Grubs can seriously damage your lawn if you let them get out of hand. White grub damage will appear to you as thinning or browning of your turf. Damage from grubs most commonly appears in the late summer or fall - if you notice damage in the spring, there is a good chance this is just carry over from the previous fall.

White grubs (which are larvae of certain beetles) live under the ground and feed on the roots of your grass, making it much more difficult for your lawn to get its required nutrients. If it gets really out of hand, your grass can even end up with such little rooting that it’s almost like a carpet that can be rolled up.

The most common solution to grubs is Scotts GrubEx. Applying this should take care of most grub problems in one pass.

See Scotts Lawn Care

St. Augustine grass has been propagated for nearly 200 years, so there isnt much of a variety. Because of its propagation, there have never been grass breeding programs developed for it either. The most common strain has a white stigma, and is native to the Gulf, Caribbean, and West Africa regions. There is another common strain, one that may have been crossed with another specias, that has a purple stigma, and has been reported in Australia, New Zealand, and The Pacific Isles. It has been a hallmark of Florida and California since the early 1900’s.

Severl Florida strains were available before 1960 - The purple stigma’d Floratine was released in 1959. It was released for its finer texture and darker color than other strains found in Florida at the time. It remains green into the fall and also is more resistant to shorter mowing than othe St. Augustine strains.

Two other strains, Bitter Blue and Floratam were also released by Florida. Bitter Blue was used for its less coarse texture than other Florida grass, and Floratam was released as a Chinch bug resistant selection in 1972. Like other Florida St Augustine types, it is a coarse textured variety, and has a purple stigma and is also sterile. The stolons are purplish red and have internodes that are roughly 3 inches. The leaf blades are wider than other Augustine grasses, and the morphological characteristics are similar to the Roselawn grass used in pastures.

Foratam is also not cold tolerant, and shuld only be used in the warmer regions of the U.S. It also is not as shade tolerant as other strains.

The Seville type was released in 1980 as a SAD and chinch bug resistant strain. It is finer textured than Floratam, but it lacks the cold tolerance of other stains as well.

The Raleigh grass type was released in 1980 as a cold tolerant, SAD resistant strain. It develops a denser turf like grass than Floratam, but it is not all that resistant to chinch bugs.

The Texas Common strain is a commercially produced strain in Texas made in the 1920s. It is similar to the white stigma type native to the Gulf/Caribbean region. Since it has been propagated for so long, very few variations in this type have been produced, however, natural varients have been produced.

Dwarf and variegated types of St. Augustine grass have also been selected from seed produced by Texas Common. However, these strains are more ornamental and novelty grasses than turfgrasses. One of the dwarf types (patented in the U.S. as Garretts 141) has been evaluated for its seed production potential. However, Garrets 141 and its progeny lacks the cold tolerance necessary to extend its area of adaptation beyond Southern Florida and South Texas in the United States.

Sources: http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/turf/publications/staug.html

Scotts lawncare products are some great products to use when you want to liven up your lawn. However, you still need to make sure you use their products with care. While doing it yourself is always an option, keep in mind not everyone will acheive the same results.

Some of the results that didn’t work out:

Contracted in 2006 for ten lawn services to improve the grass at a cost of $1107.20. No soil test, some kind of applications were done and the yards began looking worse than ever. Two fall aerations/seedings were done and absolutely nothing, except in two areas I didn’t want grass.

Being a novice to grass and owning a lawn, I contacted Scott’s lawn service. They came out promptly and gave me a fair estimate, with the promise of giving me a lawn without weeds. After 4 treatments, I noticed nothing. So on the 5th service I was home and asked the guy spraying the lawn why I still had so many weeds. To which he replied, you need to resod your lawn if want them gone. He went on to tell me that there was nothing they could have done to salvage my lawn to start with. So when I called to complain, I was told that there was nothing that could be done to rectify the situation and that I was just going to have to live with it.

I contracted with Scott’s Lawn Service last year. First, since the brochure implied that by taking the most expensive service I would receive aeration and seeding, I took that route. Later in the year, I found out that I had to pay $132.00 to receive that part of the service. Instead of weed control, I ended up with crab grass (I never had crabgrass before), some the size of a serving platter. They aerated and seeded in the middle of our August heat and in a drought.

I complained and at some point later in the year, they came and threw grass seed around. I complained to their headquarters twice, the local distributor at least four times. I canceled the service, but early this year, came home to find a notice that my treatments had begun for this year. It took still another call to get rid of them.

I have the worst lawn in 7 years. There are weeds, bare spots, and the only place their seeding took effect was in my flower beds and between my border stones. It will take me years to get the lawn back I had before and I am very angry as well as out several hundred dollars wasted on them and the several hundred dollars and personal time it will take to reclaim my lawn.

Quotes used from Scotts Lawncare Products

Starting any business is a scary, and challenging proposition. Just like any other industry, there are certain do’s and dont’s in the lawn care business. I’ve gathered a few links that will hopefully prevent you from making too many mistakes when starting yours.

Starting a lawn care business

Lawn care business and software

Lawn care business resources

Lawn care business forums

Hopefully after browsing through some of these links you’ll have a better idea of what to expect when starting a lawn care business.

Starting your own lawn service business

One of the quickest ways to jump start your business (lawn care or otherwise) is to buy an existing business. There are of course disadvantages to this, but for many, the advantages will outweight them.

Customers are the lifeblood of any business venture - and they are even more important for service oriented businesses such as lawn care. The lawn care industry can be somewhat unique in that when you get a customer, there is a good chance they will turn into a recurring customer - the most valuable kind. In other industries, you may have one-off clients - those who purchase a good and you will never see them again. When you perform lawn care and maintenance for someone, though, there is a very good chance they will need your service again in the next few months, and for years to come. This illustrates the first advantage of buying a lawn care business - you get existing customers right off the bat.

Lawncare businesses also have a naturally growing client base. Obviously new homes present new opportunities to get new clients, but you’ve also gotta consider folks who might be first time home owners, as well as older families. First time homeowners might be overwhelmed with a new yard, and many have never had to maintain one before. While they might move into a home that has never had professional yard maintenance, they might not feel like doing it themselves. On the other end are the folks who might have maintained their yards for a period of time, but are starting to get a little older - spending hours on their knees just doesn’t appeal to them any longer. There’s a good chance they’ll start looking for professional services instead of doing it themselves.

You also have an extremely potent marketing tool - your work itself. Neighbors talk - if someone notices that their neighbors yard looks very nice, there is a good chance they’ll ask about it. You’ve got instant referrals just from doing a quality job.

Finally, to actually find a lawncare business for sale, you can do a quick google search, or check out this site for business for sale listings.

Yard work (especially mowing a lawn every week) is a tedius job - its nice to have a laugh every once in awhile. These are a few lawn mowing cartoons that are pretty entertaining.

Cartoon stock lawn mower cartoons

Off the mark cartoons

Cartoonist group

Hopefully you’ll get some enjoyment out of these.

Like any piece of motorized equipment, you’ll need to keep your lawn tractor in decent shape to get full use out of it. That includes maintaining it through the years since there are bound to be a few hiccups every now and again. If you keep up with maintenance, your tractor can last for as long as you have a lawn.

A nice article that gives some good tips can be found in popular mechanics. You should also consult with your tractors manual on proper tune up procedures. If you lose it or it gets damaged, you can either call the manufacturer for another one, or chek here.

By keeping you tractor up to date, you can make sure your tractor will be around for years to come.

Bermuda grass is a great choice if you live in an area that will support it (generally the southern U.S.). It is resistent to droughts, grows quickly, and spreads and fills very well. To keep your bermuda grass in top shop, here are a few tips for you to follow year round.

In fall/winter, add lime to help balance the pH to the ideal level - 6.5 to 7. Apply lawn fertilizer and insect control in the late spring and early summer months if you need it, and then in late summer/early fall apply lawn winterizer.

Keep in mind that Bermuda grass does not do well in shade, so if your yard has a lot of areas that don’t get a lot of sun, you might want to consider a different grass type.

Thatch is a layer of organic and inorganic material that forms between your grass and the soil surface - and in many cases, can cause problems for your lawn care efforts. If you have thatch over 1/2 inch thick, then you may be creating a favorable environment for lawn pests to breed in, and making it harder for your natural grass to flourish.

The biggest cause of thatch problems are when you overwater or overfertilize your grass. The primary component of thatch is turfgrass stems and roots - overwatering and overfertilizing (putting too much nitrogen in the soil) causes your grass to grow too quickly, and in turn the stems and roots start to build up faster than they are broken down. While it might seem like grass clippings contribute to this as well, they actually do not. Because the clippings are high in water content, they are broken down relatively quickly.

You also have to look out for thatch if your soil has conditions that are favorable to it. Conditions favoring thatch include heavy, wet soils; alkaline, or high pH soils; and soil compaction. Be especially aware if your soil has any of these qualities.

If you notice that your thatch is starting to get out of control, then it’s a good idea to aerate the lawn. These small holes help to ease the thatch - however, aerating can be a time consuming procedure. In the long run however, it is beneficial to get it down as soon as you can, or you may have significant lawn damage.