It’s been a great summer so far! Today I want to speak to all of you who might be worried about the condition of your back yard. Here at BGI we are continually looking for ways to help our customers get more out of their gardens and by extension their outdoor spaces. So much so that we started caring for our neighbors lawns here in our hometown, Cape Coral, Florida.  BGI Services Division was developed because not everyone wants to grow a garden, but almost everyone wants a yard they can be proud of without having to spend all year working on it!

It will take take a little time getting there, but if you stick with it I promise it will be worth it! The most important step in your lawn care journey will be a soil test.  As we have discussed in previous posts, whether it’s your plants or your grass, plant health starts with healthy soil.

Why is a soil test so important?   PH levels determine which nutrients can be utilized by your plants or grass and a soil test will tell you what your PH is. Some nutrients cannot be utilized at higher levels and some cannot be utilized at lower levels, meaning your plants won’t get all they need just some. Don’t worry if you PH isn’t a perfect 6.0-6.5, there are solutions for low or high PH levels.

Once you know what you are working with you should have your yard aerated. ( We recommend twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring.) This will loosen the thatch that builds up and prevents water and nutrients from getting down into your soil.

The next items are about your lawn care, you will find a consensus on these tips everywhere you look. These common mistakes put your lawn in recovery mode and make it very hard for your lawn to thrive.

1. Don’t mow your grass too short, each grass type varies a little bit, but most like to be somewhere between 3 and 4 inches tall. If the grass is very tall only remove 1/3 of the height at a time so the grass has time to recover from the trauma.
2. Don’t overwater. Summer is known for rain, most lawns won’t need more than 1 inch per week.. We shared a story recently about communities that post the weekly rainfall for their residents. These communities used less municipal water because they could see that their yards already received the water required for good health.
3. Don’t forget to fertilize! This one is important, but not for the reason that you might think. A lot of homeowners rely on companies who use poison to eliminate weeds and pests. Wait What? YES if it t ends in “–icide”, it has one job, killing something. These kinds of treatments are harmful to the environment, and dangerous for your children and pets. The most important thing to know is that if your lawn is healthy and stress-free you won’t have weeds or pests to kill.

It may take a year to get your yard your in perfect shape, but once you get there a little maintenance, some careful cutting and conservative watering will keep you in the GREEN for years to come!

Until next time!