Seasonal Recommendations: September 2016

Late Summer and Early Fall is the best time of year to revitalize your stressed out lawn.  My Lawn Revitalization Service includes aeration, raking out thatch, topdressing with compost, overseeding, and fertilizing.  Lawn Revitalization is a big job which takes several hours.  The benefits to you lawn include

• Relieve soil compaction
• Increased water and air to the lawn roots
• Removal of dead grass material
• Introduction of new, stronger grass seeds
• Improved soil structure and organic matter content
• Better resistance to pests, diseases, and drought stress

Make the Most of Your Lawn

My kids love grass – running on it, rolling in it, pulling it up and throwing at each other.  If you have a lawn, consider yourself blessed.  And even if you have the kind of lawn that makes you the stand out on the block (not in a good way), you can start to fix that right now.  September is the best month of the year for starting a new lawn, and October is also good for renovating an existing lawn.

New lawns can be created from seed or from sod.  Sod is grass that is grown in a field on a farm, cut into rectangles, and laid back on your own yard like tiles in your bathroom.  Sod gives you an instantly beautiful lawn, but at a much higher cost.  Seed can also give you a beautiful lawn, but it will cost you time and patience.  Whether you go with seed or sod, any new lawn needs constant care in the first month after it’s planted.

Existing lawns should be renovated in the fall.  De-thatching is the process of raking out all the dead grass, twigs, and acorns that are lodged deep into your turf.  Aerating is the process of poking lots of tiny holes in your lawn to get soil and air to the turf roots.  And overseeding is the process of filling in bare spots with grass seed and introducing newer strains of turfgrass which can be more resilient against drought and disease than your present turfgrass.

Enjoy Fresh Fruit From Your Own Home

“My daughter must be the luckiest kid in Queens,” I think to myself after handing her a pear from our backyard orchard.  She loves the small, yellow, sweet Asian pears that I pick right off the tree this time of year.  “Apple!  Apple!” she screams in delight, even though I’ve told her many times, “no they’re pears”.  She has learned to eat them right in her hand – no peeling, no cutting required.  After she’s done, I toss the core to the bunny, who happily finishes it off.

Early fall is a great time to enjoy fresh-picked fruit, and also to plant a fruit tree on your own property.  The weather is cooling down from the heat of summer, so a newly-planted tree will not stress out.  But winter is still a few months away, so it has a chance to put out some roots and establish itself.  In addition, plant nurseries are starting to empty their stock for the year, so you can find some good deals on plant material.

Many kinds of fruit trees can be grown in our area.  People are surprised when I tell them that I harvest beautiful, juicy peaches from my backyard orchard.  You can also grow apples, plums, figs, persimmons, and hardy kiwi.