Kansas City Landscaping and Lawn Care Ideas

Look out your window. Do you see the millions of gasping, choking organisms yelling for help? You didn’t do it on purpose, but slowly you have contributed to the painful suffocation of your prized Kansas City lawn. The incriminating activities have seemed innocent enough; children playing on the lawn, weekly mowing, and diligent fertilization. However, the traffic of people and mowers has compacted the soil and eliminated all of the small spaces found throughout healthy soil. Without these spaces, oxygen has not been able to penetrate into the root system of the grass. Additionally, the use of chemical fertilizers has dramatically reduced the amount of living microorganisms naturally oxygenating the soil. To verify that your lawn suffers from compaction problems, take the largest flat tipped screwdriver you have and push it into the ground. If it does not go down at least 3” with ease, then your lawn is in serious trouble. Luckily, you don’t have to continue to watch your lawn suffer. You can give it CPR and revive it with core aeration.

To core aerate your lawn, (more…)

The stage has been set for a fantastic year of growing grass in Kansas City. The mildwinter temperatures have been ideal for the fescue and bluegrass lawns in Kansas City. Soil temperatures have stayed mild and precipitation has been adequate to allow the grass to grow roots through the winter. With the right care this spring and summer, your lawn could look its best ever. Through my experience, I see certain mistakes repeated each year and regretted by Kansas City gardeners.

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FERTILIZING KANSAS CITY LAWNS

Managing the fertility of your lawn can be deceptively complex.

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It’s early spring and we are all biting at the bit to get outside. If you are like me, you are grasping at anything that even remotely looks like its green or growing. This is no doubt why you so anxiously picked up this magazine – looking for spring.

One important thing with which you can busy yourself right now is deciding how you are going to care for your lawn.

1) Mow and fertilize by yourself.

2) Mow yourself and have your lawn professionally fertilized.

3) Have your lawn professionally mowed and fertilized.

The right option for you is determined by many variables and each option should be considered to decide which would allow you to most enjoy your lawn.

1) Mow and Fertilize yourself. This option is great if you are a tinkerer, one who likes to be out in your lawn several days a week and to be in complete control of each detail. This option allows you the freedom needed to attend to each detail of your lawn. If you have the time and the expertise, this can lead to a wonderful lawn. This option is the cheapest, if you consider your time very cheap. However, even if you consider your free time at a modest amount of $15-20/hr, this option can easily end up being the most expensive of all the options when you consider the time involved. Additionally, the resources available to you are much more limited and expensive than to a professional.

2) Mow yourself and have your lawn professionally fertilized. This option is best for the homeowner who enjoys spending some time in their lawn, but does not have the time available to research and study proper fertilization and the science behind turfgrass maintenance. However, by mowing the lawn on a regular basis you can still take pride in providing the primary care of your lawn. This allows somebody who specializes in turfgrass to do the work that requires the expertise and allows the homeowner to do the hard “work” of mowing.

4) Have your lawn professionally mowed and fertilized. This option is ideal for the person who values their free time very highly. There are several reasons someone might choose to have their lawn professionally maintained. The primary reason is that they work hard at something at which they are experts and would rather spend a small portion of their time doing extra work for which they get paid and pay a lawn care expert to work in their lawn. For instance, one of my customers is a nurse. By simply working two extra hours a week she was able to pay me to take care of all her lawn and flowerbed needs. Yard work usually took her 4 or 5 hours a week, so she gained 3 hours of leisure time a week and her yard looked better than ever thanks to my helpful touch!

It is important to consider the pros and cons for each of these options when you plan how to care for your lawn. The value of time, money and expertise all play into what’s best for you.

If you decide that mowing or fertilizing yourself is the best plan for you, make sure to do your research. There are a multitude of products from which to choose in regards to both fertilizers and weed controls. When you buy fertilizers, you have to be careful and look past the advertising. I have found that when shopping at the big box stores, the more expensive fertilizers tend to have the cheapest products inside. Oftentimes, you are paying more for the ink on the outside of the bags than the product on the inside. However, if you do your research and know what to look for on the labels you can find quality products.

Research is also necessary when selecting a lawn care company. Just like bags of fertilizer, you have to look past the flashy advertising and see what is offered. A high quality lawn service starts and ends with the person doing the applications. The person needs to have a large well of knowledge in order to be able to diagnose and pamper your lawn’s every need. They should be fully licensed and insured and they should readily provide you with references of satisfied customers.

The signs of spring are there – let them help lead you to the best way to enjoy your lawn!

The end of the season is a time for reflection. I am a man who wears many different hats – husband, teacher, and landscaper. Wearing these different hats gives me the chance to constantly learn new things and apply these to other parts of my lives.

I have found that as a landscaper in Kansas City,

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Using this warm couple days would be great to add some water to your lawn.But it just rained you say.  YES — but only .5inch or less in most cases.  By watering another 1/2 inch now you will be getting the benefit of 1″ of rain with only 1/2 the water usage.  If you put a half inch down today — You would be set until some warm day in January.  1″ of water is infinitely more helpful to your lawn than a half inch because it feed and encourages deep roots.Also - don’t forget to soak any shrubs or trees planted within the last season or two.  Put a slow drip on them and you’ll be rewarded with better plants.  Its hard to rely on snowfall for winter watering because so much of it runs off the surface.  Use your hose when you can!