommend waiting until all danger of a freeze is gone—around mid-April—before scalping your turf. Now you could just mow it down some to clean it up, or to remove any dying weeds that were sprayed. Just don’t go overboard and take it down to close. In mid-april, scalping or just mowing down short will help to warm up the soil temperature faster and lead to faster spring green-up of your bermudagrass or zoysiagrass. NEVER scalp a fescue lawn! We’ve improved our Showcase Care Program for 2008 to include a special supplemental mid-spring weed-control treatment and slow-release fertilizer. This liquid treatment is applied sometime during mid-April to mid-June, when your lawn can be under heavy weed pressure. In between your regular Step 2 and Step 3 fertilization/weed-control treatments, your lawn will be sprayed with this special treatment which will provide the following benefits: • Better Nutgrass control with both pre and post-emergent control. • Superior Crabgrass control, with a second treatment of pre-emergent. • Better Broadleaf weed control, applied at the time when summer broad leaf weeds are emerging. LawnAmerica will be applying a brand new product named Echelon with this special treatment. Echelon is unique in that it’s a combination of the active ingredient in Barricade (our pre-emergent herbicide) combined with Dismiss, which is a new product for Nutgrass control and other weeds. This should significantly improve control of Nutgrass, which was prolific with last year’s rainy conditions, and seems to be getting worse every year. We’ll also add a product called Quicksilver for better broadleaf control. Your lawn will also receive slow-release Nitrogen fertilizer with this special treatment, giving you a little extra fertilizer to help provide a greener lawn during spring and early summer. With lawncare, as with anything else, you generally get what you are willing to pay for. If you want the best lawn possible, or if you’ve had trouble with weeds such as Nutgrass, our NEW and IMPROVED 7-Step Showcase Program with the new Echelon Herbicide should really make a substantial difference on your lawn. Plus, the fact that we will be visiting your lawn more frequently during the critical mid to late spring period will improve results. It’s Not Too Late to Upgrade Your Program! We want to provide our customers with the best lawn possible, and we can do that with Showcase Care! Don't Wait! Contact Us Today about Showcase Care! If you would like to upgrade to Showcase Care, just contact us and we’ll change your records to take care of that for you. You may also call us at 918-249-LAWN and let the office staff know you would like to change to Showcase Care. Just a reminder that we have partnered with Tulsa Habitat for Humanity to raise $60,000 to build a new home for one special family that is in need. We are now receiving donations online through the Habitat for Humanity Web site. For every dollar you donate, LawnAmerica will match 100% towards the construction of the home. You can donate financially online towards the LawnAmerica Habitat House by clicking here. Be sure you specify the gift as a tribute to "LawnAmerica House" so we can match your donation—otherwise we have no way of knowing that you made the donation toward our project and we cannot match your gift. All of us at LawnAmerica are excited about this opportunity to give back in a small way to the community we love, and help one special family with a home they will love. Plus, I guarantee it will have the nicest lawn and landscape in the neighborhood after we are done! Setup Your Account Today! We now have a new area on our Web site (for our Tulsa location only) called Customer Assistant that gives you the opportunity to have real-time access to important information for your account. The information is on a secure site and provides our customers access to check: • Basic information about your customer account • Dates and descriptions of scheduled services • Our most recent promotions and discounts for service • Make payments & view real-time payment history • Request new services & estimates • Refer friends to receive our service To use this service, all you’ll need to do is visit our site at www.LawnAmerica.com/tulsa and click on the link to Customer Assistant. You will then be taken through a few steps to setup your private account. Be sure to save your login information in a secure place!

									Copyright LawnAmerica 2008