Lawn Irrigation and Shade

Lawn Care Tampa | SouthernGreenUSA.comWhen it comes to growing a green, lush lawn, everyone remembers to water it, but creating a balanced irrigation plan is often overlooked.  All sections of your lawn are not created equal, so don’t forget to keep those shaded areas in mind.  Whether you are growing a new lawn or just putting in trees or shrubbery, map out those shady spots before starting your irrigation regiment.

When grass is growing in spots near the home or under trees, it will not need as much water as the grass that is growing in the sun. Once your grass has been planted, keep an eye on these areas to make certain that the grass grows properly. Irrigation heads that are in shady areas should be removed, as it’s best to hand-water these spots. When these parts of your lawn get too much water, it can destroy the roots. If you find growing grass in these areas to be frustrating and difficult, you may want to consider investing in an alternative ground covering option, such as mulch.

When it comes to lawn care services, Southern Green offers a wide array of services to make your landscape look wonderful! We perform lawn care in Tampa, Jacksonville, and Orlando, as well as many other cities throughout South Florida. Contact us today to learn more about the many services we provide.

Enhancing Landscape Wear Tolerance

Lawn Care St Petersburg FL | SouthernGreenUSA.comIs your lawn ready for the summer? Whether you are planning on throwing a big barbeque in your backyard or just ready to have your kids out of the house, here are some things you can do to enhance your lawn wear tolerance:

  • Fertilization – One of the most imperative ways to improve wear tolerance on your lawn is to keep up with proper fertilization practices. Potassium fertilization is very important, as it will allow the grass to survive injuries and retain the carbohydrates it needs to regrow. You should keep an eye on high-traffic areas and make sure that potassium is applied regularly.
  • Watering – When you properly water your lawn, you are giving the leaf tissue an opportunity to absorb injury and bounce back with ease. Having deep roots through infrequent but long irrigation makes your grass strong and resilient. In addition to giving your grass the ability to recover quickly, proper watering will also prepare it for drought situations.
  • High Mowing Heights – Mowing your lawn at higher heights is also vital to building your lawn wear tolerance. When the grass is higher, it increases the amount of shoot tissue to avoid the injury and also allows the roots to grow deeper, resulting in greater stress resistance.

Improve your landscape today when you come to Southern Green. Our business is known for offering dependable lawn care in St. Petersburg, FL, as well as many other locations throughout Florida.

Doing Your Research on Organic Lawn Care Products – Part 2

Orlando Lawn Care | SouthernGreenUSA.comCaring for your landscape with organic products starts with deep research. We have put together some more questions you should take into consideration before making the investment in organic lawn care products:

  • What Problems Do People Have with Application? – Many times, people tend to shy away from organic fertilizers and pest control products because they have issues with strong odors or ingredients that, while organic, can be toxic to grass and other plants. While doing your research, you should try to look for any information regarding smell or toxicity. If these issues don’t bother you, then you may decide to start using the product!
  • Is the Price Worth the Investment? – Before making the investment, you should check that the amount of money you are spending is worth it. Many organic products have great results but the price outweighs the benefits. Additionally, you may find that you have to spend more to achieve a result that you could have realized by hand. For example, you could pull weeds manually and clean up the problem areas instead of spending a lot of money on a weed removal product.

From lawn pest control and fertilization services to aeration and shrub care, the specialists at Southern Green are here to assist you with your lawn. We offer Orlando lawn care services, in addition to Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa services.

Doing Your Research on Organic Lawn Care Products – Part 1

Lawn Care Jacksonville FL | SouthernGreenUSA.comGoing organic when caring for your landscape is a great idea! Going organic means you won’t have to worry about harmful chemicals being used on the lawn and it can actually improve the quality of your soil. Before you make the investment, it’s important to learn how to choose the right organic products for your landscape.  Ask yourself these questions:

  • Is Independent Research Available? – Just because a company has claimed on their packaging that the product has worked in testing, it does not mean that an impartial, independent review has been done. Before making the purchase, you should get the product information together and spend some time looking up independent research about the product online.
  • Are the Researched Results Accurate? – When you read the independent research, you should make sure that the information actually corroborates the advertised results. You should also review to see if the results work in a variety of conditions. Just because the product works in the North, it does not mean it will work in Florida climates. For example, if you purchase an organic pest control product that features an insect predator, you should verify that the predator naturally exists in Florida.

When you need someone dependable to provide you with exceptional lawn care services, rest assured the team at Southern Green is ready assist you. We offer lawn care in Jacksonville, FL, as well as Tampa, Orlando, and many South Florida cities.

The Importance of Cleaning Your Lawn Care Equipment

South Florida Lawn Care | SouthernGreenUSA.comMaking sure harmful weeds do not spread into your landscape is important. If you can stop weeds from establishing in your lawn, you won’t have to worry about spreading weed killer or dealing with other weed control methods. When you are fighting the weeds that inevitably pop up in hard to mow areas, it’s vital to make sure that you clean your lawn care equipment after you are done.

Using lawn equipment to mow down and remove weeds means you may be transferring weed seeds onto your equipment. It doesn’t matter if you are using mowers, trimmers, or rototillers, these pieces of equipment should be washed to prevent the spread of these weeds. Even just a few tiny seeds can turn into a big problem. Additionally, if you believe any of your lawn clippings have weed seeds in them, they should be thrown out to prevent contamination to other parts of your lawn. If you don’t, you’ll only be making the problem worse.

Take your landscape to the next level and hire Southern Green for North, Central, and South Florida lawn care services. Our business assists homeowners in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville, as well as many other Florida cities.

Scalping Your Lawn to Fight Thatch is a Bad Idea

Lawn Care Jacksonville FL | SouthernGreenUSA.comThe eternal battle against thatch can feel frustrating, but you can never give up.  Losing your lawn to thatch can cost you a lot of money; not to mention the hours of labor you’ll spend re-establishing it.  It is for this reason that, when thatch threatens to kill your lawn, you’ll find yourself wanting to do everything you can to save it.  There are many ways to fight thatch- from vertical mowing and aeration to power raking, but one thing you should never do is scalp your lawn.

Some people believe that scalping their lawn makes sense, as they think mowing the grass to a shorter height will allow them to easily access and remove the thatch. Unless you are working directly with a lawn care professional or county extension agent, this is a bad idea. Scalping a St. Augustinegrass or centipedegrass lawn can kill your entire landscape. The most ideal plan for those committed to taking care of this problem on their own is to use a heavy-duty vertical mower. This piece of equipment will slice directly into the thatch to remove it!

Whether you are concerned with thatch problems or are just looking for someone to come and aerate your lawn, rest assured that the team at Southern Green will be able to assist you. We provide lawn care in Jacksonville, FL, as well as Orlando, Tampa, and South Florida cities.

Identifying Fire Ants

Fire Ant Control Orlando FL | SouthernGreenUSA.comBeing vigilant about caring for your landscape is vital. Having a fire ant infestation can be problematic for a number of reasons – they bite, they ruin your plants, and, simply put, they just make your landscape look bad. The team at Southern Green wants to help you protect your property from fire ants.  To do this, you must first be able to identify fire ant problems.

Fortunately, even the inexperienced eye can identify fire ants with a few of these tell-tale signs.  Fire ants are known for building mounds that are located in open sunny areas, as well as in rotting logs or around tree stumps. These mounds can grow as high as 24 inches in height. When you look at the ant itself, you’ll notice that the fire ant typically has a reddish brown color. Of course, you can also identify a fire ant by its painful bite – although we do not recommend this identification method to anyone. There are a variety of fire ants all over the United States, with the red imported fire ant being known as the worst, as these ants are aggressive, can reproduce rapidly, and have a particularly painful sting.

Don’t let fire ants ruin your lawn anymore! Contact Southern Green for fire ant control in Orlando, FL, as well as Jacksonville, Miami, and Tampa. With our help, you’ll be able to walk on your lawn with bare feet whenever you please!

The Benefits of Lawn Aeration

Lawn Care Aeration | SouthernGreenUSA.comMaking your landscape look healthy is very important to the team at Southern Green. That’s why we offer incomparable aeration assistance as part of our lawn services. This is an important process that should be performed on all lawns.

When you aerate your landscape, you are putting small holes in the soil to allow water, air, and quality nutrients to get into your grass roots. Doing this allows the roots to grow deep and produces a strong lawn. You should be aerating your landscape for a variety of reasons, but one of the central reasons is to guarantee that your soil doesn’t get too compacted. When soil is too compacted, thatch and debris build up, causing excess thatch, which will kill your grass.

Making sure you aerate your landscape at the right time is the key to a beautiful lawn. If your lawn starts to dry out and feels spongy, then you should consider aerating your landscape. Additionally, it’s wise to aerate your lawn after new construction. These lawns usually have a lot of people walking over them, which strips and compacts the top soil, killing it before it has had its time to shine.

Sign up for lawn care aeration services when you contact Southern Green. Our teams serve people all over Florida, including Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, and South Florida residents.

Developing an Irrigation Plan

Orlando Lawn Care | SouthernGreenUSA.comInstalling a new irrigation system on your landscape is important, as one needs to make sure that they are irrigating the landscape properly and not over-irrigating certain areas. Take a look at some of the issues you should consider before making the installation:

  • Frequency – How often will you be watering your landscape? Are you in a sunny area that needs more water or dealing with a shady landscape that doesn’t get too hot? Walk through the landscape and assess the grounds before making the installation.
  • Landscape Plans – If you have a wide array of landscape plans, such as putting in a garden or decorative flowers, then you want to work your irrigation system around these areas, to avoid any overwatering problems.
  • Watering Times – Knowing what times of the day you are going to water your lawn can factor into your irrigation system decisions. If you like to sleep in, you may want to consider investing in a programmable irrigation system that you can schedule to run digitally. This is also beneficial for homeowners who live in areas with watering restrictions.

Once you have installed your new system, you can come to Southern Green for lawn treatment services. Our team of specialists work in a wide array of areas, providing Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando lawn care services.

Mowing a Seashore Paspalum Lawn

Lawn Care Jacksonville FL | SouthernGreenUSA.comAs residents of the great state of Florida, we are able to grow grass that you won’t find in most other parts of the country. One of these unique grasses is seashore paspalum. This specialty grass is typically used in coastal areas, working well near saltwater.

When you are maintaining a seashore paspalum landscape, there are a variety of rules you must follow to get the best out of your grass. Most importantly, these lawns should be mowed at 1 ½ to 2 inches with mowers that feature sharp blades. By doing this, you can avoid tearing the leaf tissue. When too much of the leaf is removed, this grass begins to develop problems. If the grass starts to take on a scalped appearance, you can mow at a higher lawn mower height until the problem is corrected.

Seashore paspalum is most active during the summer months, which means you should mow your lawn more than once a week to guarantee that it looks good and doesn’t develop any thatch problems. While mowing, you can leave your grass clippings on the lawn, as they are readily decomposed and do not contribute to thatch.

Keep up with your seashore paspalum landscape with help from Southern Green. Our team provides unparalleled lawn care in Jacksonville, FL, as well as Tampa, Orlando, and South Florida cities.