The American Lawn Monthly Newsletter-May 2006 In This Issue - A Season-Long Plan for Good Mowing - Tree and Shrub Service - Watching Out for Turf Disease _______________________________ A Season-Long Plan for Good Mowing Mowing correctly does give you a more beautiful and healthier lawn. There is the kind of homeowner who really does not care about his lawn (most neighborhoods have one). This lawn gets 8 inches to 10 inches high between mowings, and then gets chopped down to the stalks. We think folks believe cutting the grass is like getting a haircut. Big difference: hair is made of dead cells that do not give a hoot how they are cut. Your lawn is very much alive and it suffers when abused by improper mowing. Here is the long and short of keeping your lawn in the best possible shape: Do these things with every mowing: 1. Keep your mower blade sharp. This means sharpening the blade at least three or four times per season. Dull blades mean brown tips. 2. Alternate your mowing pattern. We say this because it does help. Mowing the same direction causes the grass to bend in the direction you mow. Alternating direction corrects this problem. 3. Do not scalp the lawn. Mow regularly and remove no more than one-third of the grass blade at a time. Scalping removes the green, food-producing cells and the plants are set back many weeks every time it happens. 4. Avoid mowing when the grass is wet. You get a better, more even cut when the grass is dry. ________________________________ Tree and Shrub Service Your trees and shrubs represent a growing investment that is worth protecting. Our program of scheduled inspections and treatments helps to keep all your ornamentals healthy and in top growing condition. There are hundreds of insects and diseases that can attack and infest your landscape. Our trained and licensed staff is able to identify and control these problems before severe damage or plant loss occurs. -Custom Programs Designed for the Unique Needs of Your Property- Each landscape is different. We can offer either standard or customized programs to fit virtually any property. Our plan of protection can include insect management, disease management, and dormant applications. We can combine these pest management services with properly timed and applied fertilization. -Expert Protection for your Landscape Investment- We understand and appreciate the value of your landscape investment. Call on us for a comprehensive evaluation and program recommendation. For in-depth information concerning our tree & shrub program, visit us online at www.LawnAmerica.com/treeandshrub _______________________________ Watching Out for Turf Disease Even the best of lawns are subject to turf disease problems, especially during warm, humid, rainy periods such as often experience in late spring to early summer. Most turf diseases are more active when the temperatures are warm, with high humidity and excess moisture. As a homeowner, you see your grass every day, so you need to be on the lookout and watch for brown patches, yellowing areas, and thinning turf. Turf disease can move in quickly and wreck havoc on what normally would be a beautiful green lawn. Brown Patch is one common turf disease which affects Fescue, Zoysiagrass, St. Augustine, and Bluegrass lawns mainly. It can normally become a problem around early May and on into June, as temperatures and rainfall increase. It is characterized by yellow to brown patches, often in irregular circular patterns. The outer area of the diseased area may have a slight orange or yellow ring as it expands into healthy turf. It is caused by a fungus, which can infect healthy turf during times of warm temperatures and excess humidity and rainfall. Excessive nitrogen fertilization and excessive irrigation are two practices which can increase the severity of this disease. Zoysiapatch is similar to brown patch, occuring during spring and fall. It affects Zoysiagrass only, and really needs to be treated with a fungicide as soon as symptoms appear. Pythium blight, powdery mildew, rust, and many other turf diseases can develop quickly under the right conditions, so be on the lookout for any sudden changes in the appearance of your turf. Do not water in the evening if you have signs of Brown Patch, or any other turf disease. During rainy periods, supplemental irrigation can do more harm than good, by helping to spread turf disease. Keep your mower blade sharp, and do not leave excess clippings on the turf after mowing. A turf fungicide should be applied as soon as symptoms of turf disease appear in most cases to prevent the further spread of the disease. Spring Dead Spot is one of the most troubling diseases of bermudagrass lawns. It appears as circular dead areas in what otherwise is green, healthy turf. The fungus actually infects the turf in fall, and shows the symptoms the following spring as dead spots. As the summer progresses, the spots will fill in from the sides with bermudagrass. The frustrating part of this disease is that there is not a good control for it. A homeowner can dig the spots up in the spring, even removing the top 3-4 inches of soil. Replace with fresh soil and a new piece of sod, and the spots will probably not be back in the same place. Otherwise, they will return-often larger and more of them. There are two turf fungicides that are labeled for control of Spring Dead Spot, ÒEagleÓ and ÒRubiganÓ, which we have applied on some lawns. We have found that the control is rather inconsistent, so it is not a definite cure for the disease. It needs to be applied during early to mid-fall, before the dead spots come out. While the fall fungicide treatment does not completely cure the disease, it does appear to cut down on the number of dead spots, while helping to speed-up the rate at which they fill in with healthy grass the next spring. Proper cultural practices, such as core aeration and proper application of fertilizers, will help combat the disease. Be on the lookout for these, and other turf diseases, which may turn your beautiful green lawn into a brown wasteland. If conditions merit, a turf fungicide will need to be applied to stop the fungus disease in it's tracks. _______________________________ $5 Off - Tree and Shrub or Insect and Disease Control With this service, we apply a liquid insecticide, a fungicide, plus a foliar fertilizer for the health of your ornamentals. Your Name ________________________________________ Your Address ______________________________________ Phone __________________ City ______________________ ZIP ______________ Customer # _____________________ www.lawnamerica.com/treeandshrub.html Present this coupon for $5 off chosen treatment (not valid with any other offers). _________________________________ Go Out To Dinner On Us! We appreciate your help in growing our business. Our main focus in growing our business has always, and will always be, to try to please our customers so much that the will tell others about us. When dealing with lawns and the havoc Mother Nature throws our way sometimes, that can be a real challenge! As our way of saying thanks for sending us a new customer, we have created a new Customer Referral Program. For every new customer you refer to LawnAmerica that begins service with us, we will send you a $25 Gift Card from Applebees, or other local restaurants. You can go to our website at www.LawnAmerica.com/referral and go to the homepage of your local operator and enter in the contact information for your referral. We will take it from there and provide them with a free estimate and information on LawnAmerica. You know us well enough that we are not going to slam them and use high-pressure sales techniques. We will treat them right, and make you look good for referring LawnAmerica. If they begin service with us, we will send you a $25 Gift Card in the mail for you to enjoy. _________________________________ Refer A Friend! For every new customer you refer to LawnAmerica that begins service with us, we will send you a $25 Gift Card in the mail for you to enjoy! www.LawnAmerica.com/referral Your Information Your Name _____________________________________ Your Address ___________________________________ Phone __________________ City ___________________ ZIP ___________________ Referral Information Their Name _________________________________________ Their Address _______________________________________ Phone __________________ City ___________________ ZIP ___________________ _________________________________