Is your yard ready for spring? Here are some quick tips to make sure your lawn is looking its best this spring.
Clean up your yard – Chances are over winter your bushes and hedges have started looking a bit untidy. Now is the time to get them trimmed back before they start to grow. Remove fallen sticks and branches and clean up any remaining leaves so that the fresh green grass can grow nicely in your yard.
Apply fresh mulch or pine straw – Mulching has many great benefits for your flower beds: a generous application helps block weeds from growing through the mulch barrier, it helps the soil retain moisture during any dry times during the spring and summer, and it also adds important nutrients to the soil. Besides these practical benefits, mulching gives your yard a nice finished look.
Check your sprinkler system – Now is the time to make sure that your sprinkler system is working properly. Turn it on and make sure that there are no leaks in the water lines. If you see any water pooling or bubbling in the grass you may have a break. Check the sprinkler heads and nozzles. Sometimes they get buried or blocked in the grass and ground. It’s also a good time to replace the batteries in your controller.
Overseed, fertilize, aerate, or apply a pre-emergent based upon your specific lawn – If you have any bare spots in your yard or want to make your current grass thicker or greener, overseeding is a good idea. Another way to green up your grass is by applying a fertilizer in the early spring just when the grass begins to grow. Aeration is when little plugs of dirt are removed from the soil. This has many benefits including reduced water runoff, thatch breakdown, and keeps your grass from getting as stressed during hot and dry times during the summer. A pre-emergent help weeds from sprouting and growing in your yard. Knowing what treatment or combination of treatments is best for your yard can be a bit tricky. Give Nichols Lawn Services a call and one of our lawn care technicians will recommend what’s best for your yard and it get it taken care of for you.
Plant some fresh flowers – Flowers are an instant and inexpensive way to make your yard look like spring. You can really use your creativity by choosing different colors, heights, and textures. Just make sure to pay attention what amount of sunshine or shade the flower prefers and place them in your yard accordingly.
Nichols Lawn Services can help you with any or all of these items. Give us a call at 864-236-4071 or send us a message at NicholsLawnServices.com and we’d be happy to help you get your lawn looking top notch for spring.
Once you’ve taken care of your gutter cleaning and are on top of leaf clean-up, consider having your lawn aerated in the fall. Here is some information about lawn aeration to consider.
Who doesn’t like looking at the beautiful contrast of fall leaves? The red, orange, and yellows make our ordinary commutes to work much more pleasurable. However, as those crisp leaves begin to fall, it creates a problem in our yards. What are we supposed to do with all of those leaves? If you do clean them up, then the wind blows and more fall to the ground. Here are some ideas for leaf clean-up.
Fall is a great time to have your gutters cleaned. Leaves begin falling, clogging the gutters. Debris from the summer builds-up, keeping rain water from running through freely. This can cause some big problems – both now and in the future.
Paper Wasps: Paper wasps can be red, brown, or black. They grow to about 3/4ths of an inch long and like to eat nectar and take caterpillars to feed their young. Paper Wasps form a papery nest that looks like an upside down umbrella. They are very protective of their nest and will attack if they feel it is being threatened. They often build their nests under the eaves of a building which can be dangerous to humans.
Yellow Jackets: Yellow jackets are yellow and black and have a very small waist. They also feed on nectar and fruit just like paper wasps but also hunt insects to feed the growing larvae. Many times they live in an abandoned rodent hole in the ground, but they may also hang their nests from trees, bushes, or under eaves. The nests can be the size of a basketball. Their stings are very painful and they can sting you multiple times. Although they don’t aggressively seek you out to sting you, they are very protective of their nest and are very sensitive to sound and vibrations so mowers or other loud equipment close to their home can upset them.
Bumble Bees: Bumble Bees almost always make their home in the ground, typically in an abandoned rodent hole. They are larger than the other bees and have a hairy belly. It is only the females that sting and since they aren’t that aggressive, unless you disturb their home you should get along fine with them in your yard. Unlike honey bees, they can sting you multiple times and if they are threatened they can chase you quite a ways, so if you find a nest in a high traffic area, it would be best to consult a pest control company to help you get rid of them. If their nest is no threat to you, leave them be!
places that honey bees may call home. They move in a way that looks like dancing to communicate to their fellow bees about where food is. Honey Bees produce honey as their name suggests, and store it in a structure of hexagonal cells of wax, called honeycomb. As with bumble bees, if a honey bee feels threatened, or something or someone gets too close to their nest, they will attack. Honey bees can only sting once and will die soon afterward.
Carpenter Bees: Carpenter Bees are different than honey or bumble bees in that they don’t live in a hive and are not social bees. Many people get them confused with bumble bees, but they are smaller and don’t have a hairy belly. The female bee bores a hole in wood to lay her eggs so they are typically found in trees or areas of a home or yard with untreated wood. The males don’t sting, and the females rarely do so they don’t pose much of a risk to humans. However, they can cause damage to buildings or wood structures over time. So for that reason, they may need to be removed from your property.
