Backyard FAQ’s

- The money I have paid for my mistakes has paid for the experiences.
- Be happy with what you have today. Tomorrow you may have even less.
- Life is a wonderful journey, are you enjoying the adventure?

We do cut lawns, but only very selectively in Mineola and Port Credit.  We are actively looking for new customers and may consider a client who would want all their seasonal services with us, ie. spring and fall cleanup, lawn fertilizing, hedge and shrub trimming, overseeding, mulching, gardening.   I will not take on any new customer just for their lawn cutting. Lets get together and discuss how well we could meet your expectations.

Unfortunately we are very busy working in our close geographic area and would not be able to properly service customers further away.  We have been very strict from the beginning with our service boundaries and it has served us and our customers well.

It is very difficult to kill most weeds with what is available on the market to spray. A few people have lawns with lots of weeds and unfortunately we cannot help them. We are able to only help control a few types of weeds. So if you want us to go by and kill all your weeds, the answer is no, I am very sorry.

Wait until the tree has leafs on it. Not before or the sap will run out the severed branch and make a big mess. Remember that's how maple syrup comes out of a maple tree in the late winter.

One you have planted your tree or shrub, water it well once a week remembering the water has to get to the bottom of the root ball you just planted.
Do not water it too much during normal weather conditions.
Watering only the surface of the plant will encourage plants to develop surface roots, which will weaken the shrub.
Take your time watering them to ensure the water is being absorbed by the plant and the water is not running off to the sides.
Water in the morning to allow leaves to dry because Wet leaves and cool temperatures may promote a plant disease.

If you have been looking at everyone's green lawn in the spring and your lawn is still brown and looking not too healthy, it is possibly new Kentucky Blue Grass sodding. Kentucky Blue Grass needs warm temperature to perk up and look nice and green. Most sod that is available and laid is Kentucky Blue Grass unfortunately.
So to remedy this issue simply start overseeding with Fescue lawn seed. It is also called shade grass or Eco grass, you will eventually get a better lawn mixture of grass seed for our temperatures and your lawn will look as green as everyone's else in April and May.

If you want strong grass roots that will grow more grass blades you need to be watering your lawn for a long time once or twice a week only. Not short spurts every day. Daily watering will likely lead to moss growing in areas that get a lot of shade. The ground never gets a chance to dry out. With daily watering your grass roots will stay short, because they do not need to grown deep to search for water.

Water your new sod daily for the first 2-3 weeks depending on the weather. Then water your sodding every 2 days for another 2-3 weeks. Deep root watering is required. Pull up a corner of a roll of sod and inspect it to see if it the water has penetrated the sod. To ensure it has received enough water, you can also put your foot down and hear and feel if it is squishy. Yes, squishy, squishy is good. Most people do not water it enough and this is the reason most lawns do not take. The newly severed roots have to be kept very moist.

I am asked this question a lot
Sodding comes to most people's mind. However.

Most sodding that you can buy is made from Kentucky Bluegrass and it is the type of sod that will look great for the first year. Eventually will die in your beautifully treed environment.
An environment that had lots of trees and tree roots, and does not allow the Kentucky Bluegrass to get the sun light which it requires.

The only seed that will survive and flourish in your backyard is probably any grass that is currently existing in the area now and that is the Fescue Grass known as Shade Grass or Echo Grass.

Best thing you can do is overseed and apply the proper seed in the Fall (mid Sept) and Spring (last week April) every year.
When you seed it in the fall and spring there is usually enough moisture to let things germinate by themselves.

Grass appears in a few weeks like magic.

Grass seed needs to be kept moist to germinate but during the fall the dew is more than enough water. Soil is damp from approx 9:00 pm till 11:00 am the next morning.
Soil is still warm and days are warm. Perfect time to grow grass seed.

As well, the lawn needs to be properly watered. In many cases watering twice a week for 20 - 30 minutes in the hot summer months. The tree roots are taking nutrients and moisture from the grass as well.

Grass should be cut long to flourish - Longer roots, longer grass blades.
Also you should fertilize 3 times a year, as I mentioned the trees are absorbing much of the nutrients the grass needs.

If you have pets, their urine also has a negative impact on growing healthy grass. I love my dog Maggie, I overseed as well.

So I recommend you put down some seed and fertilize. There is one place that sell fescue sod but they only sell it by the skid and a skid has 780 square feet grass.

So overseed with Fescue, fertilize, water and cut at 3 inches.

For Mildew, Fungas or Blackspot, add 2 table spoons of dishwater soap with one teaspoon of Neem Oil in 5 cups of water. Put it all in a spray bottle, shake well and apply lightly in the early morning. Continue for a few days.