Everything seems to be quiet in winter, even our grass. Some of it turns brown, and the rest of it doesn’t seem to grow an inch. But looks can be deceiving. Even brown grass may be growing down beneath the frozen dirt, and you can give it a helping hand.

A Wintertime Nap
It’s easy to forget that turf grass is just another perennial plant, but grass settles in for a sleepy winter like any other plant would. In spring and summer, warm temperatures help plants metabolize water, sunlight and C02 for growth. In the winter, the temperatures drop and there’s less sun around. Metabolism slows to a crawl, and they go into a “conservation” mode.

For cool-season grasses, conservation mode is sometimes semi-active. They stay green, but their blades may not get any longer. Its their roots doing all the growing as they keep up the search for sustenance. Warm-season grasses just can’t stand cold weather. They go dormant, stopping all metabolism to the leaves. The leaves brown and wilt and only the roots creep out, establishing themselves to put out new blades in spring.

Staying Sunny
Your grass doesn’t need much from you while it rests. Regular access to sun and air circulation are all it asks for. Clear up debris like fallen leaves and branches on a regular basis. Don’t park cars or abandon snow gear on the lawn where they’ll shade out the grass beneath. Most importantly, don’t leave towering snow piles on your lawn. Snow piles, like those post-plowing snow walls, cut off sunlight and become breeding grounds for snow mold.

Watch Out for Ice Melt
The ice melting products you use on your driveway and front walk can also be harmful to your turf. Salts are toxic to plants, and even the less corrosive ones can cause damage. Stick with thorough shoveling and sand, kitty litter or gravel to improve traction where you can. If you have to use melting agents, use the “lawn- and pet-friendly” formulations.

Winter is a laid-back time for lawn care. As long as you don’t forget your turf is still alive in there, you can make sure you have a good foundation for lush, spring turf.

In the dead of winter, the last thing you want to hear is the crackle, snap and crash of a snow-laden branch smashing into your property. Falling branches cost homeowners thousands every year. Break out the trimmers and brush up your technique. A few hours of work will leave you with safer and more attractive trees.

Why Trim Trees?
Many people think of tree trimming as something you do for show, but there’s much more to it than that. Trimming is an essential part of maintenance for any type of tree.

You can trim trees to:
Improve aesthetics
Remove dead, diseased and damaged wood
Cull weak branches that would break under ice and snow
Promote fruit and flower production
Control plant size
Improve air flow between branches
Ensure light filters to all layers of the tree

The “Musts”
Tree trimming can get tricky, but certain branches should always be removed. Examine trees and remove all dead, diseased or split wood immediately. These branches compromise the health of the tree and are the most likely to break during harsh weather. You should also remove “suckers,” or the shoots that sprout around the base of the tree.

The Technique
Cutting flush to the tree will leave a wound your tree will have trouble healing. Instead, cut away from the more delicate tissue and in a spot where your tree will heal.

1. Look for the collar. There should be a ‘rim’ of thick growth at the base of the branch. You’ll want to cut just outside of it.
2. Identify the branch angle. Your cut should match it.
3. Cut. Angle down and away from the stem, taking care to avoid the branch collar.

For long branches, use a three-cut technique to prevent splitting:
1. Several inches away from the branch collar, make a notch in the bottom of the stem. This makes a “stop” that prevents the branch from splitting beyond that point.
2. Make full cut a few inches outside of your first notch.
3. Make the final cut nearer the branch collar, just like the first method.

If you’re not confident in your technique or your trees are too tall for you, always call in a professional crew. We can trim everything up and clear out the debris in no time.

When the fall rains come and the mercury starts dropping again, humans aren’t the only living things getting ready for winter. Grass goes into a dormancy period over the winter, but it doesn’t stop growing entirely. Roots keep on growing, overseeded grass establishes and soil keeps settling as snow and rain hits it. These three easy tips will help you take advantage of winter and strengthen your lawn for next year.

1. Rake Those Leaves
It’s always tempting to ignore all those fallen leaves, but don’t let your lawn suffer. Leaves will cut off your grass’s access to sunlight and provide an ideal breeding ground for a whole host of disease. It’ll also encourage larger pests, like voles, to move in and dig up your lawn. Rake up those leaves now.

2. Aeration and Compost
Aeration helps break up soil and gives your grass’s roots plenty of room to spread out over the winter. It also cuts up any built up thatch, discouraging diseases like snow mold. Follow up aeration by overseeding and by applying a scant layer of compost or fertilizer. Rake it into the aeration holes.

Compost does an incredible job improving your soil. It works as a slow-release fertilizer, feeding your lawn all season long. It will also help address drainage issues and keep your soil nice and loamy following aeration. If you have a chronic spring dandelion problem, mix in a calcium-rich additive to combat them.

3. Overseed, Overseed, Overseed
Fall is the best time to overseed, filling in bare patches, replenishing grass that has reached the end of its life and giving your lawn a boost. By seeding now, you’re ensuring that the grass has time to germinate but won’t expend too much energy trying to leaf out. Instead, it will grow deep roots and be nice and strong come spring.

Winter isn’t the end of the road of grass. In one weekend of work, you can set your lawn up for a whole year of better growth.

Whether you’re establishing new turf or doing an annual overseed, seeding your lawn is an investment of time and money. Different techniques have their pros and cons, and picking the right one ensures your investment won’t go to waste.

Bare Soil Seeding
When you need to start a new lawn or fill in bald patches, bare soil seeding is your only option. You may also want to consider ripping out existing turf and starting over when it’s severely damaged.

• Prepared soil: Freshly tilled and fertilized soil is always the best way to go. It aerates, maximizes soil-to-seed contact, and destroys weeds that could out-compete your seed. Tilling is best, but you can try simple aeration for small patches.
• On top of soil: It may be easy, but expect low germination rates if you seed over unprepared soil. Warm season grasses, like zoysia and Bermuda, will almost never germinate this way. Cool season grasses may, but core aeration will improve your odds.
• Hydroseeding: This professional method provides even coverage and a high germination rate. Seeds soaked in water and fertilizer are pushed into the soil via pressure. It’s economical for large areas, too.

Overseeding
Overseeding helps improve the thickness of existing turf, fill in sparse areas and can add new grass varieties to improve drought or shade tolerance.

• Slit Seeding: Slit seeding uses a professional machine slice the surface of your lawn. Seed is laid directly into the slits through tubes or washed in with a deep watering. It’s a great way to add a new variety of grass to your turf.
• On top of soil: It’s quick and easy to DIY, but seeding on totally unprepared soil has a much lower germination rate. At least aerate the soil before overseeding to increase soil-to-seed contact.

Erosion Control
If you live on a hill or another high erosion area, like near a coast, any seed you lay is at risk of washing away before it establishes. Prepare and seed the soil as usual, then lay the erosion mats or straw over the seed to help it stay in place. Remove the mats or rake up the straw once the grass establishes.

It may sound complicated, but all grass seed needs is a comfortable home in the soil, good nutrients and plenty of water. You’ll have a thriving lawn in no time.

Everyone knows that lawns need water. Some people are willing to stand on their porch with a hose every morning to ensure their grass gets a good drink, yet no one seems to water their lawn on the same schedule. Is there a right answer? Every lawn is a little bit different, but are some good rules of thumb. It is easy to customize once you understand what you lawn really needs.

Finding the Magic Number
Water for lawns is a lot like food for humans. Grass needs enough water to be nourished, but too much of a good thing can make it lazy, unhealthy and incapable of flourishing when the going gets rough. Under-watering your lawn will, of course, leave it wilting and dying. Over-watering can go one of two ways.

At worst, over-watering will drown your lawn and encourage disease. At best, you will end up with shallow roots that cannot soak up enough deep water stores to survive summer temperatures without sending your water bill through the roof. You want to give your grass just enough to be healthy.

The Rule of Thumb
On average, most lawns need 1.5 inches of water every week. That can come from irrigation, like sprinklers, or rainfall. One, deep watering one day a week in the early morning hours is the best method.

A robust lawn may be able to survive a brief drought on 1.5 inches of water, but you can increase your watering time or split your allotted time up if you notice wilting. Keep in mind some grass will turn brown and go dormant in extreme heat. Dormant grass will not respond to extra water. You just have to wait for temperatures to cool.

Testing the Amount
To test how much water your irrigation system puts out per minute, set several empty, wide-mouth containers of the same size out in different areas of your lawn. Run your system for about fifteen minutes, then measure the water in each container. Figure out how long you have to run your system to get your 1.5 inches. Check each area and adjust your system to ensure more even coverage.

The EPA estimates that Americans use 9 billion gallons of water daily on residential irrigation. The right watering methodology will help you cut back on your contribution to that footprint, improve your lawn’s health and keep your water bill low.

For the laid-back homeowner, fertilizing your lawn may seem like an unnecessary chore. Grass is a plant. Plants should take care of themselves, right? The fact is that our lawns are strange, artificial habitats where we expect only one species to grow. To maintain the status quo, it will need a helping hand. Here is how fertilizers can help.

1. More Green
The most obvious benefit of fertilizers is having a thicker, fuller and greener lawn. Fertilizers enrich the soil around your grass roots, giving them big, hearty meals to thrive on. The result is denser, more robust growth for that classic all-American lawn.

2. Sustainable Green
The biggest benefit of fertilizers is giving you a low-maintenance lawn. With good roots, you will notice fewer issues with brown patches, wilting and other hiccups that plague the average American lawn.

3. Faster Green
Applied at the right time, fertilizers will help perk your grass up faster after hot summers and long winters. It can also give a boost to fresh seed. Remember to use a light touch. Your primary concern should be growing robust plants, and overzealous growth makes for weak, spindly specimens.

4. Less Watering, More Drought Tolerance
When you use slow-release fertilizers, grass roots will their time winding their way down into the soil rather than waiting right up top for their next nutrient quick fix. Deeper roots improve drought tolerance and let you go longer between waterings. One inch of water, once a week should be plenty.

5. Rough, Tough and Tumble Turf
Well-nourished grass is like a well-nourished person. If it eats well, it is better equipped to take on what life throws at it. Carefully fertilized lawns should be more disease- and pest-resistant than their unfertilized neighbors. Be mindful not to over-fertilize. Chemical burns will make your grass more susceptible to problems instead.

6. Fewer Weeds
When your grass can grow up strong and fast, weeds just cannot compete. Maintaining a proper balance of nutrients in the soil also discourages many types of weeds, like the nefarious dandelions. Just be careful. Too much of a good thing can backfire, and weeds that thrive on overabundance will move in where your grass cannot gobble up the excess fast enough.

With the right products and a good schedule, fertilizing is an easy task with a big payoff. Your grass will reward your efforts season after season.

When the mercury rises, every homeowner is tempted to start pouring water on their lawns to help it cope with the heat. But a savvy homeowner doesn’t water more. He or she waters smart. These tips will keep your grass green and healthy without running up your water bill.

The Right Schedule
If you start with healthy grass and the right schedule, you probably won’t have to water more no matter how hot it gets. The rule of thumb is:
Ӣ One inch of water
Ӣ Once a week
Ӣ Water before dawn
Ӣ Give less water if it rains

Pre-dawn watering prevents excessive evaporation while making sure the grass blades dry off later in the day, preventing disease. If that isn’t possible, go for later afternoon.

Make sure you know how much water each area of your lawn is getting. Set equally sized, empty containers out in a few areas of your lawn and run your irrigation system. Measure the water levels at regular intervals. Make adjustments to your system to ensure equal water distribution throughout.

What Kind of Soil Do You Have?
If you’re having issues with wilting grass, take a morning to watch how quickly water soaks into your lawn. Does it:
”¢ Vanish in the blink of an eye and feels dry by the afternoon? You have sandy soil that doesn’t retain water.
Ӣ Sit on top and turn into a swampy mess? You have clay-dense soil that prevents water absorption, forcing water to pool on top and evaporate instead of letting it soak to your turf.

For the short term, adjusting your watering schedule for the summer can address either issue. If you normally water for an hour once a week, split it into half an hour twice a week. You may have tweak watering times and frequency. Experiment to find what your lawn needs. For the long term, start addressing your drainage issues starting in the fall.

If your grass turns brown, don’t overcompensate. Your lawn has gone dormant. Water it one inch, once a week. When temperatures cool down, your grass will green up again.

When it comes to gardening, many of us tend to think of our planting beds one season or one plant at a time. But taking the time to plan out a garden that looks gorgeous every day of the year is well worth the time and effort. You don’t have to be a horticulturalist. These strategies will help tweak any existing garden into a four-season wonder.

1. Think Beyond Flowers
Flowers get a little too much credit. For a year-long “wow” factor, make sure you combine flowers with plenty of other elements. Leaves, bark, branch shapes, berries, seed pods, hardscaping, decor and even the wildlife attracted by different plantings will all add new dimension and interest to your garden.

2. Grow a Backbone
Examine the trees, shrubs, focal points and other perennial plants that serve as the year-round ‘backbone’ of your garden. By swapping them out for choices with year-round interest, you can guarantee that the plantings that dominate your space are always bringing something to the party. Consider choices like evergreen plants or options that flower in spring, have beautiful foliage in summer, fall color in autumn and hold berries through most of the winter.

3. Make It Flow
Once you have your backbone, build your limbs out of a selection of perennials and bulbs with “rolling” interest. Divide every season into at least two parts, early and late, and plant at least two things that provide interest during that period. Invest in some extras that overlap seasons for seamless transitions. The “rolling” method guarantees constant color, drama and panache.

4. Fill It Out
The cherry on top of any four-season garden is the selection of annuals, containers and even vegetable gardens that you use to fill your garden out throughout the year. This rotating selection lets you switch things up on a whim and adapt to your own changing tastes without a major garden overhaul.

It doesn’t take much to make your garden look beautiful all year long.

You’re designing a landscape for your home and you’re positive the finished creation will be the next Architectural Digest cover. You’ve watched those British flicks on PBS, fallen in love with topiary and already imagine yourself weaving through a perfectly-sculpted maze of foliage. Imagination soars as shrubbery formed like fairies and wizards thrills your children. Back up for that reality check, please. As with any worthwhile project, you can’t plunge willy-nilly into a landscaping job and expect it to be an artistic achievement. Question your ideas beforehand. There are crucial elements that you should consider while plans are still in the drawing board stage. Here are five:

Appearance
A fabricated concept of dead tree stumps and big boulders leading into palm trees and overgrown grass you may see as unique. Your neighbors will have a different view. How much will your masterpiece veer from the neighborhood’s scheme? Does the subdivision have small-print regulations concerning conformity? If your design is visually unappealing, you may be adding unplanned legal costs into your budget.

Practicality
Will your design allow for a comfortable flow of the normal activities that occur in and around the area? Don’t sacrifice function for fantasy. What impact will that all-rock retaining wall have on the sidewalk or yard pathways? Is there a fence? Remember, function and maintenance go hand in hand.

Upkeep
What will sustain your masterpiece after day one? Unless you plan to employ a professional, are you able to maintain the finished project through the four seasons? Something highly aesthetic can plunge to tacky in a New York minute if it isn’t kept up.

Environment
How will your “own backyard” affect your design? If you select plants and shrubbery that thrive in southern locales and you live in Alaska, expect heartbreak. Know the soil properties and water accessibility in your area. Shun greenery that invites disease or destructive insects. Consider the path of the sun around your landscape. The plant life you choose may depend upon a certain amount of shade in summer. Conversely, will there be a necessary funnel of sunlight during winter?

Affordability
Can your plans on paper be supported by the shekels in your bank account? Your blueprint dream may be elegant, but it’ll be a nightmare if it forces you into hock to Big Louie. Keep in mind that all design elements are interdependent. Every cost, including seasonal maintenance, must be evaluated.

A smart home is a building in which various devices and appliances communicate with each other over the Internet. An automated sprinkling system can be part of that. It has technology that can access the Internet and thus access local weather reports. It can also be programmed to water the lawn at set times. Obviously, that is a lot more convenient than watering the lawn with a hose, watering can, or even a conventional sprinkler. There are other benefits as well.

It saves water
An automated sprinkler system can keep track of local weather conditions and thus only water the lawn when necessary. For example, it has sensors that enable it to detect rain, so it won’t switch on if there has just been a rainstorm, but it will provide extra water during a dry spell. While conventional sprinklers have preset schedules that they rigidly follow, an automated system can adapt to local weather conditions and water the lawn according to actual need. Some systems even come with drip tubes that deliver water directly to the plants’ roots. That is obviously a lot less wasteful than conventional sprinklers that spray water over roads and driveways as well as the lawn or garden.

It can water plants at optimal times
The best time to water the lawn is after sundown, for there is less evaporation at night, which means the water has a better chance to actually reach the roots of the plants that need it. While a human watering the plants often does so during the day, when they can see, automated sprinklers can be programmed to water plants at night.

An automated sprinkler also continues operating even if nobody’s home. It will therefore keep the lawn healthy and hydrated even If the homeowner leaves town for a few days.

It improves plant growth
A gentle rain is more beneficial for growing plants than is a deluge. The latter batters plants and washes away the topsoil. Most of the water also does not reach the plant’s roots. A sprinkling system can be programmed to mimic a gentle rainfall that produces less water over a longer time and thus gives the water a chance to sink into the soil and reach the roots. The system therefore imitates the conditions that are best for plant growth, and the plants consequently grow faster and produce more greenery and blossoms.