starting a garden

Pick a spot that is in the sun at least three-quarters the time that the sun is up to plant your garden.

Before planting your plants, add good quality compost to the soil, and then rototiller the ground.

After that, put up a fence. You should install a tall (8-10 feet) plastic one to keep out big animals like deer with a chicken wire fence along to bottom to keep smaller animals like rabbits and ground hogs from chewing through the tall fence.

When planting your plants, put peat moss into the hole, put the plant in, and water it immediately to prevent it from going into shock.

Once they are growing, make sure that they get water every day (if it is not supposed to rain on a particular day, water each plant yourself)

using fertalizer to improve the health of your lawn

To start helping your lawn look its best, you could try to use a thatcher to pull up all compacted material that has been pushed down to the ground throughout the years.

Also, fertilizer never hurts. Putting down Turfbuilder plus crabgrass preventer in the early spring will help to make the lawn look nice. Also, in the Early Summer, you could apply Turfbuilder plus Broad Leaf Weed killer. In the Late Summer, you could apply Turfbuilder plus Insect killer, followed 3-4 weeks later by an application of Grub-Ex.  Finally, in the mid to late fall, put down Winterizer.

I would recommend using a drop style spreader to apply fertilizers because they are more accurate than a broadcast spreader.

Options for picking up leaves in the fall

You could mulch them into the lawn, but when I do lawns in the fall that have oak trees on them, I have to stop very often (like every half swipe at most) to empty the bagger on the mower. If you try to mulch them, there can be too many leaves under the deck (depending on how many leaves are on the ground), and they will not be properly mulched. This will definitely not maximize the curb appeal of your lawn. There will be leaves only half shredded throughout the lawn. This also can lead to having more leaves then your lawn can decompose, not allowing for proper photosynthesis, making the grass "malnourished".

Another option is to rake up/blow the leaves into piles, and subsequently remove them. When doing this, you could just get the majority of the leaves up, leaving a few of them on the lawn, which you can then go over easily with your lawn mower using a mulching blade or a bagger.

Recomendation for Mowing Sloped Lawns with Large Mowers

If you have a lawn that has a very steep hill on it, and you do not want to use a push mower, we would suggest getting a walk behind mower (has large cutting deck, you don't have to push it, has many attachments, good for leaf pick up, and is fast like a riding mower).  Also, it would be much safer to use because walk behinds have lower centers of gravity than riding mowers.  When it comes to what brand to get, just make sure that you get a reputable name brand-most lawn care professionals use Toro or ExMark products- you should go to a locally owned outdoor equipment center they will have much more knowledge about their products than someone at a chain store.

If this does not suffice, feel free to e-mail us at ericndanlawncare@aol.com, or post your question here on the blog.

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