Damaged Lawns

Driving through town last week, I am surprised at how many lawns one finds here and there with damage from the summer. Some may be from the hot, dry summer. Some may have been from chinch bug damage. Hard to tell at this point in time.

Can anything be done in the middle of November? Sod may still be available so the lawn could be repaired. I would first suggest checking the lawn for grubs. These 2 lawns pictured don't look like grub problems. But, it is worthwhile checking. If there are grubs and you sod over them, the grubs aren't likely to do too much damage to the sod. Raccoons and skunks, however, may think, "hey these grubs are easy to find, and the grass was really easy to lift up!"

If you're not in the mood to sod right now, I would suggest waiting until spring to do any seeding. It is unlikely that grass seed will do too much at this time of year.

If it makes you feel better, you could purchase a small amount of grass seed and throw it over the bare spots. It may come up next spring and it may not. A little bit of grass seed is relatively inexpensive way to salve your conscience. The only problem is that by the time the ideal time to seed and repair comes around next spring, the grass seed you threw down now won't have come up so you will have to start from scratch.

So I guess the only reason to put some grass seed down now is if you are the type that only has a 50-50 chance of getting around to doing any repairs and seeding at the correct time next spring.

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:

Turf King Home

Click here to Request a Quote Online -

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

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Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.

Winter Fertilizer

It's that time of year - we've put almost all of our lawns to bed with the "winter" fertilizer. This last fertilizations is one of the most important. Even though the lawns appear to have gone dormant, the plants are still quite active. The root system is busy storing food so that the lawn will be able to green up nicely come spring.

The nutrients applied at this time of year will encourage the lawns roots to go deeper and to get larger and stronger. By increasing the amount of the root system, your lawn will be able to store a greater quantity of food for next year. The better the roots are this fall, the healthier your lawn will be next year.

As the root system increases, the roots will grow deeper. Deeper roots will allow your lawn to be able to tolerate dry conditions. Lawns will shallow roots dry out sooner. They will require more frequent watering and may turn brown sooner. A deeply rooted lawn will need less watering and will keep its green colour longer.

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:

Turf King Home

Click here to Request a Quote Online -

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

If you would like more information, please Contact us

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Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.

Rake, Rake, Rake

Is the autumn season called "fall" because of the leaves? Fall does mean leaves will fall. And leaves fallen on lawn shouldn't leave the lawn in worse shape than they would be if you can see that the leaves aren't left on the lawn. Whew!

Once the leaves end up on the lawn, they should be removed. Large flat leaves like those from maples, can easily lie on the lawn and smother the grass. When you do rake them into leaf piles, don't leave the piles sitting on the lawn too long. I have come to lawns in the spring where you could see the leaf piles in several places in the melting snow. Inevitably the lawn under those leaf piles has died from the lack of light and air.

If the leaf drop is not too severe, you may be lucky enough to run the lawn mower over the leaves and chop them up fine enough to allow them to compost right on the lawn. If that's not an option, you can use your mower and lawn mower bag to gather the leaves.

If you do need to rake, make sure to use a leaf rake to rake leaves. The tines of leaf rakes are flexible enough that they will not damage the lawn.

Once you have the leaves all gathered together- why not compost them? Fall leaves are a valuable resource because they keep garden soil productive. This way these nutrients can be recycled back into your garden.

If you have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF GREEN:

Turf King Home

Click here to Request a Quote Online -

or call us at 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING (887.3546)

If you would like more information, please Contact us

Follow us on Twitter  http://twitter.com/turfkingofgreen

Join our Facebook page  

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Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.

Grub Control Comparison

One of our technicians had some white grubs at the apartments where he lives. We tried an experiment to see how well Sevin stacked up against nematodes.
We also applied Merit- even though we knew it was too late to be effective. This was done mid October.

Here's what we found 2 weeks later:
Merit did nothing- as expected
Neem Oil - did not perform
Sevin - reduced the population by about two-thirds.
Nematodes -Worked better than the Sevin. Almost all the grubs were dead.

Nematodes work best when the soil is saturated. Nematodes need the moisture to move around in the soil to get to the grubs. The lawn was watered well the night before.

see our website at www.hamiltonturfking.ca or call us at 905.318.6677