First Fertilization for $28.88

Pay only $28.88* for your first fertilizer application

and receive a FREE 14-point lawn analysis when you purchase an annual lawn care program.

www.hamilton.turfking.ca

Offer valid for new residential customers only. Not valid on previous purchases, existing services or in conjunction with other offers, including prepayment discount. The $28.88 first fertilizer application offer applies to lawns up to 5,000 square feet. For lawns over 5,000 square feet, percent discount will apply to your lawn. Please call Turf King Hamilton @ 905-318-6677 for an estimate. Offer expires 8/31/2016

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.

Chinch Bugs

Chinch bugs can be very damaging to a lawn. As seen in the photo, they will eat the grass, but leave the weeds alone.

Chinch bugs are tiny insects about the size of an ant. Chinch bugs have short legs while ants have long legs. (I compare chinch bugs as roadsters and ants as monster trucks)

If you do end up with too many chinch bugs, the lawn will turn yellow. The chinch bugs suck the sap out of the grass plants. The lawn often looks as if it is lacking water, which in a sense it is. Watering the lawn just helps the grass to stay hydrated so that the chinch bugs can continue to feed.

Chinch bugs prefer the sunny areas of the lawn. I inspected a lawn once that was in front of a north facing building. Most of the lawn had been destroyed- except for about 8 feet near the building. The unusual thing was that the edge of the damage was in a nice neat straight line. I realized that the chinch bugs were happy to feed on the lawn in the sun, but stayed away from the lawn shaded by the building. (Now if they ran out of lawn in the sun, would they have gone to the lawn in the shade?)

We have found that an organic insecticide is usually effective in controlling the chinch bug damage.

We have realized that with insects and chinch bugs in particular that stopping the lawn from going brown is possible without necessarily eradicating all the chinch bugs.

More information on chinch bugs in our website library.

To go to our website

or to request a quote online

June 19/07 Jeff, one of our technicians found chinch bugs nymphs on a sunny lawn in Ancaster today. They had caused a patch about 3 feet in diameter to go yellow. Normally we think of July as the month for Chinch bug damage. I believe the warm weather of the past 3 weeks has hastened the maturity of the chinch bugs and also hastened the damage to the lawns.

Gypsy Moth Caterpillars

These destructive pest
Gypsy Moth Caterpillar - these caterpillars are dark and hairy with a double row of 5 pairs of blue and 6 pairs of red spots from head to tail. They feed on many tree species. Favourites include birches, lindens, crabapples, mountain ash, willows, oaks, blue spruce and many other trees. Voracious feeders, these caterpillars have been known to defoliate trees.

Trap caterpillars by tying a band of burlap around tree trunks. Inspect daily and destroy caterpillars.

Use Acecaps to prevent damage or foliar treatments. These must be applied by a professional

Turf King uses either Acecaps for larger trees or an organic insecticide containing Neem oil to control the Gypsy Moth Caterpillar

To contact us www.hamilton.turfking.ca

or to request a quote online

or Phone 905.318.6677 or 1.888.TURFKING

See the CBS news report on these pests from YouTube

Footprints in da Dew

On an early morning walk through the golf course, these foot prints were visible in the dew on the fairway. I'm guessing a deer. There were a lot of deer seen along the roadways in the area as well.

We saw other foot prints- one looked like a raccoon with its tail dragging in the dew.

Renovating spots of thick bladed grass, cont'd

When these grasses grow out by the farmer’s field, I don’t worry about them at all. They’re green and they don’t have yellow flowers. Around the patio, I’m a little more particular.

Last year I had a couple of clumps of thick bladed grasses growing near the back patio. In early April, I sprayed some glyphosate (Roundup) on the patch, then simply sprinkled grass seed into the grass. A day later, once that spray had dried, I watered the patch to wash the seed down to the soil level. In about ten days the unwanted grasses, along with the good grass in that spot, had turned yellow and started to die. Maybe it was the right weather, but by the end of 4 to 5 weeks, the new grass had sprouted and the patch slowly turned from a dead yellow patch into a spot of fresh new lawn. My memory is not as good as it was, so I won’t say that I didn’t throw some more grass seed down at a later date.

In your lawn, once the unwanted grass has turned yellow, (it should take 7-10 days), you can repair that area by putting in a piece of sod or by seeding that area with a good grass seed mix.

If you are going to seed and if it is a small area- slit the ground with a spade and drop the seed into the slits. The seed in the slits should be protected from drying out. You can see the slits I have made in the second photo. I'll try to remember to take pictures as the seed sprouts.

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.

Gypsy Moth Caterpillars

There have been a couple of articles in Hamilton Spectator about the Gypsy Moth Caterpillars.

I was at a home in Ancaster today. Found a baby caterpillar on a fruit tree. These little guys can be voracious feeders and given enough time and enough caterpillars a tree can be defoliated by these critters.

Please keep your eyes open for signs of leaves with holes in them. And for sightings of the caterpillars themselves.

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.

Crabgrass Phenology

We were in Lincoln Nebraska to attend a graduation. Of course, I am curious to see the lawns in this area. The leafing of the trees is ahead of Southern Ontario. I even found a crabgrass seedling starting to sprout in the middle of the sidewalk. Of course, the sidewalk is warmer than the lawns. Crabgrass likes to grow in warm soil. And sidewalks and driveways warm up and hold the heat sooner and longer than the soil under your lawn. But it was also starting to grow in a open area in a boulevard.

To help reduce crabgrass problems in your lawn- here are 2 suggestions.

1. Keep your lawn thick and healthy. The thicker the lawn, the less likely it will be to allow crabgrass a chance to sprout.

2. Related to the above – is to mow your lawn at 3 inches high. The longer mowing height means there will be more leaf blade to shade the soil. The more shade, the cooler the soil will be. The cooler the soil, the better the lawn grasses will like it. The cooler the soil, the less likely it will be that crabgrass will grow.

A note on phenology. I didn’t see very many of the flowering trees or shrubs in bloom while in Lincoln. I was trying to see how the weather related to what we have here in southern Ontario. On the last day, we were walking down a different street and I came across a Mock Orange in bloom. “Aha”, I said. The mock orange in our garden usually blooms around the July 1^st Canada picnic we usually have with our family. And crabgrass is usually just starting at that time of year here in southern Ontario. So, therefore, the crabgrass sprouting in the sidewalks of Lincoln makes perfect phonological sense.

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.

Two Kinds Of Thistles

There are two main of thistles that get into lawns. One is the Scotch thistle and one is the Canada thistle. One is easy to remove and eradicate the other is very difficult. Both can be a pain to the barefoot in the grass folks. They both have sharp thorns. The pain of walking on them is not pleasant but it is worse if the thorn breaks off and ends up as a sliver in one’s skin.

How do you get rid of them?

The Scotch thistle is the easy one. Although if left to flourish it can reach a height of 3 feet, it normally will tolerate being mowed. Its purple flowers are large and interesting. It is dark green in colour and has a wider leaf than the Canada thistle. It grows as a single plant and one could dig it up and remove it. It also is easy to control with the usual lawn weed killers.

The Canada thistle is the toughie. It has a lighter green foliage that is narrow. It can also reach heights of 3 feet and also has purple flowers. Both thistles have seeds like dandelions that can blow in the wind. In the summer, I have been driving along some city roads when the air is full of the seeds blowing in the wind, much like dandelions parachuting their way into new territory. I know they are thistles because the seed heads can be seen along the roadsides where the weeds have not been cut.

Canada thistle spread by underground rhizomes. Rhizomes are underground stems. If you see one Canada thistle, it is likely attached by a rhizome to another plant a little ways away. If you are planning to dig out the Canada thistle, make sure to dig out the rhizome. If you don’t it will regrow, and you will still have thistles. Canada thistle does not respond well to herbicides. The plants will be killed off, but often the rhizomes continue to live and soon it will send up new sprouts from underground. Only continuous attacking of the Canada thistle will suffice to eradicate this pest from your lawn or 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

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Copyright 2007 Turf King-Hamilton. All Rights Reserved.