Please Approve Standard Enhanced Services | |
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This week, you should receive a combined proposal for the 2025 standard enhanced services, which include Spring Moss Control, Spring Flowers, Crabgrass Preventer Application, Turf Core Aeration, Fall Flowers, and Winter Moss and Cranefly Control. Hopefully, your property maintenance budgets are approved, allowing you to authorize the routine standard enhanced services we provide all at once.
Prior to the season when each of these services is performed, we will individually propose them. However, to reduce the need for approving them separately, we have introduced a bulk approval form at the beginning of the year. This process began last week. Hopefully this bulk approval will save us all time and allow us to better prepare for the service delivery as opposed to waiting to just prior to its occurrence.
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Spring Turf Moss Control in March/April | |
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Winter can be a tough time for lawns. Constant rain, especially in shaded areas, can lead to moss growth. We fight this every year. Although it is difficult to prevent, it is luckily easy to control. Liquid iron, sprayed on a lawn, quickly and effectively controls moss. It will actually kill it within hours, turning it black.
Although it is easy to kill, moss will regrow every year, requiring annual treatment. We have even been experimenting with twice-yearly treatments in December/January and March/April. Although normally considered an enhanced service, moss treatment is relatively inexpensive.
We follow up our winter treatment with one in the spring because, even though treated in the winter, moss reestablishes, and it’s beneficial to treat again in the spring.
Learn more about our moss control services here.
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Seasonal color is one of our specialties. Not only do we produce some of the most creative flower combinations, but our flower plantings are also among the healthiest due to our carefully designed installation and maintenance programs.
We strive to add a creative design flair to our summer color plantings. Every year, we develop new and unique combinations that break away from the conventional blocks and stripes seen on most other commercial properties. At our office, we maintain a test bed where we experiment with these new varieties and combinations. We ensure they perform well before planting them on our customers' properties.
Learn more about our seasonal color services here.
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Crabgrass Preventer Application in May | |
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Crabgrass is a common term used by laypeople for any grass they don’t want growing in their lawn. However, here in the Northwest, it has been relatively non-existent until recently. Crabgrass is a common annual grass weed in many parts of the U.S. with hotter summers, but due to our cool climate, it has not been a significant issue.
Recently, largely due to our warming climate, we are now seeing crabgrass in areas where it was previously rare or absent. With the long, hot summers of the past several years—which crabgrass thrives in—we’ve observed a significant increase on most properties.
As a result, we now recommend treating lawns with a crabgrass preventer in May, similar to practices in many other parts of the country.
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Turf Core Aeration in September | |
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We recommend aeration to our customers as a standard part of our yearly turf care program. Aeration improves overall turf health and is the most effective method for managing thatch and soil compaction.
Aerating opens up the soil, allowing water to penetrate more easily, reducing runoff and improving irrigation effectiveness. While we can’t quantitatively prove it, we believe aeration pays for itself through water savings. The benefits of aeration are significant but short-lived, lasting only one season. This is why we propose it annually—to maximize water savings and the return on your investment.
In the past, we performed aeration in early summer. However, with our newly recommended crabgrass preventer now scheduled for May, aerating in June could impact the effectiveness of the crabgrass treatment. For this reason, we now perform aeration in September.
Learn more about aeration here.
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Winter flowers are challenging to maintain in our mild, wet climate. However, our flower plantings are among the healthiest due to our carefully designed installation and maintenance programs.
Although cold-hardy, pansies are susceptible to soil-borne diseases that thrive in our mild, wet winters. Without proper installation and maintenance, these diseases can attack pansy plantings, reducing their health and growth and sometimes even killing the flowers.
We have developed a comprehensive program that begins with how the flowers are grown, includes replenishing sterile, fresh potting soil at planting, and incorporates regular fungicide treatments throughout the winter season to protect against these diseases. We believe this approach results in us having most consistent pansies in the area.
Learn more about our seasonal color services here.
| Winter Turf Moss and Cranefly Control in December | |
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Winter can be a tough time for lawns. Constant rain, especially in shaded areas, can lead to moss growth. We combat this issue every year. Although it is difficult to prevent, it is fortunately easy to control. Liquid iron, when sprayed on a lawn, quickly and effectively controls moss. It kills moss within hours, turning it black.
While moss is easy to kill, it will regrow every year, requiring annual treatment. We have been experimenting with twice-yearly treatments in December/January and March/April. Although normally considered an enhanced service, moss treatment is relatively inexpensive.
Our moss control program starts with a winter treatment when moss begins to develop. If left unchecked, moss can choke out grass over the winter.
Learn more about our seasonal enhanced services here.
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