Shrubs and Trees

• November is an ideal time to plant or transplant trees, shrubs and fruit crops. Be sure to water thoroughly, then mulch newly planted plants with a good 3- to 4-inch layer of mulch. Newly planted evergreens should be checked regularly during the winter to ensure they are getting enough water.
• Mulch existing trees and shrubs to reduce weeds, provide insulation from freezing temperatures and conserve moisture.

Perennials, Annuals and Bulbs

• Reduce peony botrytis blight and hollyhock rust by removing and disposing of all leaves and stems this fall. Roses should have all their leaves raked from beneath to prevent black spot. Dispose of plant materials in the trash, not the compost pile. This will reduce the carryover of disease during the winter and you will have less trouble next year.
• Cut chrysanthemum and other perennials’ stems close to the ground once they have begun to die back. Leave ornamental grasses to provide winter interest until spring.
• You can continue to transplant perennials throughout the fall and winter unless they are marginally hardly in your zone. Those marginal plants are best planted in spring. Now is also an ideal time to plant spring-flowering bulbs. Consider planting some of the minor bulbs such as winter aconite, glory of the snow, species tulips, crocus, narcissus and grape hyacinths.
• Winter annuals such as pansies, violas, Dianthus chinensis, red mustard, snapdragons, ornamental cabbage and kale can still be planted – the earlier in the month, the better.
• Mulch flower beds with 2 to 3 inches of good compost or fine mulch to keep soil temperature stable and prevent winter plant injury from frost heaving. As the compost or fine mulch decomposes, it will enrich your garden soil as well.

Lawn Care

• It’s not too late to fertilize your cool-season fescue lawn. Use a turf fertilizer and follow label directions. This encourages good root development and helps improve the color of the lawn.

• Keep heavy layers of leaves raked from the lawn. They should be composted. Another option is to mow over a light layer of leaves, turning them into mulch, which adds important nutrients back to the lawn.
• November is the month for the first herbicide application for wild garlic and wild onion. Ask your county UT Extension office for information on herbicides and rates of application.

Fruits and Vegetables

• As soon as leaves fall from fruit trees and berry plants, spray for the first time with a dormant horticultural oil. This helps control overwintering insects and disease. Apply according to label instructions.
• Incorporate compost in the annual and vegetable gardens for next growing season.
• Complete removal of fallen leaves and debris to help eliminate overwintering insects and disease organisms.
• Cut the tops off asparagus plants and mulch with a good layer of compost.
• Cover strawberries 2 inches deep with hay or straw to reduce weeds and increase winter protection.
• Secure raspberry and blackberry canes to stakes to protect them from wind whipping.

Davis Kee Outdoor offers professional landcape services all year-round to ensure your yard is beautiful and vibrant in the spring. Contact us today!

Source: University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Office

1. Aesthetic Appeal: Creating a Beautiful Outdoor Space

A well-maintained lawn adds charm and beauty to any outdoor area. Proper maintenance practices such as regular mowing, edging, and trimming create clean lines, a uniform appearance, and a manicured look. By addressing overgrown grass, unruly edges, and weeds promptly, we create a visually appealing landscape that enhances the overall aesthetic appeal of our outdoor spaces.

2. Plant Health and Resilience: Ensuring Optimal Growth

Summer heat can place significant stress on grass, making it susceptible to pests, diseases, and drought. Proper lawn maintenance helps promote plant health and resilience. Regular watering, appropriate fertilization, and timely weed control ensure that grass remains healthy and robust, able to withstand the challenges of hot temperatures and water scarcity. By nurturing our lawns, we create a lush and green oasis that thrives even in the face of summer heat.

3. Water Conservation: Efficiently Managing Water Resources

Water is a precious resource, especially during the summer months when demand is high. Proper lawn maintenance practices, such as mowing at the correct height and maintaining adequate soil moisture levels, promote water conservation. By avoiding overwatering and practicing smart irrigation techniques, we reduce water waste and ensure that this valuable resource is used efficiently. A well-maintained lawn with healthy grass requires less water, contributing to environmental sustainability.

4. Enhanced Outdoor Experience: Creating a Welcoming Space

A properly maintained lawn is an inviting outdoor space that encourages outdoor activities and gatherings. Whether it’s hosting barbecues, playing games with family and friends, or simply enjoying the beauty of nature, a well-kept lawn provides a comfortable and pleasant environment. By maintaining our lawns, we create an outdoor oasis that invites relaxation, recreation, and connection with nature.

5. Property Value and Curb Appeal: Increasing Real Estate Worth

A well-maintained lawn contributes to the overall value and curb appeal of our properties. A lush and healthy lawn enhances the visual appeal, making a positive first impression on visitors, potential buyers, and passersby. It reflects the care and attention to detail that is associated with a well-maintained property. By investing in proper lawn maintenance, we not only enjoy the benefits of a beautiful outdoor space but also increase the value of our real estate investment.

Conclusion:

Proper lawn maintenance is vital to ensure the health, beauty, and vitality of our outdoor spaces, especially during the summer heat. By embracing regular maintenance practices, we enhance aesthetics, promote plant health, conserve water, and create an inviting outdoor environment. Davis Kee Outdoor is your trusted partner in achieving a well-maintained and thriving lawn. Embrace the importance of proper lawn maintenance, and let’s work together to ensure a summer season filled with vibrant greenery, natural beauty, and enjoyable outdoor experiences.

1. Raise The Height Of Your Mower Deck
   As a general rule of thumb, turf grasses should be mowed often enough so that you never remove more than 1/4-1/3 of each bade of grass. Example: If a Tall Fescue lawn is cut at a height of 2 inches, the grass should be cut when it reaches 3 inches. The removal of too much plant material can shock the grass especially when the grass is dormant, and lead to issues. Most of the common cool season grasses grown in our area are recommended to be mowed to a length of 2-3″
2. Eliminate Lawn Weeds
   The winter weeds that sprout will remain small from the time they come up in the fall through most of December, January and into early February. They begin to grow quickly once our weather begins to warm in late February and March, so we highly recommend taking weed mitigation action during the winter months before the weeds begin growing quickly.
3. Remove Those Unsightly Leaves
   Leaves allowed to sit on your yard will cause a lack of light and air reaching your lawn. This will deplete your soil of needed nitrogen for the growth of healthy grass and may also breed fungal disease. We recommend using a leaf blower to clear your yard since damage to your grass can occur when using rakes to remove leaves.
4. Don’t Mow Wet Grass
   Mowing a wet lawn can kill new grass shoots and damage roots.
5. Aerate
   The best time to aerate your lawn in this area is in the fall or winter time, depending on the type of lawn you have. Ask us for the correct time to aerate with your particular lawn type.
6. Dial In Irrigation
   Do not over water your lawn during the winter months. We typically recommend one inch of water per week for most common grasses, but do contact us to determine what watering schedule is best for your lawn.
7. Don’t Overlook Fertilizer
   Fertilizing your lawn gives your grass the critical nutrients it needs. In the springtime, your lawn will use those nutrients stored in the soil to make your lawn green and lush while helping with preventing weeds, pests, and diseases once it starts warming up.

At Davis Kee Outdoor, we are well aware that summer lawn care in our service area is rife with potential frustrations. We don’t have any control over what Mother Nature throws at us, but we can provide some useful tips to help ensure that your lawn is as successful as it possibly can be. The fact is that even the healthiest and best cared for lawns are going to struggle during the extreme heat. There are some steps you can take to keep your lawn in the best possible shape this summer.

Fight Summer Lawn Care Stressors

Summer lawn care is a complec problem in this area because you are confronted with a number of potential stressors. The immediately obvious one is the weather.

In summer, your lawn is forced to endure brutal heat and long periods without significant rainfall. A quick test to check if your lawn is browning due to drought stress is to look at the way your grass blades “bounce back” when you walk on them. If you are seeing footprints throughout your lawn, or much more noticeable mower tracks after mowing, your lawn is most likely experiencing drought stress. Having said that, disease and insects are also a potential threat to a lush summer lawn.

Summertime is when fungal lawn diseases can thrive. This includes Brown Patch, Dollar Spot, and Fairy Ring. Any of these can be responsible for your lawn being brown or discolored. Also, pests such as grubs, or surface feeder lawn insects can also cause a serious threat to your lawn health.

A much larger issue can emerge when these issues combine. A lawn under stress from heat and drought is much more succeptible to disease, and the combination of the two can propel your lawn issues from bad to much worse in a very short increment of time. Your best defense is to keep your lawn as healthy as you can. Our experience is that the healthiest lawns we encounter are maintained with a combination of professional lawn care and the proper cultural practices. This combination is the key to keeping grass greener in summer. Let’s look at some specific examples.

Keeping Your Grass Greener in Summer

When summer lawn care is the goal in the greater Chattanooga area, there are a few important considerations that must be kept in mind. Let’s examine them.

Correct Watering

If you want green grass in summer, it isn’t a secret that adequate watering is at the top of the list of concerns. If you are trying to keep your lawn free of summer lawn problems related to drought, you surely want to make sure you are watering your lawn properly and effectively. This is one of those items many people consider an obvious one, but there are lots of ways to make mistakes with watering involving the quantity of water used at each watering, the duration of the watering, and the frequency of watering. A typical lawn in our area requires 1-2 inches of water per week.

The goal should always be a “soaking” style of watering, as opposed to an occasional “top” watering here or there. The goal is soaking your lawn deeply until the soil is moist down a few inches. Depending on your lawn and the type of watering apparatus used, this could mean running sprinklers for an hour or so during each watering to ensure adequate soaking.

We also have noticed that most of us give Mother Nature far to much credit for the amount of rainfall received. A heavy downpour after a rain deficit dows not automatically mean you can wait until next week to water again. A rain gauge is a very helpful tool to take the guesswork out of your watering, and lets you know more precisely how much water is making it into your lawn.

Lawn Fertilizer

After watering, a proper year round regimen of fertilization plays a significant role in how well your lawn stays green and healthy. Fertilizers provide your lawn with the Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassion (N,P,K) which are the primary nutrients your lawn needs to be successful. Timing is everything with fertilizing regimens. Once the heat of summer arrives it is not recommended to fertilize as this can aggravate turflawn disease and actually cause harm to your lawn.

Mowing

It isn’t commonly known, but mowing puts added stress on your lawn in the summertime. Generally speaking, evey time you mow, the cuts place stress on your grass. If your lawn is also drought stressed, it will be harder for your lawn to recover from each mowing.

The key to this is to mow correctly. Mowing height is one very important consideration. In general, it is healthier to keep your grass length a little taller. The height that is best for your lawn will largely depend on the primary type of grass that makes up your lawn.

Here are some common recommendations for our area:

• Tall Fescue: 3 to 3.5 inches
• Perennial Ryegrass: 2 to 2.5 inches
• Zoysia: 2 to 3 inches
• Bermudagrass: 1 to 2 inches

We also recommend mowing more often so that less of the grass is cut during each mowing. A weekly schedule has been our recommendation because that allows each mowing to remove 1/3 of the grass blade or less. Removing more than 1/3 of the grass blades on each mowing causes significantly more stress on your grass.

Dormant Lawns

Grasses typically have dormancy as a natural protection mechanis, to help the grass withstand changes in weather. Temperature and weather can greatly impact the appearance of your lawn. Cool season grasses such as Fescues and Rye will go brown and dormant during prolonged extreme heat, just as warm season grasses such as Bermuda or Zoysia will go brown dormant during the cold winter months. These grasses are still alive and will become green once favorable weather returns.

To summarize, the type of grass has a lot to do with the color of your lawn at certain times of the year. If you want a lawn that remains green through all seasons, you can plant a mixture of warm season and cool season grasses.

A Lawn Care Company For All Seasons

When the subject is quality lawn care, every season has a different set of required maintenance and challenges. Regardless of the season, you want to know that your lawn is getting the best possible care and maintenance to be the best it can be. One very significant factor is partnering with a lawn care company that will partner with you to achieve the results you desire. When you partner with Davis Kee Outdoor you have a partner that is always here to answer your questions.

Lawn maintenance is one of our key services. If you’d like to enjoy a lush lawn all summer long, at Davis-Kee Outdoor, we can help. We can do everything from regularly scheduled mowing and maintenance to installing irrigation systems. If you prefer to do it yourself, here are some tips:

Mow High

Put your lawn mower on a high setting, to leave the grass around 3 inches high. Taller blades provide more shade for your lawn’s root system, which keeps it cooler during hot summer days. Additionally, taller blades of grass result in deeper, stronger roots.

Water Regularly & Deeply

If you want a green lawn all summer long, you must water consistently.. Rather than shallow watering every day, water your lawn deeply once or twice a week. One to one-and-a-half inches of water a week will keep your lawn green. Most home irrigation systems can be pre-programmed to take care of the watering for you.

Water Early

Five o’clock in the morning is the perfect time for watering your lawn. Program your irrigation systems to water early in the morning, so your lawn will have enough time to dry out during the day, thereby preventing fungal diseases.

Maintain Your Mower

A poorly maintained mower will only harm your turf. Good mower maintenance includes sharpening the blades and changing the oil, filter and spark plugs. Dull mower blades will tear not cut your lawn, leaving brown tips on the grass blades. These are services landscaping contractors may be able to provide.

Repair Pet Waste Spots

When Rex does his business on your lawn, he is effectively over-fertilizing that spot. After removing the pet waste, use a spot repair product that contains seed, mulch, and fertilizer all in one bag for best results.

Use Fertilizers

The general rule of thumb landscaping contractors recommend is to fertilize your lawn every six weeks, excluding the hottest weeks of the year. However, you may find that this causes your lawn to grow too quickly, when using traditional fertilizers. A lower nitrogen content fertilizer between 10 and 14 will keep your lawn green while eliminating the fast growth. Using a mulching mower also helps to naturally fertilize the lawn by recycling the nutrients in the grass clippings back into the soil. Be sure you apply the fertilizer evenly and judiciously. Too much fertilizer can turn the turf brown.

Bringing back a brown lawn is one of the most commonly requested services landscaping contractors receive. Unfortunately, if your lawn already looks like coconut matting, there’s not much that can be done to bring the green back before fall. Once a lawn has gone brown, over watering will only stress out the turf. To prevent this frustrating situation, follow the suggested lawn tips listed above.