For many Americans, the day after Thanksgiving is spent nursing indigestion from the copious amounts of food we have just eaten or dealing with the madness of Black Friday. As the demolition derby of shopping carts commences, you may be seeing all types of Black Friday deals on outdoor power tools of both gas and electric versions. 

There are certainly pros and cons to both sides, but when it’s all said and done, which is better? Let’s look first at the operation of the tools and then dive into the environmental impacts.

The Big Three Mowing Tips

Each year I try to write a couple of articles about lawns. Each time I’ve written one of these, I have assumed you, the reader, care about your lawn. Turns out, there are a lot of people who have lawns, that don’t care about having a perfectly manicured turf. You just want to know enough to get by. After all, if it’s green then it’s good! This article is for you. Please note: this information is for cool-season lawns in Illinois.

Now that we are spending more time outside, you might be noticing more and more mounds or ridges of soil popping up in your lawn. There are a few different animals that like to make these mounds, but often the main culprit is the mole.

Spring has arrived. Signaled by the swooping robins, honking geese, and bustling aisles in the garden centers. A popular spring task is selecting grass seed to help plump up the lawn for the growing season. But what cool-season grass seed should you pick for your yard?

Timing

The garden center shelves are bursting with bags of lawn seed, but is it the right time to sow that seed? It doesn’t hurt to overseed in the spring but there are a few reasons why to wait until late summer to early fall.

Whether you apply fertilizer to your lawn, pasture, or production field, the 4R principles of nutrient management is relevant information that can be used when making applications.  When making fertilizer applications, it is always important to consider if we are using the Right fertilizer source at the Right rate, at the Right time, and in the Right place.

Our fool spring has many itching to get out in the yard and get to work sprucing up the lawn; however, it is important to consider that it could still be too early. To properly take care of problems in the lawn, it is important to fully understand what we are trying to control.

Spring lawn maintenance often includes a combination of the following: a pre- or post-emergence herbicide, overseeding, aerification, dethatching, fertilization, or an insecticide. When making these applications, it is important to apply maintenance practices at the right time.

As leaves fall from the trees each year, some may find beauty in the reds, yellows, and orange as they blanket the ground, while others may see hours of work ahead of them as they rake or mow the leaves to remove them. Regardless, leaves provide many benefits in the yard and garden other than just beauty. So what all can we do with all those leaves.

Small farms and local foods educator and fellow contributor to the Good Growing column, Katie Parker, was kind enough to let me borrow her hollow-core aerator, to give my compacted lawn some much needed relief.

As Katie wrote in a previous column this year, core aerating your lawn is a great practice to help relieve soil compaction and introduce air and water deeper into the soil. It can even help to reduce thatch issues.

We recently bought a home at the end of May with a lawn in need of assistance. When we moved in, we quickly tackled the mole problem by trapping five moles, and one vole! Next, we moved onto the damage done by the moles; we leveled out the mole hills and seeded those areas; however, in the end, we were defeated by the summer heat and our outrageous water bill. For the last 3 months, we have had a partially dead lawn with some smaller bare spots. We have been anxiously awaiting fall in hopes of making our lawn look not so much like a train wreck.

Now that we are spending more time outside, you might be noticing more and more mounds or ridges of soil popping up in your lawn. There are a few different animals that like to make these mounds, but often times the main culprit is the mole.

Picture this: It's the middle of summer, and you've noticed your lawn is in bad shape. You go to the garden center and see shelves full of grass seed. The store is carrying seed, so that must mean it's okay to sow your new lawn at this time, right? You purchase a bag or two, but what type of grass did you get?

Cool-season or warm-season grass - what's the difference? 

Here in Central Illinois, you will most commonly find cool-season types of turf for sale. In fact, you will likely be hard-pressed to find any warm-season grass seed.

It's March and now is the time that everyone starts thinking about lawn care. The grass is greening up and plants are starting to grow again, daffodils are blooming, and garden work has started.

You may be looking at your lawn and wondering where to start, maybe you have a few bare patches or the entire lawn is thinning out. I often receive questions about when to reseed or seed new lawns, when to apply crabgrass preventer and when to start fertilizing lawns and there is still time to do all of them.