Nutri-Lawn Blog

The white grubs you find in your lawn this time of year are larvae of the native June bug or June beetle, or less likely but possibly, the European chafer or Japanese beetle. These grubs are particularly fond of the fibrous roots of lawn grass. You might not see the damage caused by these pests until later in the summer, so now is the time to take action before large brown patches of ruined lawn emerges.

If your lawn can roll up like a carpet (a decimated root system), there may be a grub infestation. It takes only 8 or 10 grubs to ruin a square foot of lawn. Your lawn may feel spongy to walk on or skunks and other small mammals are digging up your lawn at night. Typically these infestations don’t happen every year because it takes three years for the June bug to mature, so the damage happens cyclically.

Everything needs a rest from time to time and your soil is no different. But removing all the grass to give the soil a season to rest obviously isn’t ideal. From time to time, it’s really important to help replenish the nutrients that were naturally present in the soil, otherwise your grass will suffer. One easy way to do this is by top dressing.

What is Top Dressing?

Fertilizer is one way to reintroduce essential nutrients into the soil. Another way is to apply a layer of fresh soil on top of your lawn. Top dressing could be compost, loam, or topsoil. Just be aware that topsoil is literally the top layer of soil, so this does not guarantee rich nutrient soil. Top dressing is an organic way to gradually add ‘life’ back into your soil.

Soil contains many nutrients and microorganisms that are vital for good plant growth. These microorganisms are what breaks down organic materials such as fallen leaves, woody debris and other things into nutrients the plants can consume. Soil without these microorganisms can create a variety of other problems.

Moss. Lovely to behold, fun to touch, but seeing it in your lawn is getting rather old.

OK, we’re not great poets, but we know how difficult it can be to get rid of the moss in your lawn. Moss is great in a garden if that’s where you want it, but moss in your lawn is not a fun problem to have.

The lawn care professionals at Nutri-Lawn Ottawa have the necessary tools to get rid of the moss in your yard with specialized removal products. The moss will turn a brownish-black and will then be easily raked out and then the area can be reseeded.

While growing a healthy lawn seems like a fairly simple task, there are a few (hundred) ways your efforts can be sabotaged. When diagnosing a problem with your lawn, why not get to the root of the problem? If you having issues with your soil, the compaction, the pH, moisture or nutrient levels, any of these problems can spell disaster when you’re hoping for a healthy lawn.

When it comes to nurturing a healthy and thriving lawn, there are lots of really helpful things you can do. There are also a lot of things that can cause damage. Many of the things that can harm your lawn were intended for good, so our experts at Nutri-lawn Ottawa put together a short list of the most common, perhaps unintentional lawn care sabotage we see.

Overseeding is one of the many lawn care maintenance services Nutri-Lawn Ottawa offers, but why do you need it? Why is it important to overseed your lawn every spring and what are the benefits?

The warmer spring days have sprung and the grass is beginning to green up, so when should you apply fertilizer? Don’t get caught up in the early spring fever rush, because fertilizing too soon can be a waste of time.

Fertilizer is generally composed of three different nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). The recommended rate for spring fertilizer is 1lb of nitrogen (N) per 1000 square feet. Different blends and products determine how long the application will last, how often it needs to be applied, and even how to apply it (granular or liquid).

Maintaining a healthy lawn takes work and proper timing. Doing the right thing but at the wrong time can delay growth or even cause damage. The adage ‘too much of a good thing’ definitely holds true. There are a few tried and true maintenance tasks that can give your lawn a needed spring boost for fantastic summer growth. You can trust the experts at Nutri-Lawn Ottawa for professional advice.

This is the perfect time of year to plant new grass seed or lay sod and prepare your existing lawn to get a great start in spring. In fall, often our lawns look their best due to cooler evenings, regular rainfall, heavy morning dew and shorter days. These conditions typically persist into the beginning of November. These conditions also mean that planting new grass or sod will get a fantastic start. Any lawn care improvements you make in the fall are going to pay off come spring. Many lawn care experts believe that fall improvements reap more immediate rewards than spring improvements because of the ideal growing conditions in fall.

October brings fall colours, pumpkin spice lattes, and some extra lawn care and yard maintenance duties. The team at Nutri-Lawn Ottawa wants to help you give your lawn and yard a great start on next year and the best time to do that is right now! We’ve put together a short checklist of tasks you can do through October to get your yard and lawn ready for winter.