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Dry Weather Affecting Some Valley Businesses
We've had a hot and dry August.
Chief Meteorologist Jesse Walker says on average we see a little over 3.5" of rain. This August we've received under an inch. Some Valley businesses say the dry weather is causing several problems. It's not just lawn mowing. Golf courses and farmers say they're feeling the affects too.
"Lawn mowing has probably dropped off 50 percent, at least,” Rose Hill Lawncare and Landscaping’s Randall Johnson said.
"We're looking at significant cuts in some of the later planted soy beans,” Vigo County Purdue Agriculture Extension’s Jim Luzar said.
"I've been here six years this is by far the driest summer since I've been here,” Rea Park Golf Course and Driving’s David Kennedy said.
Several Valley businesses say they're feeling the heat from this summer's dry weather. Rose Hill Lawncare and landscaping says their customers are having problems with brown lawns.
"We try to give our customers the best advice we can to deal with it and it's just mother nature taking it's own course. Got to work with her.” Johnson said.
Rea Park Golf Course and Driving says its ground is firm, creating challenges for some golfers.
"It's nice because the ball goes farther, but tough because it's hard to control where it's going,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy says they are also watering the green more during the afternoon.
Farmers have already begun harvesting one month early because of the dry conditions.
"Typically we're not quite ready. We're still getting bins ready. Still getting storage ready. Getting the combines set. But they'll be scrambling to get underway here and get some of these fields initiated,” Luzar said.
This weather is creating problems for people with allergies too.
"The allergens are present in the air and when it rains it can wash out the allergens to give people some temporary relief. So, when you have these long, dry, hot days the pollens and the allergens tend to stick around longer,” Terre Haute Regional Dr. Arvin Uppal said.
Doctor Uppal says the best thing for people with allergies to do is take Benadryl or Claritin. Right now he says weeds are causing people the biggest problems.
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Dry weather hurts lawn care businesses
Rain sprinkled parts of the Wabash Valley on Monday, but the rain would still not be enough to revive many of the burnt lawns.
Neighborhood after neighborhoods have brown lawns which is changing the way lawn care service providers like Cut and Trim of Terre Haute are doing business.
"After the rainy season stops it is tradition to trim the bushes and lower limbs off the trees," Cut and Trim Incorporation owner Larry Collier said.
The only sign of green are patches of weeds.
"Follow this adage, don't be mean leave it green. This year we are not going to be able to go by that we just going to have to keep the top of the weeds cut off, " Collier said.
Meanwhile Collier’s lawn mower will sit up, while he plucks away at weeds, just hoping for many days of rain in the near future.
Collier said homeowners won't be able to water their lawn enough during these dry weeks, unless they have an underground water system. He said too much of the chlorine in treated water will actually stunt the grass from growing.
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Global Plant Productivity now on the Decline
According to a NASA funded study, earth has done an ecological about face. Global plant productivity that once flourished under warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline, struck by the stress of drought.
New research studying the latest satellite data shows that rising global temperatures has reached a tipping point where instead of being beneficial to plant growth, higher temperatures are causing drought, which has been causing a fairly recent decline in plant growth on a global scale, according to the University of Montana (UM).
An earlier UM study as recently from 2003 showed that land plant productivity was on the rise, according the Universe Today article.
The new study, which was expected to confirm the older one, instead, found that the impact of regional drought overwhelmed the positive influence of a longer growing season, driving down global plant production between 2000 and 2009, according to the Universe Today.
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Weather in Cobourg Ontario
A page discussing current Weather in Cobourg Ontario as well as recent weather trends and personal observations.
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Beauty Runs Soil Deep
Nothing screams suburban success like a rolling green lawn and lush shrubs. Although some say that indulging in a lawn's cosmetic upkeep is environmentally unsound, some are providing eco-landscaping strategies.
One of those providers is the Lamberti Family, who own Bayles Garden Center & Nursery. In 2003, the Lamberti family formed Organic Solutions, offering services that eliminate chemical and synthetic weed controls, fungicides and fertilizers.
Going organic doesn't necessarily mean stretching the landscaping budget, contrary to popular belief. "This is a big misconception, that our programs will cost more," said Mike Lamberti. "What we do is treat specific problems with specific remedies that we design and manufacture in-house." For example, for $8 a gallon, customers can order the company's organic tea compost to revive their soil, and spray it themselves. The spray is made to order.
"We use a supercharged liquid compost that reintroduces beneficial microbiology back into the soil," said John Lamberti, Mike's brother.
In addition, the company prescribes a multi-pronged approach that includes drought tolerant seed mixes, deep root feeding and organic insecticides that are customized for each property. What's more, it recommends certain universal practices such as leaving lawn clippings on the lawn and and early morning watering regime to which homeowners can easily adhere.
Organic lawn care is meaningful not just to the Lamberti brothers and their father, Pat, who also runs the company, but to employees as well. Take Oscar Melara. He heads the company's organic spray
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Lawn looks bad now, but these steps give hope for next year
The dry, hot summer has many lawns looking rough as we head into September.
Crabgrass, brown spots and dry soil have caused many homeowners to be frustrated about their lawn's appearance.
While it might seem easiest to throw in the towel, proclaim defeat and try again next spring, the best time to prepare your lawn to look its best next year is now.
Seeding, fertilizing and weeding in the fall help ensure healthy root development before winter hits -- and let your yard thrive the following summer.
"Anything you can do in the fall will help that plant be healthier next year," said Terry Jungels, owner of TLC, Total Lawn Care in Indianapolis. "You will get substantially more root development in your turf. If you wait until spring, you just won't have time to develop that root system."
Beginning in September, homeowners should:
» Make sure your lawn is getting enough water. Most lawns need an inch to 11/2 inches of water each week. Place a rain gauge or straight-edged container, such as a tuna can or drinking glass, under your sprinkler to determine how long you need to water. When it has an inch to 11/2 inches of water, you know you're done.
» Apply fertilizer before the first frost. This will help provide your lawn with enough nutrients to survive the winter. "Fall fertilization is much more important than a spring fertilizer," Jungels said. "It can never catch up in the spring."
» Aerate your lawn. Aeration lets air, moisture and fertilizer travel to the roots more efficiently. "It should be aerated three or four times in different directions before you overseed," said Josh Deater of Brownsburg Landscape & Garden Center. "(Central Indiana has) clay soil, which doesn't have nearly enough air or water and doesn't have the capacity to hold it. The key to (successful) seeding is having soil contact with the seed."
» Overseed your lawn when necessary. If your lawn has bare spots larger than a softball, seed those areas from early September through mid-October. Thin grass promotes weed growth. "It's important to get seeding done in early September so that grass has plenty of time to germinate, develop a root system and establish before winter," Deater said.
» Kill the weeds. Apply a broadleaf weed killer in the fall to minimize weed growth in the spring. "October is a great time to get good weed control going into next year," Jungels said. "Weeds eliminated in the fall won't come back in the spring."
» Continue to mow. Keep the blade at its highest setting and mow until around mid-November. Leaving the grass about 3 inches tall helps promote strong turf and reduces weed growth. Be sure to rake up leaves from your lawn quickly, so water and nutrients can penetrate the ground and reach the grass roots.
While many homeowners like to work in their yards,
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Fight Over Global Warming Bill to Heat Up This Fall
The simmering Washington debate over global warming is set to heat up this fall, fueled by environmentalists' determination to squeeze climate-change legislation from the current Congress and the oil and gas industry's fervent and cash-laden response.
The oil industry spent $75 million lobbying the federal government from January to June, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors lobbying and campaign spending, and the industry next month plans to fund a series of "citizen rallies" against proposed responses to climate change.
The financial onslaught on Capitol Hill came as the Senate was struggling with a package of energy measures that included a reduction of greenhouse gases akin to those in a bill passed by the House last year. Ahead of the August recess, Democratic leaders all but gave up the goal of mustering a filibuster-proof majority for the bill, though they may try to bring it to the floor in the fall.
That's a huge disappointment for environmental interest groups, who have also mobilized. Last year, at the height of the legislative fight over climate change, they spent $22.4 million on federal lobbying efforts, the Center for Responsive Politics said. That's a record for the movement, and twice the average it spent annually from 2004 to 2008.
Still, oil and gas companies responded in 2009 with a $175 million lobbying offensive.
Since environmentalists this year have come up with only $10.3 million for lobbying, they have been outspent in the current Congress by 7 to 1.
"In other words, Goliath whipped David," the center's Evan Mackinder wrote.
But with two more oil-related bills still in the works -- both in response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- and environmentalists still hoping to revive the climate change bill, the two sides are regrouping for another round.
"The Senate's inability to pass meaningful clean energy and climate legislation has serious consequences for our environment and our economy," said Franz Matzner, legislative director for climate policy at the National Resources Defense Council.
The council has set up a ticker tallying the tons of greenhouse gas emitted, among other statistics, since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced July 22 that the climate bill wouldn't be brought to the floor for debate. The campaign, including broadcast ads in several states, targets six
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More people saving with do-it-yourself lawn & garden care
The National Gardening Association recently conducted a survey showing that about one out of five households nationwide spent more time caring for their lawns and gardens last year and 16 percent less money in total than in previous years.
The survey goes on to indicate that, while most of the 83 million households that participated in do-it-yourself lawn and garden activities last year spent about the same amount of time on their lawns and gardens, 22 percent spent more time food gardening, 19 percent spent more time flower gardening, 19 percent spent more time container gardening, 14 percent spent more time on lawn care, and 13 percent spent more time on yard and landscape maintenance. Only about 1 out of 10 households spent less time on lawn and garden activities last year.
These recently published results found in the Hard Times Lawn & Garden Survey and 2010 National Gardening Survey show how more Americans are tightening their belts while benefiting from their own lawn and garden maintenance, said Mike Metallo, President of NGA.
"It makes perfect sense that people are spending more time on do- it- yourself lawn and garden activities during this great recession because it's a simple and direct way homeowners can maintain and improve the appearance of their property and save money by doing more for themselves," Metallo said. "It’s clear that food gardening is a significant priority for many people because exercise, health and nutrition, along with food safety, are on the forefront of their minds, along with the dollars they spend on produce in stores.” According to NGA's 2010 National Gardening Survey, household participation in all types of do-it-yourself lawn and garden activities increased by 2 million households last year, to 83 million households from 81 million households the previous year. The average annual amount spent per household on all lawn and garden activities decreased by $81 from $444 to $363. And the total amount spent on all lawn and garden activities decreased by 16 percent to $30.121 billion last year from $36.060 billion the previous year.
"While the amount consumers spent on their lawns and gardens was down a little, it did not approach the level of the decline seen in their discretionary spending, which is good news," said Bruce Butterfield, NGA Research Director.
Food gardening was the only category of lawn and garden activity that saw a significant increase in household participation and
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Global warming can reduce rainfall
As the Earth heats up through global warming, rainfall increases. But researchers have shown that this 'hydrological sensitivity' varies over time, and in extreme cases can cause a short-term reduction in rainfall.
This has important implications for our ability to predict the effects of climate change on rainfall, floods and drought across the world.
Scientists have shown that rainfall will increase globally by 2-3 per cent for every degree Celsius that the Earth's surface heats up.
It sounds straightforward, but not every study into this relationship was producing the same results. So a team of researchers from the University of Leeds and the Met Office Hadley Centre looked at a range of climate change scenarios to find out why. Their resultsare published in Geophysical Research Letters.
'Clearly there's something else going on,' says Dr Timothy Andrews of Leeds University, lead author of the report.
'We found that precipitation isn't just affected by temperature change at the surface. It also responds directly to increased heating in the atmosphere.'
And because the atmosphere responds to heating much more quickly than the surface – over days rather than decades – the effect on rainfall is also much faster.
The various mechanisms that cause global warming work differently on the atmosphere and the surface. Increased solar radiation, greenhouse gases or dark aerosols – particles in the air – all eventually warm the Earth's surface. But they act differently on atmospheric temperature, and it's these effects that can produce an immediate change in rainfall.
And crucially, this fast atmospheric response seems to suppress rather than increase rainfall.
Black carbon aerosols – soot to you and me – can absorb enough sunlight in the atmosphere to suppress the rainfall response to global
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Gardening Tips: Lawn care
The extraordinarily hot summer of 2010 continues as we approach mid August.
I am trying to keep the memory of last February in my mind as a reminder of how different things will be in only a few months! As my friend Bob, a mailman in NY City, likes to chide me “Move to Canada if you don’t like this weather!” I guess if I had to deliver mail on foot every day in summer and winter I would appreciate the warm weather more.
Mid August to mid September is usually the best time to undertake major lawn care in our region. If you want to completely redo your lawn or just get it back to more grass and fewer weeds, now is the time to begin.
If you have not had your lawn soil tested for pH in more than 2 years take a composite sample from at least 5 or 6 different spots on the lawn. Dig a few tablespoons of soil from just below the sod, mix them together and bring this composite sample to your local office of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
In Greene County their phone number is 622-9820. They will test it and tell you how much, if any, pelleted limestone you need to add to get the pH in the proper range for northern grasses. The testing can be done at any time but the soil needs to be dry when you submit the sample.
Hopefully in the next couple of weeks temperatures will drop into the 70s and rainfall will allow the grass to turn green again. Do not add any chemicals or fertilizers to the lawn when the grass is brown and dormant.
If your lawn is more than 50 percent weeds you might consider a complete renovation. This begins by killing off all the existing vegetation by spraying it with a non selective herbicide such as glyphosate (sold as Round Up and a few other generic brands). Wait a week to 10 days for the chemical to kill the weeds.
The next step is to either remove the existing sod or thoroughly till it under. If you remove the sod you should buy several bales of peat moss and till in a 2 or 3 inch layer of peat into the topsoil to add organic matter. If you thoroughly till the existing sod into the soil this
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Shadow's Lawn & Tree Service
Shadow's Lawn & Tree Service, specializes in fine quality landscaping installation & year round property maintenance keeping your home or business perfectly
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Official: Russian disaster sign of global warming
Russia's heat wave, drought and wildfires — which have killed dozens of people and destroyed millions of acres (hectares) of wheat — are another indication that global warming is causing more weather extremes around the world, a Russian official said Monday.
Alexander Bedritsky, the Kremlin's weather adviser, also cited other disasters that he believes may be related to rising world temperatures, including Pakistan's worst floods in recorded history, and France's 2003 heat wave, which killed 15,000 people.
Taken together, they "are signs of global warming," Bedritsky, who also serves as president the World Meteorological Organization, said at a news conference.
U.S. climate change envoy Jonathan Pershing also recently said that such weather disasters are the kind of changes that could be the result of climate change.
Russian firefighters, meanwhile, have succeeded in pushing back some of the country's wildfires, and meteorologists said a cold front was advancing from the northwest that would hit the Moscow region Monday, bringing heavy rains and colder temperatures.
Five-hundred blazes were still burning in Russia, but the amount of land on fire fell 15 percent in the last 24 hours, the Emergency Situations Ministry said Monday. The area covered by fires around Moscow also has nearly halved in size over the past two days, it said.
Russia's heat wave — unprecedented in 130 years of record keeping — has sparked thousands of fires, most of them in western Russia. Heat and acrid smog from the fires also blanketed Moscow for a week this month, doubling the number of recorded deaths in the city.
More than 50 people have died in the wildfires across Russia, and more than 2,000 homes have been destroyed.
The blazes and drought also have cost Russia one-third of its wheat crop, prompting the government to ban wheat exports through the end of the year in a move that has sent world grain prices to new highs. The government promised subsidies to farmers and warned traders that it would closely monitor prices to protect domestic consumers.
Russia's economy largely depends on exports of oil and gas, and government officials have traditionally been cautious on climate change issues.
Moscow is a signatory to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a pact among industrialized nations to cut carbon emissions by 5 percent by 2012, but a post-Soviet industrial decline had freed it of the need to actually cut greenhouse gases. Russia says that any further deal on emission cuts should credit it for meeting Kyoto obligations ahead of schedule.
Russia's heat wave has raised concerns that wildfires could spread to areas contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and spread radioactive particles over broader territory. But authorities have insisted that all wildfires in the Bryansk region and other Chernobyl-affected areas have been quickly dealt with.
Officials said they are well equipped to combat blazes, but Lyudmila Kolmogortseva, an environmentalist and a regional legislator in the Bryansk region, said that emergency workers in
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Domestic turf war brews over lawn care
I am losing my husband to our lawn.
It all began a couple of weeks ago when we returned from our vacation to a lawn scattered with leafy green weeds. I thought the texture and colour of the new plants blended in nicely with the grass. My husband didn’t agree.
Once the bags were unpacked, he got to work pulling those trespassers from our lawn. Hours passed before he came back inside only to announce that he had broken the weed puller. That’s quite a feat considering the tool has a 25-year warranty. He then moved on to turf building and strategic watering. He was determined to restore our lawn back to its original beauty.
It wasn’t long before he was grabbing any spare moment to be with the lawn. One minute he would be enjoying a cup of coffee with me, the next minute he was sneaking out to the backyard to tend to this one-sided relationship.
This is not the first time I have had to compete against the lawn for my husband’s attention. I know of other homeowners – mostly men - who seem determined to surround their homes with lush green blades of perfection. For some it’s an annual goal, perhaps even a challenge, to establish a pristine blanket of grass in the spring and then work all summer, battling the elements to maintain it.
Despite the saga playing out in my backyard, it seems this drive to achieve the best lawn on the block is beginning to wane. During my tours around the city, I have noticed homeowners moving away from the constant upkeep that comes with grass towards options that require less maintenance and likely less time away from their partners and other relatives.
The grass that once lined Guelph neighbourhoods is being replaced with mixtures of wildflowers, mulch and bushes. People are installing front-yard ponds and patios. Some homeowners, including my neighbour, have retired completely from lawn care, by covering their entire front yard and even backyard with rocks and pebbles. This switch requires almost zero maintenance and I know my neighbour is quite content with the fact that his lawnmower has spent the summer collecting dust.
Growing up in Guelph, I remember how the homes that were not surrounded by manicured lawns used to stick out like sore thumbs. The few homeowners who chose to simply let nature take its course by allowing wildflowers and tall grass to cover their front yards sparked strange looks. Neighbours would whisper about them, calling them lazy hippies who were depreciating the
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Grandson's Lawn Care
Grandson's Lawn Care is locally owned and operated in Lilburn Georgia. We specialize in residential and Commercial Lawn Care. We offer Affordable rates
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Learn how to read lawn for proper watering
Q: I have been irrigating my lawn a lot these past several weeks but I have never asked anyone how much irrigation my lawn needs. Is there a policy or rule of thumb?
A: According to a University of Missouri Extension turf scientist, some studies show that the average homeowner applies 2.5 times the amount of water that is required for turf growth when using a hose-end sprinkler.
Learn how to read your lawn so you know when to water. Purple-blue wilting leaves, footprints that stay and folded or rolled leaves are signs that lawns need thorough watering.
Once you decide that a lawn needs irrigation, supply enough water to last a week. The best time to water a lawn is from 6 to 8 a.m. During this time, water pressure is highest, disruption of the water by wind is low and water lost to evaporation is negligible.
Watering early in the morning also reduces the chance of turf diseases that flourish under extended periods of leaf moisture. Avoid irrigation during midday and windy conditions.
Move sprinklers frequently enough to avoid puddles and runoff. Difficult-to-wet areas such as slopes, thatched turf and hard soils may benefit from application of a wetting agent to improve surface penetration of water.
Some areas of the lawn will wilt before others so you may want to hand-water problem areas to postpone the need to irrigate the entire lawn. Lawns with unusual shapes also may require some hand watering to avoid unnecessary watering of paved surfaces, mulched beds and buildings.
Soaker hoses that have a narrow pattern and supply water at a low rate may be useful in these areas.
Good lawn care practices save water and harden turf in preparation for dry periods or local lawn watering restrictions. Taller mowing and applying nitrogen fertilizer in the fall develop a hardy and efficient root system that reduces the need for supplemental irrigation.
As a rule of thumb, green and growing tall fescue grass needs about 0.8 inches of water per week. Kentucky bluegrass needs about 1.2 inches per week.
Zoysia and Bermuda grass require 0.8 and 0.5 inches per week, respectively. Buffalo grass needs 0.3 inches of water per week.
Newly sodded lawns need daily irrigation during establishment.
Select a hose-end sprinkler that best fits the size and shape of your lawn. All hose-end sprinklers can be attached to inexpensive timers to avoid over irrigation.
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Get A Reel Cut with lawn reel mowers
Get tips and reviews from a golf course superintendent on push reel mowers, organic lawn and organic gardening. Great States, American Scotts, Brill,
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Minn. teen makes a business out of mowing patterns
If the Minnesota Twins need some love this summer, all the team has to do is see Jim Noyes' backyard.
Noyes hires Schultz Lawn Care to mow his St. Augusta lawn. The company's owner and operator, Nick Schultz, worked 12 hours to cut a 75-by-75-foot Twins logo into the lawn.
"Now that we're in the pennant drive, I figured this could get (Joe) Mauer and (Justin) Morneau riled up," Noyes said. "I'm willing to tattoo the logo in the backyard."
It might seem novel, but Schultz, 18, takes his latest creation seriously. While most teens find their first jobs in retail or fast-food restaurants, Schultz runs his own company. He started mowing lawns at age 12, started doing it professionally three years ago and added plowing and landscaping during the past few years.
The Technical High School senior creates patterns in the lawns he mows this summer. He usually mows stripes and checkerboards in the lawns. It looks better, he said.
"It's what stands out," Schultz of St. Augusta said. "You can see it from the road."
But if any of his 50 accounts this summer want words, pictures and, yes, logos mowed into their lawns, Schultz is more than willing. Last year, he engraved a military ribbon into Noyes' yard to show support for troops serving abroad.
"I've lived all over the country, and I haven't seen lawns like this," Noyes said.
Schultz used a Twins T-shirt as inspiration for his Twins logo. It featured the team's signature blue and red colors.
He used marking paint for the added touch.
"They use it for marking electrical wires," Schultz said. "I use it to paint the lawn."
If he can research it online, he can design almost anything, Schultz said. He doesn't consider himself a traditional artist, however.
"I can't draw," he said. "Throw a pencil in my hand, and it's not pretty."
Schultz approached neighbors when he started his business. Now, most of Schultz' clients come from word-of-mouth recommendations, he said.
He has mowed Peter Terrahe's St. Cloud yard for three years. Terrahe watched Schultz transform from using his dad's mower to buying a truck, two commercial mowers, one push mower and plenty of attachments. He also carries business cards, made company T-shirts and maintains a website.
Terrahe admitted at first he thought Schultz seemed a little young, but he was ready for some help when Schultz approached him. He's happy he made the change, Terrahe said.
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Fear not, homeowners: Brown lawns will rebound, with a little patience
The heat waves that have wilted the region have taken their toll on many homeowners’ pride and joy: their lawns.
Record-setting high temperatures and dry stretches with no rain have yielded toasty landscapes of browns and yellows. Lawn-care experts say there’s not much people can do other than ride out the severe weather.
Rick Ralston’s lawn wraps around his Linwood home on Wabash Avenue and remains mostly green despite the recent conditions. But several brown, dormant blemishes were obvious as he finished mowing the grass Thursday afternoon. He didn’t believe there was much he could do to cure the ails of his Kentucky bluegrass and fescue mix but wait for the summer season to fade.
“There’s nothing you can do about it in August,” Ralston said. “It’s the dog days.”
June and July were the hottest on record for the region. Both months had 14 days that topped out at more than 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. That trend has continued into the first week of August with the mercury rising beyond 90 degrees on Thursday and Friday.
Coupled with only 3.1 inches of rain in July — which was three-quarters of an inch below normal — the turf didn’t stand a chance.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for the weekend to be less hot and humid than the previous several days. Today will be clear with a high of 84 degrees and lows in the mid 60s. Sunday will be a bit warmer, sunny with a high of about 89 degrees. But the heat returns next week with temperatures expected to come close to, if not top, the 90-degree mark again on Tuesday and Wednesday. A high of 91 is forecast for Tuesday and 89 degrees is forecast for Wednesday.
The state Department of Environmental Protection asked residents in July to conserve water, but no drought restrictions are in effect in this region.
Brown is natural
Lawn care experts say that in most cases, the brown grass is unavoidable during
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Fall Lawn Care Steps
Fall lawn caresteps are just as important as the steps you take during the spring months to get your lawn looking great. By spending a bit of time on the details of your lawn now, it will be protected throughout the winter and will look great in the spring.
Five Fall Lawn Care Steps Not to Miss
The following five steps will help you to prepare your lawn for the winter months and take care of any current problems you may have. In most areas, begin this treatment in late September or October for the best results.
Test and Fertilize: Purchase a testing kit from your local nursery to test the soil of your lawn. This takes the guesswork out of taking care of the lawn. It will identify any areas of lacking in the soil. From there, you can purchase the right types of fertilizer for your lawn and feed it properly. Choose a slow release organic fertilizer. Use it on the outer edges of the lawn first, then the middle. Also, monitor the lawn's calcium level and shoot for a level of 7 to 1 in calcium to magnesium. This will help to get rid of weeds in the future.
Feed Organically: Next, add some organic compost to your lawn. You can apply just a ½ an inch layer over the lawn and then rake it into the soft surface. This will feed the lawn throughout the fall and it will help to give your lawn a fuller look in the summer.
Aerate the Lawn: One of the best things you can do is to aerate the lawn to loosen the soil and allow the grass to expand. The roots will get deeper. Nutrients can easily flow throughout the soil, too. Having a professional company aerate your lawn is the best route to take since the job will be done using the proper equipment. If not, most home improvement stores offer rental equipment for this task.
Control Grubs: Fall is a great time to tackle grubs in your lawn. Adult beetles lay their eggs in the month of July, which will mature throughout the winter months. In the spring, you could have a large infestation. You can use pesticides or organic controlling products to help you to get rid of pests like this in the soil. Ensure you water your lawn well after applying grub killers to it, as this will ensure the product to get deep into the soil where these grubs are.
Keep It Clean: Throughout the fall months, remove debris and leaves from the lawn. If you do not remove leaves, or you leave them in piles on the grass, the grass will suffer by discoloring or worse. Grass needs air and light to remain healthy. Cut the grass one last time after it has stopped growing. Make this cut a high one so the grass is able to
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Keeping lawns green, healthy requires extra care, attention
The grass does not always have to be greener on the other side of the fence.
Even in the dog days of summer, Hudson Valley lawns can thrive if given a little extra care and attention.
Proper watering, fertilizing, mowing and equipment care will help keep your lawn healthy and green throughout the year, said Chris Oliver, president of Total Package Landscaping in Hyde Park and a member of the New York State Turf and Landscape Association.
Before hot weather sets in, Oliver recommends fertilizing the lawn to feed it essential nutrients.
"Establish a healthy lawn by fertilizing in early May and again in early June," Oliver said.
These months, he said, offer an ideal combination of optimum rainfall and mild temperatures.
"This will help the lawn get through these hot summer days," he said.
An often overlooked element of lawn care is the equipment, Oliver said.
"Purchase the best equipment you can possibly afford," he said. "Buy a commercial grade walk-behind mower or riding mower, because the tip speed is faster, which results in a cleaner cut."
If a lawn is showing brown edges on the blades of grass, Oliver said the reason is most likely that the mower's tip speed is too slow or the mower's blades aren't sharp enough.
"Sharpen the mower blades at home, if you're mechanically inclined, or have them sharpened at a lawnmower repair shop," Oliver said.
As a professional landscaper, Oliver sharpens his mower blades every week, but said the average homeowner should sharpen blades every month during the busy mowing season.
He also advises to check mower blades on a regular basis for any signs of damage caused by debris.
Mower decks, located on the base of the mower, should also be cleaned on a regular basis, and any excess grass clippings clinging to the deck should be removed.
"If you have any disease in the lawn, clippings stuck to the deck can spread illness," Oliver said.
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Maine Towns Restrict Lawn Chemicals
In the southern coastal community of Ogunquit, local conservationist Bob Joyner walks through the town common, and surveys the grass. And it couldn't look better to him.
"I see some weeds growing up here or there, just different type of grass -- see the dark green versus the lighter green, and you see a little clover popping up here," Joyner pointed out. "This is an example of greenery and shrubbery that has no pesticides or chemical ferrtilizers on it."
Ogunquit is among the growing number of Maine towns that are restricting the use of lawn chemicals from municipal property because of environmental and public health concerns. About two dozen other communities have adopted some form of pesticide limits, including Brunswick, Castine and Harpswell.
"They tend to have wealthier residents that do more lawn care," said Gary Fish. He manages pesticide programs for the state Board of Pesticides Control, and he sees common traits among the towns that are limiting pesticides.
"They also probably have the greatest frequency of lawn care companies that may be coming in and doing applications, so people see it happening as opposed to the homeowners themselves doing applications which isn't quite as noticeable," said Fish. "I definitely feel a number of the towns are concerned about water contamaintion and the potential for the effects on aquatic life."
It's no coincidence that many of the towns who've taken action against pesticides are coastal. Residents are reminded everyday of where the pesticide run-off goes.
Over on the popular walking path in Ogunquit called Marginal Way, visitors and residents, alike, can watch terns dive into the ocean for fish.
"They're only here because the water hasn't been totally destroyed and there's still fish," said Mike Horn.
He serves as the chair of Ogunquit's Conservation Commission and he guided the pesticide restriction to passage at last year's town meeting. Horn is worried about lawn chemicals such as phoshorous and nitrogen trickling downhill during rain.
"What is going to happen if this level of pesticides just continues to rise and people's lawns are just running,
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Old-fashioned lawn care alternatives making comeback
As Texans become more green at home and around the yard, an almost forgotten American-made product is making a comeback.
The American Lawn Mower Company of Shelbyville, Indiana is the only remaining “reel” type lawn mower manufacturer in America. Reel mowers have no motor and require no gasoline or electricity to operate. The company has reported rising sales in the face of an economic slowdown which they attribute to the desire of more consumers to live green lifestyles. In addition to the obvious benefits, reel mowers have fewer parts and don’t weigh as much as power mowers, so less fuel is used to manufacture and ship them.
According to the American Lawn Mower web site, 50 employees pump out between 700-900 mowers per day. Where are they all going? Primarily to people interested in living a green lifestyle. The typical push lawnmower uses one gallon of gas for every two hours of mowing time, so if you spend 50 hours mowing the grass each summer, you’ll save approximately 25 gallons of gas per year by converting to a push mower.
The savings are even greater when other lawn care alternatives are taken into consideration. Replacing the leaf blower with a broom, for example, will yield additional fuel savings as well as cleaner air and quieter evenings in the neighborhood.
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Singhs lawn care solutions
We are small but growing company. We offer competitive rates, and 10% off to seniors. Some of our services include: Weekly and Biweekly Cuts & Trim this
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Landscaping Is So Much More Than Lawn Care!
One of the first things that people notice about your home is its front lawn. So naturally you’ll want this view to be as beautiful and welcoming as it can be. The problem for some of us is that we just don’t know where to begin. Isn’t a well-maintained lawn enough to make an impression? Would a flower garden do justice? A rock garden? How about a nice assortment of perennial bushes? While these are some really good ideas, your contractor can help you landscape both a front and back yard that not only looks nice, but that will also be easy to maintain.
Make It Easier On Yourself
Landscaping doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds. Nor does it require a full-time gardener (unless you want one). All you need to do is make some smart choices and your landscape design can be almost maintenance free.
For example, you could chose specific plants and flowers that nature has specifically engineered to resist disease or insect attacks. You could select greenery that is naturally resistant to temperature changes. And to cut down on pruning or cutting, you could fill your private garden with slow growing plants. In addition, you can literally plan what will grow and when it will grow. In doing so, you’re basically ‘timing’ the production of your landscape design to work on a schedule that you can physically afford to take care of.
Planning Is Key
Planning is key when it comes to landscape design and by looking at your property with an open mind, you can create a unique and special personal place for you and your family. Like golf? How about incorporating a landscape design that resembles a miniature golf course in your back yard? Maybe you would prefer a woodsier look or a view that offers a romantic portrait of floral designs?
Determine What’s Appropriate
These ideas may be a little on the extreme side, but you’re really only limited by your imagination. If you’re worried about that, your contractor can bring you back to reality by assessing your individual lifestyle and then
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The New Normal?: Average Global Temperatures Continue to Rise
Hot summers (and balmier winters) may simply be the new normal, thanks to carbon dioxide lingering in the atmosphere for centuries.
This trend reaches back further than a couple of years. There have been exactly zero months, since February 1985, with average temperatures below those for the entire 20th century. (And those numbers are not as dramatic as they could be, because the last 15 years of the 20th century included in this period raised its average temperature, thereby lessening the century-long heat differential.) That streak—304 months and counting—was certainly not broken in June 2010, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Last month saw average global surface temperatures 0.68 degree Celsius warmer than the 20th-century average of 15.5 degrees C for June—making it the warmest June at ground level since record-keeping began in 1880.
Not only that, June continued another streak—this year, it was the fourth warmest month on record in a row globally, with average combined land and sea surface temperatures for the period at 16.2 degrees C. The high heat in much of Asia and Europe as well as North and South America more than counterbalanced some local cooling in southern China, Scandinavia and the northwestern U.S.—putting 2010 on track to surpass 2005 as the warmest year on record. Even in the higher reaches of the atmosphere—where cooling of the upper levels generally continues thanks to climate change below—June was the second warmest month since satellite record-keeping began in 1978, trailing only 1998.
"Warmer than average global temperatures have become the new normal," says Jay Lawrimore, chief of climate analysis at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, which tracks these numbers. "The global temperature has increased more than 1 degree Fahrenheit [0.7 degree C] since 1900 and the rate of warming since the late 1970s has been about three times
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Lawn Care: How to Identify Weeds
No doubt about it, the most troublesome aspect of gardening is the weeds. Weeds are those out of place plants poking through like rabbit ears behind the heads in a photograph.
However, some weeds are not so obvious--and can even look pretty--making them all the more insidious. There are some common weeds that look like flowers, and some like prickly plants.
If they are pretty, why not keep them? Because weeds take the water and nutrients meant for the plants that are designed to be there. Weeds can grow rampant, making your landscape look ungroomed. They can create a picnic for insects and gophers, and can even be a fire hazard.
Step 1 Look at photos of weeds. There are many online resources for weed identification. Better Homes & Gardens, www.bhg.com, has a slide show of images in the garden section of their website. Or get a gardening book that includes photos of weeds. You need to arm yourself with the knowledge of what is a desirable plant and what is a weed from a visual standpoint first.
Step 2 Look at your landscaping and lawn. Does any growth, plant or flower look out of place? The first step is carefully visually scanning your landscape to see the beginnings of misplaced growth and sprouts.
Step 3 Crawling sometimes is the only way to spot a weed. Crawling sometimes is the only way to spot a weed.
Get down on your hands and knees and check the soil. Although, most weeds grow fast, they are great at hiding at the base of your plants. When watering your garden, take a peak at the soil level and pluck anything that does not belong. Even if the growth only looks like a blade of grass, it can be the beginning sprouts of a weed. Killing weeds early eliminates the problem before it gets rampant.
Step 4 Brambles are an extremely stubborn garden weed. Brambles are an extremely stubborn garden weed.
Check for brambles. Brambles are the plant that blackberries and raspberries grow from. However, in a garden, if unwanted, they can be quite nasty. If a bramble isn't caught in its earliest stages of development, it becomes quite difficult to remove. A young bramble will look like a sweet little plant, with a white flower, usually with purple specks. They have little scratchy leaves, so you'll need gloves to remove them.
Step 5 Clover is a weed that can quickly take over a lawn. Clover is a weed that can quickly take over a lawn.
Check for green plants that don't belong. The most common weed greens are buttercup, clover, convolvulus, dandelions, pigweed, and nettles. Buttercup, convolvulus, pigweed and clover have green leaves like petals the size of a finger tip. The convolvulus spreads like a netting beneath your flowers and in between grass plants. It sometimes has a white flower that looks like a pale pansy. Dandelions have
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Global warming raises water shortage risks in one-third of U.S. counties
More than 1,100 counties -- one-third of those in the continental United States -- will face higher risks of water shortages by midcentury as the result of global warming and more than 400 of these counties will face extremely high risks, reports a study today.
Fourteen states face an extreme risk to water sustainability or will likely see limitations on water availability as demand exceeds supply by 2050, according to an analysis by consulting firm Tetra Tech for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental group.
* Follow Green House on Twitter
High-risk areas include parts of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
The rising risk results from decreases in precipitation, based on 16 leading climate models, and increases in water demand, based on current growth trends. The report says waterdemand is projected to increase by as much as 12.3% between 2000 and 2050.
"This analysis shows climate change will take a serious toll on water supplies throughout the country in the coming decades," said Dan Lashof, director of NRDC's Climate Center, adding that the only real solution is "meaningful legislation" by Congress to reduce global warming. The report says:
In particular, counties at extreme risk for water shortages are most prevalent in the Great Plains and Southwest U.S. However, none of the 48 states analyzed are unaffected. Counties throughout the Midwest and South—particularly Florida—are found to face moderate to extremely high risk of water shortages. A relatively low number of counties in the Northeast and the Northwest are at risk
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Knowing the Ropes
To start a business in any field of expertise, the first step to success is to know what you are doing. While it may not seem that it takes tremendous experience to mow lawns, running a full service lawn business requires a knowledge of equipment, an ability to offer a variety of lawn and garden services and a knowledge of customer service and expectations that do require some experience and wisdom in order to see the kind of success you want.
The best way to learn the nuts and bolts of actually running a lawn business is to work for one. This “paying your dues” phase is about more than just showing yourself able to do the various jobs that a professional lawn care specialist can do. It is about sitting under the guidance of someone who is running their own lawn business and “spying” on how it is done and how your bosses handle various situations to keep the business moving forward toward success.
What initially inspires someone to start a lawn care business is their love of the work. But what goes on in addition to doing a great job making your customer’s lawns look great is what is the difference between a lawn care worker and someone who is running their own small business that is focused on lawn care. And perhaps the most important aspect of that business is marketing.
The primary way of getting new busiess when you run a lawn care company is word of mouth. Pay attention to the boss when you are working for a lawn care company as a way of learning the ropes. When you go on a job with the boss and owner of the lawn care company you work for, you will notice he spends as much time talking to the customer as he does doing the work. That is the heard of marketing because by making happy customers, your boss will get referrals. That is also very smart marketing.
By taking a job in a lawn care company, you are in the finest “college of lawn care” there is. You are in the school of real life. You will see why your boss’s company is a success. You will also see failures and problems that crop up and how that lawn care company you work for handles those roadblocks. If they do a great job resolving problems, they will be profitable and you can learn from their success. If problems cause the business to lose money, you can learn from their mistakes at no expense to you. That is also solid gold training you will use when you start your own lawn care company.
You will have to decide whether to confess to the lawn care company you go to work for that you are there to learn now to run a successful operation. In some cases, that will endear you to
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Himalayan ice shrivels in global warming: exhibit
When British climbing legend George Mallory took his iconic 1921 photo of Mount Everest's north face, the mighty, river-shaped glacier snaking under his feet seemed eternal.
Decades of pollution and global warming later, modern mountaineer David Breashears has reshot the picture at the same spot - and proved an alarming reality.
Instead of the powerful, white, S-shaped sweep of ice witnessed by Mallory before he died on his conquest of Everest, the Main Rongbuk Glacier today is shrunken and withered.
The frozen waves of ice pinnacles - many of them the size of office buildings - are still there. But they are far fewer, lower and confined to a narrow line.
Comparing precisely matched photographs, Breashears determined that the Rongbuk had dropped some 320 feet (97 meters) in depth.
"The melt rate in this region of central and eastern Himalaya is extreme and is devastating," Breashears said Wednesday at New York's Asia Society, which is hosting the exhibition (http://sites.asiasociety.org/riversofice/) July 13 to August 15.
Amid bad-tempered political debates over the causes and reality of global warming, Breashears speaks literally from the ground.
He went in the footsteps of three great early mountaineer-photographers: Mallory, Canadian-born mapping pioneer Edward Wheeler, and Italy's Vittorio Sella, whose work spanned the 19th and 20th centuries.
The result is then-and-now sets from Tibet, Nepal and near K2 in Pakistan showing seven glaciers in retreat - not only much diminished, but in one case having dissolved into a lake.
"If this isn't evidence of the glaciers in serious decline, I don't know what is," the soft-spoken Breashears said.
The melting glaciers pose more than a threat to the "ultimate harmony" Mallory once described finding in these beautiful peaks.
Himalayan glaciers are the world's third largest reserve of ice after the north and south poles, and their seasonal melt water is a crucial source for Asia's great rivers, including the Ganges, Indus, Mekong and Yellow.
Asia Society's China expert Orville Schell described Nepal as "a kind of a headquarters for the hydrology of the whole of Asia."
As a result, rapid melting is triggering a "cascade of effects all downstream, whether it's animals, plants, rivers, agriculture, people," he said.
That interconnectedness also works the other way: fallout from vast smog clouds over Asian population centers is dirtying the seemingly remote glaciers, thereby hastening their destruction.
"This black carbon soot then turns the glaciers into kind of a solar collector. Rather than reflecting heat back out of the atmosphere into space, it's absorbing it," Schell said.
Addressing the problem requires data and that's proving hard to get, according to Syed Iqbal Hasnain, a top Indian glaciologist who attended the "Rivers of Ice" opening.
Hasnain knows first hand about the difficulty of informed debate.
He said he was misquoted by a magazine claiming that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by
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To the Mat on Global Warming
SHORTLY after losing the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore embarked on an arguably even more ambitious campaign: to save the planet from destruction by global warming. His efforts, which included his documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth,” won him a Nobel Prize. But Mr. Gore has not yet achieved his goal of convincing America to limit the industrial pollution that causes climate change.
“America is still debating whether and how to reduce carbon emissions, and a loud minority continues to insist that global warming isn’t real or caused by man,” writes Eric Pooley in “The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth” (Hyperion, $27.99), an illuminating if often ponderous book.
“The Climate War” focuses mainly on the economic and political aspects of the global-warming issue. That is in keeping with Mr. Pooley’s areas of journalistic expertise. He is the deputy editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, a former managing editor of Fortune and a former national editor, chief political correspondent and White House correspondent for Time.
Mr. Pooley calls his account “an epic without an ending,” saying that the American political system gives a “natural advantage to the opponents of climate action” and that Congress has “become so distorted by special-interest dollars and partisan bile” that it seems “to block progress of any kind, no matter how urgent.”
If statements like that suggest that Mr. Pooley favors Mr. Gore’s position, the book nevertheless allows corporate opponents of climate legislation and disparate environmental groups with conflicting agendas to state their case.
Along with Mr. Gore, the main characters in “The Climate War” include Fred Krupp, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund; James E. Rogers, chief executive of the coal-burning utility Duke Energy; the climatologist James Hansen, who called public attention to global warming in the 1980s; and the coal lobbyists Steve Miller and Joe Lucas. And there is also Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a leader of what Mr. Pooley calls “the professional denial-and-delay movement,” a k a the “Denialosphere.”
The book opens with a recounting of Mr. Gore flying from the Nobel ceremony in December 2007 to a climate conference in Bali, where he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Bush administration to commit to a drastic reduction in America’s carbon emissions.
From there, the global-warming fight rages downhill, uphill and sideways, depending on the perspectives of the various combatants. Mr. Krupp provoked the ire of other environmental groups by working with Mr. Rogers of Duke Energy in the hope of getting Congress to pass a form of cap-and-trade legislation.
Their aim was to put a mandatory limit on carbon emissions by coal-fired plants. At the same time, they sought to keep the coal
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Local man wins environmentally friendly business opportunity
It’s a common sound of summer: the roar of lawn mowers as homeowners battle to keep their yards tidy.
But when Wilmington resident James Turner mowed a local lawn recently, he noticed his work didn’t seem to bother a flock of geese walking by or a baby nestled in his mother’s arms on a nearby porch. Turner’s lawn mower is electric, and not much louder than a vacuum cleaner.
Turner, 31, owns a franchise of Clean Air Lawn Care, a landscaping company that uses electric- and biodiesel-powered equipment. He started in May, and he’s building up his business, doing a lot of estimates and working for homeowners and a couple of commercial clients.
The position wasn’t guaranteed – Turner won the franchise earlier this year by entering a Clean Air Lawn Care contest designed to help someone who wanted to start his own business but didn’t have the money.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Turner experienced some hard times after moving to the Fayetteville area to operate Fantasy Lake Water Park in Hope Mills with his ex-wife. In December 2008, someone set a fire that destroyed a significant – and uninsured – portion of Turner’s business, causing at least $1 million in damage. Turner was devastated. A little while later, he and his wife divorced.
Jobless, Turner moved back to Wilmington and searched for a chance to start over. He looked into the possibility of starting his own landscaping company, but he didn’t want to use gas-powered equipment.
“I knew my conscience wouldn’t let me do it that way,” Turner said.
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Trim It Up
Trim It Up is a Family operated business. It is currently accepting Residential as well as Commercial customers. Prices start @ $35.00 per cut (includes
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Lawn tips for a hot, dry season
It may be great for the beach, but the kind of hot, dry weather the region has experienced for the last couple of weeks is hell on your lawn.
“People are asking, ‘Will the lawn come back?’ ’’ said Claudia Lambert, garden store manager for A.J. Tomasi Nurseries in Pembroke.
Yes, it will, Lambert says. But like other lawn care specialists, she advises property owners to follow practices that will allow their lawns to recover naturally and, just as important, keep a bad situation from getting worse.
Their first piece of advice: Don’t keep mowing your lawn when the weather is hot and dry. When the midsummer drought — typical in most years — sets in, your lawn doesn’t need cutting because the grass has stopped growing.
In fact, cutting grass too short dries lawns out even more, said seed producer Jackson Madnick, who will give workshop presentations on lawn care this Saturday at First Congregational Church of Milton at 10 and 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
“Your grass should be 3 inches high,’’ Madnick said. Grass needs to stay that tall to absorb moisture and shade its own roots. By cutting it shorter when it’s already turning brown, you’re drying out the soil around the roots and stressing the grass more.
“This time of year you need to back off,’’ Madnick said.
To help your lawn survive dry conditions and stay healthy all season, Madnick advises raising your lawn mower to its highest setting and leaving the cuttings on the lawn. The clippings also help shade the soil so it doesn’t dry out and compact and provide 50 percent of the nutrients your grass needs. Homeowners should also keep mower blades sharp, he said. Dull blades leave ragged cuts; moisture leaks out, disease enters, and grass turns brown.
If you have a service mow your lawn, Madnick advocates a “flat rate’’ seasonal deal, so the lawn service is not financially induced to cut your lawn when it doesn’t need it.
The experts say homeowners can take two approaches to the summer drought: Tolerate the brown period as a natural dormancy stage that grass plants go through to protect themselves from drying out at the roots. Or keep watering, but do it the right way — deeply, 1 inch a week — while obeying local watering rules.
“The natural way is to let your lawn go dormant,’’ Madnick said.
“It’s pretty unsightly,’’ acknowledged Debbie Cook of the browning of lawns, school yards, and parks. Cook heads the South Shore Greenscapes program, which encourages landscaping techniques that conserve water. “The grass is
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Fertilizer ban effort fails
Rejecting calls from environmentalists, Hillsborough County backed away from a proposed ban on the sale of lawn fertilizer with nitrogen in the rainy seasons.
Instead, the county's Environmental Protection Commission, which is made up of Hillsborough County commissioners, on Thursday approved new regulations that will restrict homeowners from applying nitrogen-based fertilizer before heavy rainfalls. The new rules also will prohibit the use of fertilizer within 10 feet of a body of water.
Farmers who use fertilizer for agricultural purposes will be exempt from the regulations.
Several commissioners said they thought a proposed ban went too far to curb what some referred to as an "insignificant amount" of nitrogen from lawn fertilizers.
Commissioner Mark Sharpe cited research indicating less than 1 percent of the nitrogen flowing into the region's waterways comes from residential lawn fertilizer applications.
"If we gave everyone pooper-scoopers and took the poop out of folks' yards, we could actually affect more than 8 percent of the nitrogen going into the Bay," Sharpe said.
Sharpe also pointed out that the county lacks the resources to enforce a fertilizer ban.
But dissenters Rose Ferlita and Kevin Beckner said the new rules - which will apply to residents and businesses operating in unincorporated Hillsborough as well as Tampa, Plant City and Temple Terrace - didn't go far enough to protect the environment.
Scientists at the county and Tampa Bay Estuary Program recommended the ban, saying fertilizers contribute to nutrient pollution that saps the oxygen in waterways and fuels algae blooms that harm marine life. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has labeled hundreds of state waters as "impaired" because of nutrient pollution, including parts
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Summer Lawn Care for Dog Lovers
It's the time of year when you can stroll through your neighborhood and tell which homes belong to dog owners. They're easy to pick out, but not because of the dogs in the yards, or the barking you might hear. You can tell by the spots scattered through the front and back yards.
Summer Lawn Care: How to Deal with Dog Spots
Summer lawn care for dog owners is an ongoing yearly battle that the dogs usually win. Dog urine discolors grass from the high concentration of nitrogen. It is no different than using too much of a nitrogen-rich fertilizer on your lawn in various spots. The nitrogen burns the grass where the urine is deposited, and bright green appears around the edges where the nitrogen isn't as concentrated and actually works as fertilizer. An article reprinted by Texas A & M University discusses the specifics of the chemicals involved and possible solutions.
The best solution is to create a specific area of your yard as a pet-friendly rest stop. Use pea gravel or another material on the ground that is not affected by nitrogen, and place objects in the area that make it interesting for your dog to visit. Walk your dog to that area for a few weeks when you go outside.
Colorado State University offers some suggestions for the yard spots you already have:
* Remove brown spots and replace with new seed or sod * Use a fertilizer with nitrogen around the bright green areas to make your lawn greener * If you see your dog urinating, use a water hose right away to dilute the urine
A dog can be a best friend, and with these summer lawn care tips, you may not have to sacrifice your lawn for your best friend's companionship.
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Glacier Loses Ice Chunk Equal to One-Eighth of Manhattan
A glacier in Greenland lost 2.7 square mile piece of ice - roughly one-eighth the size of Manhattan Island - in a single day last week.
Greenland's Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier broke up on July 6 and 7, pushing the point where the ice sheet meets the ocean further inland than at any time previously observed, NASA-funded researchers said. As much as 10 percent of all ice lost from Greenland comes through Jakobshavn, which scientists also believe to be the single biggest contributor to sea level rise in the northern hemisphere.
This is part of a recent trend which scientists say started around the beginning of this decade. Between 1850 and 1964, the glacier's ice front had retreated at about 0.3 kilometers a year. It then stayed that way until 2001 when the decrease began to accelerate at about 3 km/yr. (For more on the Jakobshavn Glacier Calving Front, click here.)
Thomas Wagner, cryospheric program scientist at NASA noted that while there have been ice breakouts of this magnitude from Jakonbshavn and other glaciers before, he described this event as "unusual because it occurs on the heels of a warm winter that saw no sea ice form in the surrounding bay." "While the exact relationship between these events is being determined, it lends credence to the theory that warming of the oceans is responsible for the ice loss observed throughout Greenland and Antarctica," he said.
In February, NASA scientists reported that west Greenland's glaciers were melting 100 times faster at their end points beneath the ocean than at their surfaces. The likely explanation behind the undersea melting: warmer ocean waters.
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Grubs pose challenge to lawns; solution lies in care, treatment
Grubs are a major pain for anyone who tries to have a high-quality lawn. A lawn with a heavy grub population (more than five to seven grubs per square foot) will develop large patches in the lawn where the grass looks drought stressed.
You will usually see this starting in late summer and through the fall. Eventually, these patches turn brown and die. If you cut a slice of the sod, it will peel back like a piece of carpet, because the grubs have eaten all the roots.
The general life cycle begins with adult beetles laying eggs in the soil beneath the grass. After two or three weeks, the eggs hatch, and a tiny grub worm comes out and begins feeding on the roots of the grass plants. It will feed and grow throughout the summer. As the weather begins to cool in the fall, the grubs will move deeper into the soil to keep from freezing, where they will remain all winter.
In the spring, as the soil warms, the grubs will begin moving closer to the surface. They will do some feeding on turf grass roots, but not a lot. Starting in April and May, the grubs will become pupae, and stop feeding. After a few weeks, they will emerge as adult beetles. They will take to the sky, mate, and start the life cycle all over again.
Grubs can be managed with proper lawn care. Watering heavily once per week, supplying one inch of water each time, will help the grass grow new roots, to replace
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Give Yourself a Lawn You Can Enjoy
Your lawn is your carpet in the summer; a soft surface to run, play, and relax on … so why does it have all those bald spots and thinning patches? That wouldn’t be comfortable to walk across on your living room rug, so why put up with it in your lawn?
No lawn is perfect, but every lawn can be a full, comfortable surface to hang out on. It’s a lot easier to grow luxurious grass than you may think and figuring out how doesn’t have to be confusing. The experts at Scotts offer a few tips:
The basics
If your lawn has patches and holes, seeding can easily help fill in bare spots. A generally healthy-looking lawn with just a few bald spots doesn’t have to be a challenge, spot seeding will probably work nicely for you. Even if you have tried this in the past, don’t lose hope. Just follow these quick steps and remember that the keys to success remain the same no matter what – start with quality seed, ensure that the seed makes good contact with the ground and keep it moist.
Finding the root of the problem
Why is your lawn thin? What is the source of those bare spots? It’s important to find out what’s causing bare spots so you can possibly eliminate the cause while treating the problem. A patch next to your driveway, an area under a tree, a high traffic path, or a spot often visited by the dog – all these areas can be riddled with difficult bare spots, but they don’t need to be a challenge anymore.
Solve it with seeding
Fixing a bare spot is actually pretty easy. All you need to do is to rake the ground and remove the dead grass or weeds. For best results apply seeding soil, such as Scotts Turf Builder Seeding Soil, over the area to a depth of about 1 inch. Then scatter some seed
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Great advice for Lawn Care
The following information is specifically designed to make things easier for you, while adding to the beauty of your manicured yard, regardless of your choice to hire a company, or do your own lawn care Calgary. Both decisions have their own pros and cons.
You get to save cash if you do it on your own, and you get the benefits of exercise. In fact, it might turn into more savings if you are getting enough exercise to cancel your membership to the gym. If you get a landscaping service to do it for you, you’ll enjoy the convenience and more leisure time.
When you are searching for a company to provide lawn care, you both need to spell things out, to be sure you are on the same page, and no false assumptions are being made. If a written contract is involved, it is crucial that you understand each part of it, indeed, every word of it. Ask for clarification if you do not understand something, and actually write down the explanation that you are given, on the contract itself. This is good to do for any contract you enter, in case their is a dispute, later.
You need to agree upon specific protocols in advance. For instance, what about the grass clippings? Is it important that they collect them, either by raking, after mowing, or with their equipment, as they mow? Do you expect them to periodically weed and/or mulch?
Will they charge you each time they service your yard, or is it a flat fee for a certain length of time? Flat fee agreements may result in not having your lawn mowed enough, and per mowing charges can
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Adjust lawn care, watering during high summer months
As summer heats up, we need to adjust lawn care practices to promote optimum turf health. Hot, dry weather can stress Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, and tall fescue varieties, which are the primary cool-season grasses for Illinois lawns.
Tall fescue and some of the warm-season southern grasses, like Zoysia and Bermuda grass, stand up to heat and dry conditions better, but the tall fescue still prefers cooler weather.
In summer heat or drought, grass growth slows and leaves may stop growing, turn brown and die-this is summer dormancy. Cool-season grasses such as the fescues, ryegrass and Kentucky bluegrass often survive summer dormancy and begin new growth when favorable moisture and temperature conditions occur.
Watering has a big impact on lawn health during the heat of summer. Decide now whether your lawn will be watered as needed all summer or not watered at all. If the latter is chosen, the lawn will turn brown and look dead, but it should revive when cool, wet weather returns in the fall.
If you do decide to water, continue throughout a drought period. Watering during the first half of a drought and then stopping is a severe shock to plants and will greatly delay recovery when favorable temperatures and moisture conditions occur.
When watering lawns, it is best to do it infrequently but thoroughly. A good rule of thumb is 1 inch of water per week. This amount should moisten the soil to a depth of 8 inches. To measure how much water you are applying, place an empty juice can under your sprinkler. When the can measures 1 inch of water, it is time to move the hose.
Early morning, just after sunrise, is the best time to water. Water quickly evaporates off leaf blades,
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Summer Lawn Care on the Heels of a Wet and Stormy June
With the recent rains and storms across the state, most lawns have had sufficient moisture to remain actively growing and green through the month of June. In fact, in some instances there has been too much rain causing lawns to remain in excessively wet conditions for several days or more at a time.
Under moderate temperatures and partly sunny or cloudy conditions, water that temporarily (a day or two) remains at or near the lawn surface is usually not a problem.
Once the water drains away and soil oxygen levels rise such that normal root functions can continue, the grass will resume normal activity and growth with little to no evidence of having been temporarily submerged. However, under sunny conditions and high temperatures, lawn areas remaining in saturated soil conditions or submerged for even a few hours can suffer serious damage and even death.
Once the moisture does recede, grass plants will appear dark brown to black indicating they are no longer alive. These areas often have a foul smell associated with the dead and dying plant tissue.
Following those conditions and once the area has dried out, it will be necessary to reseed or resod the area due to the grass that has been killed.
Moist conditions in the lawn have also given rise to the random appearance of many different kinds of mushrooms.
These are the result of fungi feeding on the dead and decaying organic matter in the soil and thatch layers of the lawn.
As these fungi continue to grow and carry out their decomposer role in the soil and thatch, they will periodically, especially under moist conditions, send up fruiting structures that we know and see as
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River effort focuses on fertilizer
The Wabash River Enhancement Corp. in Lafayette is joining a central and northern Indiana cooperative effort to provide education about lawn care and its effects on streams and lakes.
Clear Choices, Clean Water is an effort organized by the Tippecanoe Watershed Foundation and the Upper White River Watershed Alliance.
WHAT IS IT?
"Each year, Clear Choices, Clean Water will roll out a new choice highlighting what you can do on your property to improve water quality in lakes and streams," said Sara Peel, coordinator of watershed projects for the Wabash River Enhancement Corp.
The effort was created a little more than a month ago.
At the effort's website, people can learn more about ways to help clean up lake and stream water and take a pledge to help.
WHAT'S THIS YEAR'S THEME?
The effort is concentrating on asking people to use phosphorous-free fertilizer on their lawns.
When it gets into streams and lakes, "phosphorous creates a situation where there's a lot of algae growth," Peel said.
According to the effort's website, the growth of algae decreases oxygen in the water and creates potential toxins.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
According to the website, there are three main numbers on any fertilizer label that show the levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium in that
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Governor Quinn signs phosphorus bill in Elgin
Before heading over to Elgin's Fourth of July parade for some campaigning, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a new law to help protect the Fox River.
During a ceremony Saturday morning on Walton Islands, Quinn signed House Bill 6099, co-sponsored by state Sen. Michael Noland, R-Elgin, which helps protect waterways by banning the use of phosphorus in lawn treatment chemicals.
"The new law prohibits lawn care services from applying phosphorus fertilizer on residential lawns unless the lawn is new or a proven phosphorus deficiency exists," according to a release from the governor's press office. Fertilizer must also be applied at least 15 feet away from any body of water if the application is done with a spray, drop or rotary spreaders.
Illinois is not the first state to ban the use of phosphorus on commercial lawn fertilizers, said Jack Darin of the Sierra Club, which lobbied for the bill. Wisconsin has a similar law, he said, as do many individual communities along the Fox River and elsewhere in Illinois.
When applied to lawns, phosphorus can run off through storm drains or over ground to waterways, Darin said. That phosphorus then feeds algae, which then use more oxygen and can reduce the oxygen that fish
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Arctic at risk from global warming: study
Temperatures in Canada's Arctic were about 19 C warmer two million years ago than they are currently, according to a new study.
And that means a small increase in global greenhouse gases could lead to a large drop in the amount of glacial ice in Canada's northernmost region, according to a group of scientists led by researchers at the University of Colorado.
"As temperatures approach zero degrees Celsius, it becomes exceedingly difficult to maintain permanent sea and glacial ice in the Arctic," said Ashley Ballantyne, a University of Colorado geology professor and study member.Near zero
The six-person research team — which included David Greenwood of the University of Manitoba and Natalia Rybczynski of Ottawa's Canadian Museum of Nature — figured that Ellesmere Island, located north of Baffin Bay, exhibited the higher temperatures in pre-historic times despite levels of carbon dioxide only slightly greater than they are now.
Back then, Canada's North was a much warmer place with active animal and plant life.
The researchers set the island's average annual temperature in that time at 0 C and the level of carbon dioxide at 400 parts per million of all molecules in the atmosphere.
Ballantyne and the other scientists made their calculations by using fossilized wood and the well-preserved remains of prehistoric plants and soil bacteria from the island.Warning sign
However, the group's discovery indicates that Ellesmere Island could be heading back to its balmy past. That is because the current carbon-dioxide levels in the area are closer to 390 parts per million, near the levels now associated with pre-historic temperatures.
"Our findings indicate that CO2 levels of approximately 400 parts per million are sufficient to
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Five Tips for Fighting Summer Allergies: Winning the Battle Against Weeds
Spring and summer can be brutal for people suffering from allergies. Tree pollen is one of the leading causes of spring allergies. But what about when spring begins to fade into summer? Weeds and grass take over this duty, spreading pollen on the ground, and contributing to allergies that can cause just as much angst during warmer months.
Care for your lawn consistently.What may sound like an obvious first tip is the number one best way to prevent weed growth in and around your lawn. Are you mowing once a week and watering once a day in the hot summer months? If not, your lawn can quickly become a haven for pollen-spreading weeds.
Hydrate against weeds. Why are some weeds more prevalent during summer months? Lack of water. Watering your lawn consistently (about an inch and a half of water per week) is a critical step in winning the battle against weeds.
Treat your lawn as you would have it treat you.The golden rule has a handy application to lawn care. Some landscapers recommend "treating" your lawn twice annually with chemical treatment; your lawn may need more if it's losing the battle against weeds. (Just be sure not to water for at least two hours or mow for at least 24 hours after treating).
Shine the spotlight on pesky weeds.Don't need or want to treat your entire lawn? Treat weeds on a case by case basis using elbow grease (getting out there and pulling) or spot treating using a store-bought chemical treatment, or a
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Green Lawn Care the Organic Earth-Friendly Way
Organic lawn care is safe and effective. Many people choose it as a good alternative to using pesticides, herbicides and commercial fertilizers. Using organic methods can help create a deep, soft, green blanket of grass. A healthy, organic yard is safe for family, children, pets, squirrels, and birds. Plus, Earth-friendly lawn care causes no harm to the water supply and the environment.Lawn Mowing for Healthy Grass
Mowing the lawn is good for keeping grass healthy. Growing good grass also depends on soil quality, depth of topsoil, and amount of sunlight on the lawn. Of course, mowing can’t be put off and it is the first line of approach. There are a few basic guidelines to mowing for a healthy lawn.
* Mow regularly and frequently * Mow with the blades set high * Mulch the cut grass back into the lawn
A regular schedule of mowing keeps the grass growing at its best. However, it’s also important not to mow the grass too low. The green blades of the grass that are exposed to the sun are needed for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis makes food for the roots that keep the grass healthy. Thus, it’s best to set the lawn mower wheels at their highest setting. Cutting high is good for the grass and bad for the weeds.
In fact, mowing the lawn frequently can help keep back weeds. The new growth in grass spurts from low on the grass blade while the new growth in most weeds is high up in the plants. Mowing frequently keeps the growing heads off the weeds but gives the grass opportunities to grow hardy.Cutting Grass to Keep Back Weeds
Grasses and weeds are in competition for the sun. Sunshine is needed by all plants and allows them to make food. Shade is bad for most grasses and weeds. So, either the grasses are long and shade the weeds out, or
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How to Replace a Riding Mower Deck
A riding mower deck on your lawn mower can range in width from 38 inches to 54 inches. The broader this deck is, the costlier the machine. However, after being subjected to years of use and abuse, this deck can be damaged heavily. It can also totally wear out. If it is just rusty, you may repair it by sanding the rust off and applying several coatings of paint, but if it has been bent or warped, it will interfere with the proper operation of the mower. It can also crack in half in extreme cases. Hence, you need to replace it. Installing the new deck can be done without the help of a professional and with a few ordinary tools that can ordinarily be found around the house.Materials Needed
* A pair of wood pieces * 15mm wrench * Needle nose pliers
Step 1 - Preparing the Mower
Drive your mower into a level surface, which ideally should be made from stone or cement. However, if these areas are not available in your lawn, you may make use of any available flat surface. Since riding mowers are heavy machines, you need to park it on level ground to ensure that the machine and the deck will not fall down on you. Leave the machine in gear and turn off its ignition. Put on your parking brakes and disconnect the spark plug from its cord for safety purposes.Step 2 - Securing the Mower
Install one of the pieces of wood below the front portion of the riding mower. The other piece of wood should be installed on its rear part. This is to allow you to lower the deck that you will be replacing. It will also be used as a resting place for the new deck so that you can attach it easily.Step 3 - Removing the Attachments
Remove the attachments that are in your way together with the drive belt for the blade, which should be disconnected from the front pulley. Find the guide or cotter pins and remove them with the help of the needle nose pliers. The number of cotter pins varies according to the brand of mower that you have, but there could be 2 or 4 on the rear of the mower, while 2 or 4 more could be in front. Removing them will disconnect the deck from the mower frame. Raise the deck to its highest position and then remove it.Step 4 - Positioning the New Deck
Put the new deck below the riding mower and allow it to rest on the two pieces of wood you have previously placed below the machine. If needed, you can remove
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Fertilizer Options for Organic Lawn Care
Organic Lawn Care is all about taking care of your garden the natural way without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides or pesticides. Using an organic lawn fertilizer is easy, inexpensive and gives you various options for fertilizing your lawn. In fact, organic fertilizers help improve your lawn’s soil and it is a fact that healthy soil produces the best grass.Organic Fertilizers
Organic fertilizers are safe and natural ways to strengthen your soil and can be found in liquid, granule or pellet form. They are made of natural products generally include animal manure, plant by-products such as cottonseed and corn meal, blood meal (dried blood from cattle slaughterhouses), seaweed, worm castings and honey. All these products help creating a healthy soil without the use of chemicals and thus are ideal for any organic lawn care. However, it is recommended to avoid the use of municipal sludge on your lawn or garden because of its high levels of metal traces.Manure Fertilizers
Manure fertilizers are the best and most practical natural fertilizer you can use on your lawn. In fact, they not only add nutrients, but also a lot of organic content that helps to retain moisture in your soil and thus promoting healthy grass roots. This fertilizer is also the best one for nitrogen release. In fact, most fertilizers do not contain high enough qualities of nitrogen which is essential for strong and healthy roots. The best part of manure fertilizers is its soil building characteristic which aids
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Antarctic Glacier Melting Not Due to Climate Change
A recent research by British and other scientists has revealed that the increase in the melting of Antarctic glacier may not have been caused by climate change. The melting Antarctic glacier is thought to be the main reason for rising sea levels across the world.
Many scientists across the world believe that increase in melting of Antarctic ice is leading to an increase in global sea levels. They point that it has released more fresh water into the oceans and also caused flooding in many coastal regions across the planet. They have felt that global warming is the main cause of this.
Recent research claims that global warming may not be the reason for these effects. The research has found this by conducting an underwater survey. It is claimed that a rocky underwater ridge is the cause of all these problems.
This has also climate experts across the world to once again look at the matter from a different perspective. The researchers, who conducted this study, are also very excited with it and are trying to find more about the latest study.
It is claimed by some scientists that the glaciers would have continued to melt at the same rate and this would have remained the same with or without the climate change.
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Easy Organic Lawn Care Tip
Want to give your lawn an advantage over heat, drought, weeds and bugs?
Set your mower to one of the highest cut settings, advise the experts from Scotts, a company known for numerous organic gardening products.
Roots will remain deep, and water will reach soil more effectively.
Longer blades of grass also:
* Crowd out weeds * Capture more rainwater * Reduce moisture loss from soil * Make your lawn look greener
And while we’re on the subject, be sure to keep clippings so you can mow and feed your lawn at the same time. Clippings break down quickly, recycling nutrients back into the soil.
If clippings land on your driveway or sidewalk, return them to your lawn so they can feed it naturally.
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