Yard work, some people hate it, while others love it. I tend to be in the later camp, loving to putter around in my backyard when the weather will allow it. Now that the gypsy moth caterpillars have turned into moths, I can start to clean up the wooded part of my backyard from all the leaf debris left behind from these ravenous creatures. Right now my woods is like a fairytale kingdom with moths fluttering about hither and yarn, but of course they are just looking for good spots to deposit their eggs for next year’s crop of ravenous caterpillars. So it looks like it is time to put up the gypsy moth traps. Like the Japanese beetle traps I mentioned last week, the gypsy moth trap have a pheromone lure that attracts the moths into the trap, where they will stay. This will help reduce the population, but I will be spraying with the Bt spray early and often next spring to further break this life cycle. As for now my oaks are finally starting to resprout some leaves and by next month I will have some shade back in my backyard, just in time for the heat in August. 

Like I predicted last week, the beetles are here and you know what to do. So this week I want to talk about lawns. Back in the 1980’s and early 90’s, was the heyday for lawns. People would take meticulous care manicuring their lawns trying to outdo the neighbors. Agway used to sell a four step lawn fertilizer program that would ensure that your lawn would be the envy of the neighborhood. Step one was a lawn fertilizer with a pre-emergent crabgrass control. Step two was a lawn weed and feed. Step three was a choice between a summer lawn fertilizer or a fertilizer with insect control. Step four was a fall and winter fertilizer that would help root development over the winter. Agway made a mint on selling these products as they were easy to do and the results were phenomenal. But with the turn of the century and distractions like cell phones, computers and a thousand TV channels, nobody used lawns anymore. Lawncare has gone down hill ever since and, as a result, lawncare products have seen a sharp decline. I can count on one hand the number of customers that religiously come in every spring for weed and feed for their lawns. Most people don’t want to bother with the weeds, they figure if it’s green let it be. They might throw down some fertilizer to help green up the lawn a bit, that seems to still be popular, but what about doing both at once. Weeds grow in your yard when your grass is stressed and thins out. Weed seed blows in and has an easy time taking hold in these thin patches and once established, very hard to get rid of. But there is a product on the market today that will help control weeds and fertilize your lawn at the same time. It’s non-GMO, completely organic, good for pollinators and for the environment. The secret is white clover. There are three basic types of clover. Red clover grows tall, about three feet and is used primarily in deer food plots. Yellow clover is an annual crop grown down south for animal feed. While white clover is grown to keep lawns green with fewer weeds. It does this by filling in the thin spots in your lawn. Because the leaves of the clover shade the ground it helps to smother out weeds before they can really start to take hold in the yard. Clover won’t control all weeds and won’t get rid of the weeds you may already have but over time as the clover expands and grows, it will start to crowd the weeds out. The grass on the other hand with its thin blades will grow up in between the clover leaves and the grass is happy to have the shade in the hot summer months to keeps its roots cool. Also because clover is a legume, clover produces nitrogen naturally and deposits it into the soil where the grass roots will use it as fertilizer. So grass and clover have a happy relationship and, if you want a lawn that stays green in the summer with a lot less work, throw down some clover. Bear in mind if you do have clover in your yard, you don’t want to use lawn weed killers as they will hurt clover as well. And make sure you get the right kind of clover. I have seen some lawns where red clover was thrown down instead of white and it is not a pretty sight. Imagine mowing your lawn of Sunday, only to find patches of clover up to a foot tall by Wednesday. Stop in and we can get you the right clover the first time.