HORTICULTURAL CALENDAR
HORTICULTURAL CALENDAR FOR YOUR LAWN
At Groupe Jardins Brossard and Traitements de Pelouse La Prairie, our goal is to maximize the quality and appearance of your lawn, with our nutritive solutions and jointly with your good lawn maintenance habits.
APRIL
Avoid walking on a very wet lawn.
For lawns on large arteries where salt is applied during the winter, irrigate to dilute the salt concentration on your grass.
Monitor your lawn for the presence of white grubs. A sign of infestation is the excavation by the skunk and/or a lot of birds on your lawn or those of the neighbors.
Sharpen your mower blade.
Following a dry spring, irrigate your evergreen.
Rake the area where there are damages made by field mice.
MAY
Rake the lawn with a leaf rake as soon as you can walk on the lawn without leaving traces.
Check the thickness of thatch; if more than 1/2″ or 1.25 cm, make mechanical dethatching.
Repair damaged lawn with garden soil and seeds of excellent quality.
Do a top soil dressing; this practice consists of spreading a thin layer (.5 to 1 cm) of excellent quality garden soil on all the lawn, generally following lawn aeration. If the lawn is not dense, you can add some seeds.
Cut the lawn 2.5″ or 6.25 cm height. Remember the principle which one should never remove more than one third of the length of the lawn. If the lawn is too long, cut it in two steps at a few days interval.
Fertilize the lawn.
Treat for crabgrass and oxalis, if you did not overseed in May.
If you have new plantations, a cedar hedge, small trees and/or sick trees, it is the best period to fertilize them.
JUNE
Fertilize the lawn.
Irrigate if necessary, 1″ or 2.5 cm of water a week in one or two time depending on the type and thickness of soil.
Cut the lawn 3″ or 7.5 cm height as soon as the temperature warms up.
If you cut your lawn regularly, it is preferable to mulch the grass clipping. This operation should not leave visible lawn clippings.
JULY
Fertilize the lawn. Be careful not to burn the lawn!!!
Irrigate if necessary, 1″ or 2.5 cm of water a week in one or two time depending on the type and thickness of soil.
Cut the lawn 3″ or 7.5 cm height. Avoid mowing or walking on the lawn in times of great heat wave.
Treat for white grubs if,
a) You have noticed damages to your lawn or in your neighborhood in April-May and/or
b) You have noticed European chafers in your trees, early evening, at the beginning of July.
Monitor for hairy chinch bugs. Does your lawn have yellow spots? If it is completely yellow, it is rather dryness.
AUGUST
Sharpen your mower blade.
Irrigate if necessary, 1″ or 2.5 cm of water a week in one or two time depending on the type and thickness of soil.
Cut the lawn 3″ or 7.5 cm height. Avoid mowing or walking on the lawn in times of great heat wave.
SEPTEMBER
Fertilize the lawn.
Do lawn aeration.
Irrigate if necessary, 1″ or 2.5 cm of water a week in one or two time depending on the type and thickness of soil.
Identify zones of crabgrass and oxalis. Plan a solution to solve this problem with your lawn treatment specialist.
Repair damaged lawn with garden soil and seeds of excellent quality.
When the temperature is fresh and lawns are growing slowly, do a top soil dressing. This practice consists of spreading a thin layer (.5 to 1 cm) of excellent quality garden soil on all the lawn, generally following lawn aeration. If the lawn is not dense you can add some seeds.
Cut the lawn to a 2.5″ or 6.25 cm height as soon as the temperature cools down.
Make a Ph test if your lawn did not respond to the fertilization, perhaps your soil needs a lime treatment. If your lawn does not meet your expectation, you can request a complete test and analysis of the soil, in a laboratory, for approximately 100$. It is the best strategy, because it is the only way of planning the real needs in nutrients of your lawn.
Renew your snow removal contract!
OCTOBER
For people who want a little more result, consult your lawn care treatment specialist. A good late fall fertilization, will improve the results in spring.
Cut the lawn to a 2.5″ or 6.25 cm height.
Do not forget that the last cut of the season must be shorter and very late (at the end of October or early November), approximately 2″ or 5 cm.
If you live near a vacant field or grounds, install traps for field mice. These products are available in garden center. The results are not 100% guaranteed but it is a good insurance policy for a few dollars.
NOVEMBER
Pick-up the leaves.
Winterize your lawn mower.