Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Kansas City Landscaping- Ways To Treat For Your Yard Year After Year

By Darlene Ericson


You don't need to pay a professional for a professional quality lawn servicing. But merely watering and mowing the lawn is not going to make a great yard. This post will briefly discuss techniques professional Kansas City landscapers employ.

You must acknowledge the wants and needs your grass as a living thing. Careful cultivation with understanding and diligence will give the lawn what it truly needs. With attentiveness, you will gradually become alert to signs of stress or disease. And you will know how to treat the threat.

Preparing the top layer of soil is always the first step professional Kansas City Landscapers take. Organic material and sand are commonly used in Kansas City, mixed together in correct ratios to provide a loamy consistency. You want a balance between good drainage but moisture retention, and gas-exchange but not enough to dry out the soil. Some people don't understand that roots need to stay moist and exchange Carbon dioxide for Oxygen.

Acidity is another aspect of this preparation. Your Kansas City landscaping shop will have a pH testing kit. Once you know which level you are at, use lime or ash to alkalize (raise) and compost or manure to acidify (lower) the pH. Kansas City lawns are commonly too acidic (low pH) and need to be brought to near neutral. Kansas City landscaping stores will have the tools and materials you need. Each material will have its own method for applying to your lawn so ask the supplier what they suggest

Standing water and excessive erosion are a problem for many yards in the Kansas City region. Proactive management will save you a headache later on and prevent damage to your house and property. Water left standing too long can suffocate roots and leaves or promote disease. Grass that is not well-rooted will be killed by fast-moving water and the essential top layer of soil will be removed. Solve the issue by changing the level of the low areas and steep areas with soil. Sod, erosion blankets, and new landscaping itself are more drastic solutions for drastic erosion issues.

The two choices for installing the actual grass are sod and seed. Sod requires less time and labor but it is much more expensive, seed is much cheaper and can be mixed with other species of grass.

When seeding, using mixing seed species may be useful in sections that have more than one threatening issue, such as full sun and dark shade within a few feet. Professional Kansas City landscapers know that mixed seed can make sure your yard is well-covered, though the lawn may not be uniform in color and texture. Each yard is unique and consulting a local Kansas City landscaping supplier or shop may be required.

A smart landscaper knows that watering too little could hurt your grass just as bad as watering too much or too often. Soaking the soil once per week, enough to keep the soil damp, is the general rule for most Kansas City landscapers. This is because fungus and other disease flourish in constantly wet environments, though you must also never allow the roots to become dry. Two inches of water once a week should work for most lawns.

You will inevitably have to handle excessive thatch. The yard can switch into a different mode of growth that leaves bare areas of soil that are covered with debris. Nonetheless, some thatch is to be expected. A bit of it covering the surface of the soil will result in better nutrition and water-retention. But if it is not decomposing quickly enough it will do more harm than good.

Many varieties of grass require a de-thatching on a regular basis, if the yard is healthy or not. Kansas City landscapers would once simply burn the dead grass during the winter but this is no longer allowed by the law so they power-rake it into piles instead. This will draw the dead vegetation to the surface and collect it for removal. A mower is generally used to remove the thatch. Just remember not to mulch it back into the yard but bag it.

Snowfall and frost will compress the soil every year. This needs to be fixed if your lawn is going to reach its highest potential.

Aeration is the treatment Kansas City landscapers use to fix this issue. This breaks the top of the soil and places holes several inches deep. This will not only break the compacted crust of the ground but also provide extra surface-area for effective gas-exchange.

Late Winter/Early Spring is when Kansas City landscapers employ an enzyme-inhibitor called "pre-emergent". When the weather in Kansas City warms up and thaws the land, seeds start to emerge. The pre-emergent will stop the weed seeds from activating and sprouting. Thus, the weeds are kept from even beginning to compete for precious nutrients and space. This will save a lot of time and labor trying to take out established weeds.

Food is needed if your grass is going to stay healthy. Over time essential nutrients are extracted by erosion and the removal of grass-clippings. The lawn must have these nutrients replaced or the stress and threat of disease may kill the grass. Skilled Kansas City landscapers recommend at least two feedings every year, one in Spring and one in Fall. Manure and other organic materials are good options for replenishing the soil.

The grass should not be too long when it is fertilized or else the nutrition will never reach some areas of the yard and be too strong in others. But, at the same time, if the yard is cut too short the fertilizer can do some major harm to the already stressed plants. It's important to say that landscapers in Kansas City use higher settings on their mowers than most home-owners to avoid the strain the lawn undergoes if it is cut too low.

Fungicide is applied at least once a year by Kansas City landscapers for preventing disease before it happens. Untreated grass will be prone to spores that, if allowed to establish and grow, can destroy an entire yard. Kansas City landscapers may be able to treat an infected yard but sometimes a yard can be lost and must be destroyed.

Defending the lawn should be a proactive job and not reactive. Making your lawn reach its peak health now will help it when hard times come, just like a healthy immune system will take on disease better if it is kept healthy. It should go without saying that a neglected yard is easily taken out when stress comes but a strong yard will last through drought and disease much better.

These are the fundamental issues that every lawn-care strategy should include. Make a plan and stick with it, giving yourself time to learn and not giving up easily. It will give your family a fun place to play and relax while giving you time to unwind and work on a project. So what are you waiting around for? Get moving!




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