ABC Blog
Choose a City

Seasonal Lawn Care: A Comprehensive Guide

. Posted by in • Houston
Seasonal Lawn Care

Seasonal Lawn Care

Seasonal Lawn Care: A Complete Guide

Maintaining a lush and vibrant lawn requires more than just occasional mowing. To achieve a green, healthy lawn year-round, you need a strategic approach that adjusts to seasonal changes. Different grass types, such as cool season grasses and warm season grasses, have unique needs throughout the year.

Cool season lawns, for instance, thrive in cooler temperatures and need special care in the spring and fall, while warm season grasses flourish in the heat of summer and require different maintenance strategies.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about seasonal lawn care, providing tips and techniques to ensure your lawn remains in peak condition throughout the year. From choosing the right lawn mower to understanding the needs of new grass, our guide will help you make informed decisions about your lawn care routine.

Proper maintenance of healthy grass involves more than … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

How to Choose the Right Grass for Your Climate and Soil

. Posted by in • Houston
Grass Types For Climate

Grass Types For Climate

How to Choose the Right Grass for Your Climate and Soil

Selecting the right grass for your lawn is crucial for achieving a beautiful, healthy, and vibrant landscape throughout the year. Your local climate and soil conditions should guide your choice and specific lawn needs.

For warm season grass, options include Bermudagrass, which thrives in sunny, hot climates; Zoysiagrasses, ideal for areas with both sun and shade; St. Augustinegrass, suitable for tropical and subtropical regions; and Buffalograss, a drought-resistant choice for dry, sunny areas. On the other hand, cool season grass like Kentucky Bluegrass, known for its lush coverage in cooler climates; Perennial Ryegrass, which establishes quickly and grows well in cooler conditions; Fine Fescue varieties, great for shady areas; and Tall Fescue, offering robustness and drought tolerance, are excellent choices for cooler regions.

Choosing the appropriate grass type will ensure your lawn remains healthy and attractive.

Understanding … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

When to Mow New Grass

. Posted by in , • Austin
freshly cut gras with landscape outlining fence

A lush, green lawn is a goal for most homeowners. Beautiful, thickly growing grass improves curb appeal. It also makes you want to spend more time outdoors. As springtime nears, you may be thinking more about lawn care. It’s important to know when to mow new grass, so you can maximize its healthy growth.

When your existing grass gets thin or damaged, it makes sense to lay new sod or plant new grass. But how should you care for the new grass once it starts growing? If you mow it too early, its roots can be damaged. The mower blades can actually yank the young grass right out of the ground. The new grass blades can also be damaged by being cut, unless they’ve had time to get thicker and stronger.

This is why it’s so important to mow new grass at the optimal time, to keep it as healthy as possible. … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

When To Mow Lawn in the Spring

. Posted by in , • Bryan-College Station
push mower cutting grass

Do you know how to properly care for your lawn in the spring? After the long winter months, there are several things you need to do to help bring your lawn back to life.

One important aspect of lawn health is mowing it at the proper time. You do not want to mow your lawn too early in the spring before your grass has time to fully root into the soil. Leaving your grass long until the early spring will encourage deeper root growth.

Fertilizing and watering your lawn at the right time in the spring is also important. Treating your lawn at the wrong time can result in wasted efforts and underdeveloped root systems. Additionally, watering your lawn before the weather is warm enough can damage your grass and sprinkler system.

Finally, it’s important to properly aerate your lawn in the spring. Aerating allows your compacted soil to breathe and take in … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

Bermuda Grass Versus St. Augustine Grass

. Posted by in , , • Dallas-Fort Worth
bermuda grass

Lush lawns are a homeowner’s dream, a beautiful green canvas that not only frames the home but also provides a soft setting for recreational activities. As we all know, such lawns don’t just happen. They take regular maintenance and care—even throughout the winter months.

The amount of upkeep a lawn requires relies in large part on the type of grass used. Two common varieties used in lawns across the nations are Bermuda and St. Augustine. Each has its own set of needs in order to keep it looking its best in a variety of weather conditions. A landscaping professional can answer specific questions about how either variety would be likely to perform in your area.

Let’s look at the qualities of each type of grass, how it works as a lawn grass and any special needs that each type might require.

Bermuda

Bermuda grass, pictured above, is known for being a tough variety that … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

A Homeowner’s Guide To Winter Weeds In Texas

. Posted by in , • Houston
Winter Weeds in Texas

As summer draws to a close and fall begins, a big part of your lawn maintenance will involve getting ahead of the winter weeds. As your grass becomes dormant, it’s important to take steps to prevent heartier varieties of weeds from taking hold once colder temperatures set in. Being able to identify the different types of winter weeds in Texas can help you identify and get rid of any of these unsightly plants before they take over your lawn.

The most common winter weeds us Texans have to look out for are chickweed, henbit and annual bluegrass.

Chickweed

Chickweed isn’t just a weed; it’s also an edible plant. This species actually got its name because chicks, as well as other foul, love to eat it. However, unless you have chickens who will keep this weed from spreading across your lawn, you’ll want to control this bothersome plant as quickly as you can.

Chickweed is … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

What Do Grubs Eat? How To Avoid Common Lawn Problems

. Posted by in , • San Antonio
what do grubs eat

You used to have a great lawn. From the street, your yard was lush and green, with grass blades that swayed in the wind and glistened with dew in the morning.

Then, one day, you started noticing that patches were beginning to get thin. There were even brown patches.

What in the world was happening?

This isn’t a simple question to answer, because as any lawn expert will tell you, there are a number of possible culprits.

One of the most common lawn pests is grubs. Grub worms are common destroyers of lawns across America, and the south is no different—except that these critters tend to prefer warm-weather lawns. If you want to keep your yard healthy and looking good, you need to watch out for grubs.

What do grubs do that makes your lawn look thin and patchy? The short answer to this question is that these pesky critters eat it.

Exactly what they eat … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

When To Apply Fungicide On Lawns: Experts Weigh In

. Posted by in • Corpus Christi
When To Apply Fungicide On Lawns

Homeowners lead busy lives, with a seemingly endless list of things that need to be done at any given time. Faced with the reality of juggling work, home and recreation, it’s easy for your lawn to become an afterthought.

As much as we wish this wasn’t the case, healthy and well-manicured lawns don’t take care of themselves. First, you need to make sure your grass is getting the amount of water and sunshine it needs—and not too much. Then, you need to make sure you are mowing your grass to the proper height. Although most homeowners stop here, to keep your lawn happy and looking great you’ll also want to have an understanding of your soil chemistry to determine what nutrients might be lacking.

What are some of the risks you run if you don’t care for your grass? Lawn diseases, weeds and a dead, yellow lawn, just to name a few.

Lawn … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed

Sprinkler and Irrigation Conservation Guide | Smart Irrigation Month

. Posted by in , • Dallas-Fort Worth, Tyler

There are many ways to save water, but during the summer, the most effective water conservation improvements come from your sprinkler and irrigation system.

With just a little bit of knowledge, you can save water while keeping your landscaping healthy during hot, dry conditions.

Smart Irrigation Month Tips

  1. Know how much water your lawn needs

The amount of water your lawn needs depends on a lot of different factors including climate, soil type and grass type.

The trick is to water deeply but infrequently. You get deep roots with deep watering. As a general rule of thumb, do not water more than 1-inch deep each time.

  • Measure your sprinkler output by placing some tuna cans (or a similarly sized, flat-bottomed container) around your lawn.
  • ¾ to 1 inch of water is a good amount each time you irrigate.
  • You can get the average output by measuring the depth of water in each can and then dividing by the … Read Full Post »
Comments Closed

6 Ways to Keep Your Garden and Yard Pest-Free Without Chemicals

. Posted by in , , • Dallas-Fort Worth, Tyler
6 Ways to Maintain a Pest-Free Garden and Yard Without Chemicals - How to Garden Without Pests or Pesticides

Today, we’re talking about how to keep your garden pest-free without the use of pesticides or insecticides. It’s a common question for people who want to maintain an organic yard or garden.

While it may not be easy, it is possible. So, don’t give up! Let’s turn that black thumb into a green thumb.

What is Organic Gardening?

Reconnecting with nature and all its beauty is a great way to heighten your awareness to the world around you, both big and small. Unfortunately, gardening is more complicated than it seems, as any true gardener knows.

First off, the soil is alive with a small-scale world mostly unknown to us. One scoop of soil can be home to hundreds of thousands of fungi, thousands of protozoans, and a huge assortment of microscopic creatures known as cryptozoa.

In the 1980s, Jostein Goksøyr and Vigdis Torsvik (Norwegian scientists), gathered a gram of soil from a nearby beech forest … Read Full Post »

Comments Closed