Author Archive

Lawns and the environment

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

In todays world, the American lawn is commonplace and is the single most labor intensive part of our landscape. Quality turf requires water, fertilizer, pesticides, gasoline for mowing and much work to maintain.  Increased environmental concerns are causing people to think about the way they maintain their personal lawns.

Proper lawn care and landscaping practices can provide many benefits to homeowners, communities, and wildlife.  Poor practices and the lack of educated consumers can result in negative impacts on water resources and potential risks to homeowners, children, pets, and wildlife.  Studies have shown that consumers who use pesticides may do more harm than trained professionals.  Most consumers who apply pesticides on their lawn rely on guesswork and often error on the side of too much.

I wish I could claim that I do no harm to the environment, but simply operating our equipment adds to air pollution. However, by working in the green industry, we have a strong desire to make the environment which we live better.  At Peters Lawn Service, we encourage environmentally responsible lawn and landscaping practices for creating and maintaining residential and commercial landscapes.  We are NOT a pushy lawn service company who believes all of our customers should be on a 5 treatment program.  We provide a high quality lawn care program and believe the appropriate use of fertilizers and pesticides, water, plant species, and using the best management practices will create value and will benefit homeowners and wildlife.

We are proud to offer Native alternatives in the landscape which require less maintenance, less water, less fertilizer and pesticides. Native plants remove carbon from the air and help stabilize soil.  Rainwater gardens composed of native plants are a key aspect to “green” stormwater management.

Dogs and Lawns

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

It seems there are many myths about dog urine and its effect on lawns.  Female dogs seem to get blamed more than males simply because they tend to empty their bladders in one spot, wheras males like to spread it around.  The damage done by dog urine is caused by excess nitrogen in one spot, causing it to “burn” the lawn.  If you could spray water on the lawn after your dogs deposit, the problem would go away, and the diluted nitrogen may actually green up your lawn.

A few tips:

1. Train your dog to go potty in a particular spot, away from your favorite outdoor living area.

2. Clean up often.  Remove poop and run a sprinkler occasionally to wash away odors and dilute the dog urine.

Using Corn-gluten as a broadleaf weed killer

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

With increased environmental concerns, Organic lawncare has been a hot topic and Corn gluten has been a favorite application for those seeking organic lawn care. 

Corn gluten has no post-emergent effect on killing broadleaf weeds. Claims have been made that corn gluten prevents weed seeds from germinating, but only after repeated heavy applications (20 pounds per 1,000 sq. feet) for several years and may be more based on the nutritional factor of adding Nitrogen than having herbicidal quality.   The use of Corn gluten can be very expensive, requires repeated applications, is labor intesive, and is difficult to apply.  It’s heavy application requirements can also be very messy and lead to increased runoff.