Lawn & Garden Maintenance Services | Lawn Care Products & Programs | FAQs & Lawn Tips

Lawn and Garden Maintenance Services
Weekly Lawn & Garden Care
Spring Cleanup
Fall Cleanup
Lawn Aeration
Dethatching

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Weekly Lawn & Garden Care

• Cut and trim lawn (clippings bagged or blown as requested)
• Weed, turn and edge the flower beds
• Litter and debris pickup
• Hedge pruning / trimming

Spring Cleanup

• Cleanup of leaves and debris
• Cleaning and Edging of flower beds
• Trimming of shrubs

Fall Cleanup

• Raking of leaves and debris
• Fall pruning and winter preparation
• Cleaning and Edging of flower beds
• Final lawn cutting
  

Lawn Aeration
Core aeration of large Estate, or Residential properties at extremely reasonable rates!
Benefits:

• Control thatch layer development
• Reduce hiding places for insects, turf disease and fungi
• Reduce soil compaction
• Reduce summer drought damage
• Improve water and fertilizer movement through soil
• Improve Insect control application results
• Reduce weeds
• Encourage deep lawn roots

Dethatching
We provide dethatching of large Estate, or Residential properties at extremely reasonable rates!

Thatch Problems
Thatch is a layer of organic matter made up of decaying grass leaves, stems and roots that build up in between the lawn and soil surface. It is a common problem on home lawns, particularly for lawns established for several years.

Identification
A thatchy lawn feels very spongy when walked on. Cut a triangular patch of lawn with a sharp knife and lift it back to measure the thickness of the thatch layer. More than 2.5 cm of thatch is too much.

Why is Thatch a Problem?
Thatch harbours insects and diseases. Thatch can restrict grass roots from growing into the soil root zone, resulting in a shallow rooted lawn. Thatch interferes with water infiltration.

Minimizing Thatch
Cultural practices that minimize thatch development are:

• frequent mowing
• proper watering
• proper ferilization

Excess thatch can be removed by vertical mowing or core aerating. Core aerate using a hollow steel tine core aerator which removes cores of soil. This physically breaks up the thatch, brings up beneficial soil micro-organisms that help break down the thatch.

More About Thatch
Description
What Causes Thatch?
Advantages
Disadvantages
What Can Be Done to Control Excessive Thatch?

Description
Thatch can be described as a tight and fibrous layer of living and dead matter, primarily roots of the grass, which develops between the plant and the soil.
Many people think that grass clippings contribute to thatch; however, grass clippings consist primarily of water and dry up and disintegrate. Thatch consists of woody plant material like roots, rhizomes and stolons that are slow to breakdown.

What Causes Thatch?

• Heavy fertilization can cause rapid thatch development. Nutri-Lawn's programs are designed to create healthy lawns and do not use excessive fertilizing. Excessive fertilizing can create a lush green lawn in a short period of time, but it leads to a variety of problems in the long term, including excessive thatch.
• Acidic soils, waterlogged soils or fungicide applications inhibit soil micoorganism activity. It is the microbes that biodegrade or break down the thatch layer, and if they are inhibited the thatch layer will accumulate.
• Excessive watering will encourage thatch development as well as shallow roots. Excessive watering saturates the soil and roots will not grow into water-saturated soil. The roots will grow on the surface of the soil and in the thatch layer, rather than deep into the soil. This creates a lawn that is susceptible to drought and root-feeding insect damage.
• Some grass species are prone to excessive thatch development. Kentucky Bluegrass, Fine Fescues and Bentgrass tend to thatch up quickly. Perennial Ryegrass is not prone to thatch development because it is a bunch type grass that does not spread by rhizomes or stolons.

Advantages
A thin layer of thatch of about 1.5 cm is beneficial because it acts like a mulch, buffering temperature extremes at the soil surface and helping to retain soil moisture. A thin thatch layer is also beneficial because it will inhibit weed seed germination and establishment.

Disadvantages
When the thatch layer grows thicker than 1.5 cm it becomes detrimental to the health of the lawn. Excessive thatch inhibits the movement of water, nutrients and air into the soil, resulting in shallow roots and a lawn highly susceptible to drought and root feeding insect damage.

Excessive thatch also makes it difficult to control root feeding insects. The thatch layer impedes the movement of pest controls into the soi, reducing the efficacy of the treatment. A thick thatch layer is the perfect environment for some insects. Chinch Bugs will flourish in a thick thatch layer and can cause extensive damage.

Disease organisms reside in the thatch layer and when environmental conditions are conducive for the disease, an outbreak can occur.

What Can Be Done to Control Excessive Thatch

• Annual soil core aeration is strongly recommended as the best method to manage thatch development in a lawn. Soil core aeration pulls plugs of soil and thatch out of the lawn, breaking up the thatch layer and allowing the roots to grow into the soil rather than on the surface.
• Organics Plus Topdressing applications help to mange thatch layer development by inoculating the thatch with billions of micro-organisms that will biodegrade and breakdown the thatch.
• Power Raking slices and cuts the thatch layer, enhancing the penetration of water, air and nutrients into the soil which leads to an increase in microbial activity and biodegradation of the thatch.