Home & Garden Club

For those who relish the idea of entrepreneurship, the start of your own small business can be enormously freeing - both financially and emotionally. Of course, owning and operating a successful business means initially finding a business idea that will meet a need while generating enough of a cash flow to be financially viable. A lawn care business can be a wonderful business, both in terms of the demand for its services and the possibilities for a lucrative return on investment.

Clearly, the first step in determining whether or not a lawn care business is for you, is examining your enjoyment of such work. Starting a business built on financial goals rather than your love of the business is destined for failure. If you truly love to work outdoors, to bring creativity to the table, to nurture a lawn into health and vitality, then a lawn care business will bring you much more than cash. If you love what you do on a daily basis then you will never work another day in your life; because when you do what you love it doesn’t feel like work.

One thing you should know up front before beginning a lawn care business is the non-traditional hours that will be required of you. Many of your customers will require your services over the weekend; some lawn maintenance may need to be done during early morning hours - or later when the sun has set. While you may be successful enough at some point to hire employees who can help offset the workload for you, initially it may just be you. Be prepared for some long days and weeks early on in your lawn care business as you build your customer base.

In the beginning of your lawn care business you may consider keeping your full-time job as you work after hours building your business. Once you begin receiving a steady stream of work you can leave your full-time job and concentrate solely on your new venture. In an effort to build business, it may be wise to offer a variety of services; mowing, weeding, raking, leaf blowing - all of these can keep you busy throughout the year.

If you feel that a lawn care business is right for you begin by doing a vast amount of research regarding start-up costs, proper equipment, fee schedules, and insurance. Hiring a lawyer is a wise idea as he/she can assist you setting up proper financial accounts and more.

As you begin this journey into a new career, you may find that a lawn care business is exactly what you’ve wanted to do all along.

The modern lawn has fast become the status symbol of today’s suburban family. If you own a house and it has yard space, then more than likely you will have a lawn. For some people a lawn is a very aspect of their house and they can spend a lot of money to ensure that their lawn looks good. There are people who dedicate a substantial amount of money to be sure that they have the most talked about lawn in the neighborhood.

If you want a healthy and great looking lawn then lawn care is important. The lawn care tactics you use are as much a part of lawn maintenance as the actual maintenance steps themselves. Lawn management requires dedication on your part and good application of the skills you will need which are not that hard to understand and learn.

Lawns can come in various types, forms, shapes and sizes. Each lawn has a style and character of its own. There are lawns that boast of verdant gardens. They can be considered as great works of art and perfect as setting in the Florida environment. There are some that resemble the old farm style. They are covered with grass and garden of weeds. The greens can be very relaxing and comforting. Many other lawns can be seen out there that are groomed almost flawlessly. However, no matter what type it is, the most important matter to a lawn owner is to know how exactly to maintain and care for it.

Having the perfect lawn involves many things. There are many ways to care for your lawn. Following are some tips which will defiantly help you in maintaining the proper lawn:

1) Apply water regularly to keep the soil moist.

2) There are different fertilizers available like organic, synthetic, inorganic, slow release, fast release etc. Use the appropriate fertilizer for your lawn and region.

3) Aerate your lawn from time to time.

4) Try to thatch at least once per year. Thatch can stunt the growth of lawns and can prevent healthy growth.

5) Lawn pests need to be managed with organic methods or pesticides.

6) Weeding is very important and should be done in the fall and spring.

In Florida, most every one can afford a beautiful house. The only thing left to the owner is to put an identity to the place. He or she can make it look as desired, whether be it posh, elegant or charming.

It is best to give emphasis to the first part of the house that people will see, the lawn.

Getting the Perfect Lawn

Lawns can come in various types, forms, shapes and sizes. Each lawn has a style and character of its own.

There are lawns that boast of verdant gardens. They can be considered as great works of art and perfect as setting in the Florida environment.

There are some that resemble the old farm style. They are covered with grass and garden of weeds. The greens can be very relaxing and comforting.

Many other lawns can be seen out there that are groomed almost flawlessly. However, no matter what type it is, the most important matter to a lawn owner is to know how exactly to maintain and care for it.

10 Tips to Maintain and Care for the Lawn

Whether in Florida or in any other state, all it takes to keep the lawn beautiful is to maintain and care for it. Here are 10 tips to take into account:

1. Come Up with a Plan

Lawn owners should come up first with a plan. Identify what should be achieved by the project.

Ideally, any plan should be written down. This shall be your guide as you consider the options and endure the various obstacles in your sod endeavors.

Once the plan is laid down, you can easily decide on the other aspects of lawn maintenance. You will know the choices to make to care for your type of lawn.

2. Choose the Plants and Flowers

Plants and flowers should be chosen well. Pick one that will suit best the character you want your lawn to have.

It all depends on your type of landscape and personality. Bushy plants are ideal for those who want some coverage. Colorful flowers are best for people who like to keep it bright.

Be wary also of some plants that may damage your endeavors. Caring for the lawn requires certain caution from plants that can damage the soil or choke other shrubbery.

Dandelions and black medics or the yellow clovers may look good to the eye but their presence can actually affect the alkaline of your soil and even result to deprivation of other plants.

3. Grass It Up

Before planting any grass on your ground, research first on the best one available for your location.

It depends on where you live. There are cool season grasses that are ideal for the northern area and the arm season type that is good for southern plantings.

4. Aerate the Lawn

Aerating the lawn is a must to give a way for fresh air to the small life forms and the microbes under the soil. It also gives water a new course to take, preventing saturation.

Aeration is best done during springtime when the soil is still moisturized and the rains are not yet over.

5. Have the Right Chemistry

To achieve the perfect chemistry for the lawn, people sometimes have to add lime or iron to the soil. Grass ordinarily prefers acidic soil. Lime is perfect to bring down the acidity. Sulfur on the other hand will help increase it.

Seek a professional or an experienced gardener to test the acidity of the soil to know the proper option to take.

6. Use Fertilizer

Grass is one plant that utilizes much nitrogen. Make the soil rich in nutrient. Chemicals are out there but this can disturb the ecosystem of your lawn. Compost is a good way to enrich the soil.

7. Watering the Lawn

Regularly water the lawn to keep the shrubbery healthy. Invest on a watering system. You can choose from a sprinkler system, a hose or simply a gardener who would do the task.

8. Mowing the Lawn

Determine the proper schedule to mow your lawn. It depends on how fast and how thick your greenery grows.

Mowing will help you get rid of old part of the grass. It also encourages a deeper root system for a healthier soil environment.

9. Simply TLC

Of course, never forget to give the tender and loving care to your lawn. With this in mind, you can never go wrong.

10. Enjoy and Be Amazed

A lush and beautiful lawn is the first thing that any neighbor, visitor or a mere passerby will notice in the household. This alone shall speak of the industry and dedication of the owner to the welfare of his or her home.

Thus, the presentation of the lawn is crucial, especially for people living in neighborhoods like in Florida where households and residents speak of beauty and good life.

Having the perfect lawn involves many things. And with those many things to do in taking care of your lawn, would it not be best if there is somewhere a set of guides to help you along? Well look no more, because here are some lawn tips that could be useful to you.

Important Lawn Care Considerations

If you want a healthy and great looking lawn, then lawn care is important. The lawn care tactics you use are as much a part of lawn maintenance as the actual maintenance steps themselves.

So, first up, When you choose the grass for your lawn, make sure it is the right type. The factors that could affect your choice of grass include your location (because you may be living in a dry or wet part of the country).

Your choice of grass can also be affected by that grasses’ availability at a particular season and certain planting methods. Your lawn and garden will not be as perfect as you wish it to be if right from the start you didn’t prepare adequately.

Guide to Lawn Maintenance

Lawn management requires dedication on your part and good application of the skills you will need, which are not that hard to understand and learn.

One important lawn care necessity is lawn mowing. You cannot just let the grass in your lawn overgrow, can you? When you mow, use a sharp mower so that you would get the job done easily and fast. A sharp lawn mower is also best to avoid young grass seedlings from being uprooted.

Another important lawn care practice is regualr and adequate lawn watering. Naturally, if you do not water the grass in your lawn, it will dry up and eventually die. Know the requirements of the grass type you have planted and water accordingly.

You may need to water your lawn more during the hot seasons and be careful with timing too.

Another important thing to remember when you take care of your lawn is lawn fertilizing and of course you must know the right fertilizers for your grass.

That is why choosing your grass in the first place was important. So, do some research down at your local specialists and decide what you need to do and in what season.

You might also want to take into account insect control and relevant treatment too.

Aside from that, your lawn may need some aerating from time to time. The thatch - mowed bits and pieces of grass can pack the soil of your lawn as well as block the air from entering.

So you might consider that with your lawn management, using a hollow tine fork or other attachments that you might be able to use on your mower.

A lawn scarifier can be found in your garden center, as an attachment or a free-standing piece of kit, often inexpensive and very practical and effective.

Lawn weeding is also important. Though your lawn is mainly grass, you do not want other types of grass to be mixed in there. Also use the proper and best lawn equipment you can find to ensure a good job.

In fact, a good idea here is to meander around your lawn, just after you have cut it, with a small knife and cut out the biggest weeds. As you do this frequently the weeds weaken and die off. It’s a good investment of time for those bigger weeds.

Lawn care is important, for that beautiful expanse of green you have dreamt about, so make sure to do your best with it.

Since most of the soil in Houston tends to be heavy clay, you may need to consider regularly aeration as part of your lawn maintenance program. One way to check if your lawn needs aeration is to excavate a hole about 6″ deep. If grass roots have only grown 1-2 inches down, your soil is probably compacted should be aerated with a core machine. Remember the root will be deeper in late spring then summer. This is more likely to be problem if the lawn is used for a garden pathway, parking cars, or just general traffic.

Compacted soil can be even worse in areas that have standing water from existing drainage problems. Compaction greatly reduces the pore space within the soil that would normally hold air. The roots of any grass require oxygen to grow and absorb nutrients and water from the soil. If your soil is compacted the pore spaces are reduced and the amount of air, water and nutrients is reduced. This reduction can greatly impact the quality of turf by impacting the nutrient uptake rate and water infiltration rate.

Aeration and you Landscape Maintenance

There are many other benefits from aeration; increases the activity of microorganisms that promote detaching, increases water infiltration improving drainage and reducing harmful fungi, increase the earth worm population all of these things work together in a synergic relationship to give you a better lawn. Core aeration also reduces fertilizer and pesticide run off which helps the environment and ensures your are getting the most from you applications.

What is involved?

Core aeration involves the removal of small soil plugs or cores out of the lawn. You can do this manually or by hand, but it is normally accomplished by a machine that has hollow tines or spoons mounted on a disk or drum. This is where the “core” aspect comes in: it extracts 1/2 to 3/4 inch diameter cores of soil and deposits them on the lawn. The holes are typically 1-3 inches deep and 2-6 inches apart. Spike type machines pushes solid spikes or tines into the soil without removing a plug. This process is not as effective because it can contribute to compaction. The coring process is the best way to reduce compaction of heavily used turf and to control thatch buildup.

In Houston, the best time to aerate St. Augustine is early spring and late summer. Bermuda grasses and Zoysia grass are best aerated during June and July. During these periods is when the lawn is in a period of vigorous growth and will recover quickly from aeration. If you are planning to over seed your lawn be sure to aerate at least 6 weeks before seeding. If not, your irrigation system or rain water could potentially wash a higher concentration of seeds into the cored holes and creating a spotted lawn.

Since 1987, Exterior Worlds has been providing lawn services in the Memorial, Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village, Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University, Bellaire and the greater Houston area.

bly already know that you want to have a healthy and beautiful stretch of grass in your yard. You want beautiful, green grass because it makes your home look well cared for, and you can have guests without any embarrassment. If you will be putting your home on the market for sale in the near future, you know a green lawn can create a good first impression and enhance the perceived value of your property. Perhaps the reason you want a thriving lawn is simply because it is a delight to see the plant life in your yard healthy. As you may know, this kind of yard does not occur by accident. You have some upkeep to do to achieve your goal of a green, lush yard. 

Applying fertilizer on your yard is not an onerous task. Fertilizer is readily available in many of local retail outlets, like plant nurseries, hardware stores, thrift department stores and the like. The local experts in these stores and the labels on the packages can help you calculate the amount you need to buy for the square footage of your yard, so you can be sure to have enough and yet not too much. A push spreader can disseminate the fertilizing granules, and then it is just a question of watering it in and you are done. 

Another consideration you should make is to do a few things to make your fertilizer more efficient so the grasses are able to draw upon the nutrients in their environment. Aerating the soil once a year is one of those things. Aeration is punching holes into the soil by aerating equipment or spiked shoes so that water and air can get into the soil, and so that the soil is made softer for worms and roots of the grass. 

Another task that increase fertilizer efficiency is to rake your yard. Raking removes detritus that lying upon the soil beneath your grass blades. This kind of clutter, in addition to sticks and leaves lying on top of the grass, will inhibit the growth and spread of your grasses. If you do your raking before your application of fertilizer, you can open up the soil so that the granules dissolve and soak into the soil more easily upon watering. Raking can amplify the effectiveness of your fertilizer greatly. 

Every effort you make to prepare your yard for fertilizer by making the ground clean and uncluttered, will increase the efficacy of your time and money spent on the fertilizer. Another tip is to level out uneven bits of ground with topsoil and add good grass seed to the the barren places before you apply your fertilizer. Lastly, you will need to have your yard on a schedule of regular waterings for your grass to come in and stay full and lush.

Sod worms are also known as lawn moths. This name comes from the fact that these worms change into moths over time and they feed off the grass blades in yards, golf courses and in some areas of turfgrass. In the larval stage these worms are dingy white in colour. As adults they fly around the lawn planted their seeds and feeding off the grass at night. However it is not really the moths that damage the grass. It is the larvae that do the most damage. The larvae feed off the grass at night and leave an area of the lawn bare. During the spring and summer months the larvae turn into moths that drop their eggs and the cycle continues again.

 

The damage caused by lawn moths can be clearly seen in the grass. An infected are of grass will appear to be brown in appearance and it will have an irregular shape. If you closely examine the grass you can see small tunnels or lines that branch out around the browned area. In the damaged area, the blades of grass have been removed completely and the area appears to be scalped. There are other indicators that there may be an infestation of lawn moths and that is the presence of the small green fecal pellets.

 

Treatment for the sod worm starts with how well you monitor the amount of damage that has been inflicted upon your lawn. If you notice that you are getting small brown patches but nothing too big, then you might want to try using a simple home remedy of laundry detergent mixed with water. However, if you have tried the home remedy and you find that you are not able to contain the worm then you might want to consider getting a chemical product from your local gardening store. If you are unsure what to do about your problem then you might want to contact a lawn care expert in your area to find out what you can do to prevent the increase in damaged areas in your lawn. There are a number of chemical products on the market today but if you plan to use one of these then you need to make sure that you are able to use them on your grass.

 

Lawn moths are more prevalent in grasses like bluegrass and Zoysia. The problem with using chemicals on your grass to kill your worm infestation is that you might be killing insects and pests that are actually beneficial to your grass and then there is the possibility that you might end up killing your grass anyway. Be sure to read information on the product to find out what insects that it will kill. There are also a number of biological controls that are capable of killing the sod worm so you might want to consider exploring that avenue if you are unsure about using chemical products.

 

Proper lawn maintenance will help you discover the presence of these worms right away so that you can take steps immediately before too much of your grass gets destroyed.

A lawn care calendar can really help you to take good care of your lawn throughout all the different seasons.

It can be extremely difficult and time consuming caring for your lawn and it can be difficult at times to remember everything that needs doing at certain periods of the year. To prevent you from forgetting anything, you should consider using a lawn care calendar where you can keep tabs on everything that needs doing when it needs doing. By doing this you can ensure that your lawn looks healthy and visually appealing at the same time.

There are quite a few different established lawn calendars out there to go for, but it may be a better idea to customize a plan that will best suit your own lawn. The use of a calendar will help to make things a lot simpler and therefore it is certainly worth considering.

Keeping on Top of Lawn Maintenance with the Use of a Calendar

You will be able to mark down certain dates to do certain things when it comes to the maintenance of your lawns and you can make your very own customized plan. You will want to start marking things down in the calendar from March, with the preparation of the soil to promote the new growth. You should rake up the soil to warm up everything, as well as keeping it all refreshed and you should find that this is a very good start.

At this point in time you may also want to test the soil as well as use some herbicides to help to make the grass grow better. Around April time you may have to start mowing the lawn which is a very important step to keeping the grass healthy and to make it look as good as possible. You may want to mark this time period on your lawn care calendar and also the aerating of the soil may be something that you will need to jot down for this time frame. In the month of May you will then want to concentrate on using fertilizers, as well as insecticides and even herbicides if needed to help to take care of the lawn.

In June, the weather will start to pick up and therefore you will have to water the lawn but - do be careful not to overdo it.

For all of the different months, you will need to keep an eye on your grass. So it is always a great idea to mark it down on a calendar to make sure that you are doing everything that is needed to look after the lawn.

Spring is here, the sky is blue, the grass is green and it’s time to give that lawn a trim. Maintaining lawn equipment is an important part of safe lawn care. The lawnmower is the main tool used for lawn maintenance or yard work and therefore, it is heavily used by most homeowners.

To keep your mower in excellent condition, do-it-yourself maintenance is needed at various times. Keeping your mower in working order is important for many reasons including safety. Lawn mower-related injuries to children are relatively common and can result in severe injury or death. Many amputations during childhood are caused by power mowers. Pediatricians have an important role as advocates and educators to promote the prevention of these injuries.

Lawn mower injuries are a seasonal threat to children and the leading cause of amputations in adolescents, say specialists from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, Maryland’s designated pediatric trauma center where the most severe injuries are treated. The number-one advice to parents is: Treat the lawn mower as hazardous equipment, not a toy,” says Carol Gentry, R.N., pediatric OR nurse manager. “You don’t let a child play with an electric saw, and that’s exactly what a lawn mower is. Each year, lawn mower accidents send 9,400 U.S. children to the hospital, causing injuries more severe than any other tool or device, research shows. The most common injuries are lacerations, fractures and amputations of the fingers, hands, toes, feet and legs. Most injuries occur when an operator is unaware that a child is behind the mower and shifts into reverse, backing over the child.

Careless use of John Deree lawn mowers results in more than 55,000 injuries every year. The devastating nature of these injuries cannot be overemphasized.

significant proportion results in loss of toes or part of the foot. Approximately 75 people die from lawn mower injuries every year.

How Do the Injuries Happen?

• Young children can fall or slip into the operating mower blade while playing and running nearby.

• Children can be injured while operating the mower themselves when too young to do so, or when preschoolers and school-age children fall off a mower while riding with an adult.

• Children can be injured when mowers are placed into reverse and the operator is not aware a child is behind them.

All of the injuries could be prevented by taking the following precautions:

• Before operating equipment, familiarize yourself with it and make sure it is in good working order.

• Never go barefoot while mowing.

• Keep children under 6 years old indoors while a power mower is in operation.

• Prevent injuries from flying objects, like stones or toys, by picking up objects from the lawn before mowing begins. Use a collection bag for grass clippings or a plate that covers the opening where cut grass is released.

• Designs for mower controls should continue to be improved for ease of operation and to minimize inadvertent control contact and unintended operation.

• When a lawn mower cuts off, be extra careful in removing any objects from the blade.

If you want to be confident that the landscape around your home is exquisite and in the best potential form, then you will want to be solid that you correctly take treatment of the lawn patch portions of your landscape device. It is very important that exact maintenance of the lawn is conceded out so that they not only stop attractive but also wholesome. Frequently, the lawns are the most extensive and first noticed areas of the inclusive landscape.

Watering the lawn and patch is one of the most important parts of good meadow maintenance. In some parts of the country, there is enough drizzle so that the roots are suitably complete with dampness. Nevertheless even in what would be considered mushy areas, such as the Pacific Northwest, there are periods or dry endure and no rain. When this happens, it is critical to the survival of the lawns that they be properly watered.

The first marker of an impending dearth train of the lawn patch topic of your landscaping is a change in shade. The prairie in lawns that are agony from insufficient wetness will leave to elude their intense greenness and will soon shot to a straw color, or even russet if the lack of damp persists.

The best time of day to water a lawn or backyard is during the coolest part of the day. This means that gyratory on the pasture sprinkler early in the morning or in the nightfall after the sun has set is best. Garden lawn experts also say that the rotary sprinklers present the best coverage if you don\’t have a built in sprinkler method for your lawn maintenance.

Frequently, it is best to water your grassland just once a week, except the erode is really hot or dry. When liability your weekly watering, you can place a blank tuna can on the pasture and let the water run pending it is full up.

This will help you know when you have watered enough to give the pressing roots enough damp without over watering. Watering in this way will also help your lawns progress an immersed cause practice which will also help them outlive periods of famine.

Another side of lawn and patch maintenance is decorous fertilization and prepare contain. Good important maintenance techniques will go a long way in trust the lawns of your home and patch well, blooming and with few weeds.

Spring is the best time to fertilize lawns as this is when the grassland is \”waking up\” and will necessity the ultra nutrients from the fertilizer to secure wholesome increase. The best patch lawn fertilizers will have a combination of nitrogen, phosphates and potash.

Besides a \”mechanism feeding\” of your lawn garden, you can also boost the wellbeing and verve of the grass in your lawns with a support rotund of fertilization during the summer. This will help assure that your grass is healthy enough to help endorse out the weeds that might try to take rifling and you can also use a fertilizer that combines a tidy killer to restrain these useless plants.