The American Lawn Monthly Newsletter-July and August 2006 In This Issue - Doing Battle with Summer Weed Invaders - Here to Help - Serving our Military - Water Right and Make a Deep Impression - Brown Patch Disease Heats Up Summer _______________________________ Doing Battle With Summer Weed Invaders Your lawn may become a battlefield this summer. On One side is your turf, on the other, the enemy - the horde of creeping summer weeds, crabgrass, and nutsedge trying to infiltrate your lines of defense. As in any battle, your success depends on how well prepared you are in how well you follow the battle plan. Three Types of Enemies May Attack Broadleaf weeds will send seasoned summer troops from neighboring properties, and activate seeds that have been waiting for a signal to sprout. These weeds are usually small-leaved and have a waxy leaf coating which makes them hard to control. Nutsedge may be part of the attack, too. This light yellow-green plant looks like grass but grows much faster and sprouts up from hidden underground bulbs. Crabgrass can sneak up on you suddenly and quickly take over large territories within your lawn. Combine Defense and Offense for Sure Victory Defensively, you should keep your lawn strong and ready. The best defense is a thick stand of tall-growing turf. Keep the lawn watered and mow it high. Your best offense is supplied by our professional care. We can identify and help eliminate small pockets of resistance with regular or special applications and keep you informed of any enemy movements. Give us a call anytime you suspect an oncoming attack. We are here to protect your investment and we will help your lawn stand tall against any enemy force. Strategic Battle Plan for Winning the War of Weeds 1. Soften up the opposition with targeted or saturation applications of pre-emergent crabgrass controls. 2. Move watering equipment to front lines to keep your lawn thick and actively growing during hot weather periods. 3. Increase altitude of mower blades to prevent sun and warmth from penetrating to hidden weed-seed storage bunkers. 4. Keep up reconnaissance missions to identify invading weed forces. 5. Call on our Special Forces for help in dealing with crabgrass, broadleaf weeds or nutsedge that may break through your defensive lines. ________________________________ Greencare for Troops GreenCare for Troops is a nationwide outreach program initiated by Project EverGreen that connects participating local lawn and landscape firms with families of our armed forces men and women serving our country in the Middle East. Lawn and landscape maintenance becomes a definite hardship when the major breadwinner of the family is on active duty away from home. The GreenCare for Troops program seeks to ease this stress by helping affected families with the important task of caring for their yard and landscape. LawnAmerica will provide a FREE 6-Step Lawncare program for families accepted into the GreenCare for Troops program. To get more information on this program or to fill out an application for eligibility, go to www.lawnamerica.com/greencaretroops.html. _______________________________ Water Right and Make A Deep Impression The Six Inch Rule for Watering Your soil dries out from the top down, or from the surface inward. When you water, it is important to soak the soil to a depth of at least six inches and to let the surface dry out between waterings, allowing your turf to seek moisture deeper in the ground, and promoting stronger root growth. Your soil type has a lot to do with this process. What Soil Type Do You Have? Clay soils absorb water very slowly because there are only tiny spaces between soil particles for the water to move through. It takes a lot longer to soak a heavy clay soil to the six inch depth, but once soaked, the clay soils hold the water much better and need fewer waterings. Loam soils (an open mix soil with adequate air space for water and nutrients to move) might be the ideal soil for turf grass. It is usually dark, has organic material and provides good drainage and air movement for turfgrass roots. Sandy soils (very loose and open with little water-holding ability) are so open and loose that they can absorb water as fast as you can put it on, but they dry out must faster. To test how long it takes to soak your lawn six inches deep, you could use a spade or a soil probe after watering to see just how deep you have gone in your watering efforts. If you keep these points in mind, you will have a healthier, more drought resistant lawn, and your watering will always make a very deep impression! For more information about watering, please visit www.lawnamerica.com/wateringyourlawn.html or read last month's article on watering in our June 2006 newsletter by visiting www.lawnamerica.com/americanLawn.html. _______________________________ Brown Patch Disease Heats Up During Summer Do not be alarmed if your beautiful, green lawn suddenly shows brown spots this summer. Brown Patch is one of the most common and destructive of all turf diseases. It can sneak up on your lawn and destroy large areas of turf quickly when conditions are right. Brown Patch especially affects Tall Fescue and St. Augustine grasses hard, but all turfgrasses are susceptible to some degree. Brown Patch is a summer disease that is caused by a fungi called Rhizoctonia. The disease begins to show growth when temperatures reach 65 degrees, but its most active growth occurs at temperatures of 80-85 degrees when humidity levels are very high. Periods of constant rain or high humidity will especially bring about Brown Patch disease. Once started, Brown Patch can spread fast. Damage first appears as circular areas of brown and dead grass surrounded by a narrow, dark, and sometimes orange smoke ring. The ring is more likely to appear in the early morning when there is dew on the turf. These Brown Patch circles can range from a few inches in diameter to several feet, and are often irregular in shape. They can grow together, forming larger dead areas. Upon close inspection of the grass blades, you will see irregular tan spots with dark-brown borders. The best way to prevent Brown Patch in your lawn is by following good lawncare practices. Over watering and/or watering in the evenings particularly can cause Brown Patch problems. Avoid high rates of nitrogen fertilizer on cool season grasses in summer. Avoid high nitrogen rates on warm season grasses in early to mid fall. At LawnAmerica, we adjust our fertilizer rates at these times, and often switch to an organic-based fertilizer when disease pressure is greatest. Irrigate turf only when needed and to a depth of 4-6 inches. Water early in the morning, so as to not leave the turf damp all night with evening watering. Keep mower blades sharp, mowing at a proper height on a consistent basis. If disease is present, bag and remove clippings if possible, to help prevent spreading the disease to other areas. Provide good drainage and aerate your lawn. Provide better air circulation by trimming trees. Fungicides can help control Brown Patch if you can treat before the disease becomes active. Treating after symptoms appear will help prevent further spread of the disease. In humid climates, where turf will just about always get Brown Patch at certain times of the season, consider preventative treatments of turf fungicide. At LawnAmerica, we can set you up on a turf disease program, with several preventative treatments timely applied just before the hot, humid weather arrives. This will help prevent severe damage caused by Brown Patch, and other turf diseases. Contact your local LawnAmerica Operator for more information. _________________________________ $5 Off - Core Aeration Service Core aeration is one of the most important cultural practices available for your lawn, helping to loose compacted soil, control thatch, and helps to reduce water runoff. Click here to learn more about aeration for your lawn. Your Name ________________________________________ Your Address ______________________________________ Phone __________________ City ______________________ ZIP ______________ Customer # _____________________ www.lawnamerica.com/aeration.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 ___________________ _________________________________