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.

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.

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. 

Be wary of lawn care companies that claim to fertilize with every application. When fertilizer is added to a broadleaf herbicide in the liquid form, you only receive a very small percentage of fertilizer.  Make sure you know the analysis and rate of application. For example, a 10-0-5 contains 10% Nitrogen. A 25-0-10 contains 25% Nitrogen.

Peters Lawn Service always uses a high quality granular fertilizer. A common analysis is 29-0-14-6, applied at a rate of 5 pounds per 1,000 square feet. This gives you 29% Nitrogen which is always needed, 0% Phosphorus (banned by state of MN), 14% Potassium and 6% Sulfur. This custom analysis will green up and create a healthy, vigorous lawn.

Dethatching with tines or a rake may pull up some dead grass but will not get rid of thatch. The typical thatch layer in turf may be over an inch below the surface. When you rake or run a dethatcher over your lawn you are only scratching the surface and are not penetrating the thatch layer. We do not recommend aggressive raking or dethatching in the Spring because you may do more harm than good by ripping into the rhizomes, damaging new shoot growth. Core aeration will break down the thatch layer by penetrating it, loosening the soil and bringing soil cores to the surface. This process will help provide a better environment for microorganisms to naturally break down thatch.