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The importance of using local weather stations

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When you are planning a renovation, or other lawn care tasks that are weather dependent (think pre-emergence) it’s important to use weather and not the calendar. Each year the weather is different and with the constant talk about global warming we can only assume the weather will continue to evolve.

What I’ll do is use Weather Underground for checking the weather. This is especially important when it comes to rain, because even a few towns over we’ll get drastically different rainfalls. What you can do is look at historical and go to week view, and instantly you can see if you received enough water or if you need to supplement with irrigation.

It’s also important to use things like natural indicators. For instance putting down crabgrass preventer when forsythias bloom is an excellent technique because it’s visual and can be localized to your very own yard. Each year the actual timing may be very different if you use a calendar so it’s important to learn the signs of the seasons vs the dates of the seasons.

5 Tips To Having The Best Lawn In The Neighborhood

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Let’s face it, you’re reading this article so you want the best lawn in the neighborhood. Whether it’s out of the joy of landscaping or you are competitive about everything in life, here are the top tips for having the best lawn in the neighborhood.

  1. Apply Pre-Emergence In The Spring. I personally use Prodiamine 65 WDG, which takes more work as it’s a liquid, but you also get the best results because of precise coverage. Bags of “weed and feed” will leave spots untreated giving weeds an in.
  2. Water Once A Week. The most common problem people have is they water too frequently so they actually have a weak lawn. Watering a full inch, once a week, will ensure strong roots. Be sure to use the tuna can test to ensure proper watering.
  3. Mow Your Lawn Tall. The second biggest problem is people cutting their lawns too short. While golf courses do it, they also use intense practices to allow the grass to grow that short. Your home lawn should be cut at 3 inches or higher.
  4. Use Organic Fertilizers. Fertilizers like Milorganite or Bay State Fertilizer fuel your lawn as it needs it. You also never have to worry about burning your lawn, so you can dump it on every week if you want (you’ll have to mow every day though =P)
  5. Overseed in the Fall. Unless you have a Kentucky Bluegrass lawn, you’ll need to overseed in the fall. Other grasses don’t spread to fill in damaged spots, so over time the lawn will thin out naturally. Overseeding every fall ensures a strong thick lawn every year!

There you have it, the top 5 tips to having the best lawn in the neighborhood. It sounds easy, because it actually is.

Most people think it’s an overly complicated thing and think skipping one or a few of those tips won’t make that big of a difference. They don’t realize if they followed these tips they’d have neighbors asking what they did!