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Zoysia Grass Maintenance: Advice From The Experts

. Posted by in , • Bryan-College Station
Zoysia grass maintenance

Let’s face it. Your grass is the first aspect of your lawn that visitors notice. Despite well-placed flowers, towering trees and winding pathways, your grass is still the main focus. That’s why you want to ensure your lawn is well cared for and healthy.

A popular grass species in the southern United States is zoysia grass. It’s perfect for warm-weather climates, and when cared for properly, it’s heat- and drought-resistant. Even with such qualities, though, this species still requires proper maintenance, including mowing, feeding and watering.

Read below to learn how to properly care for your zoysia grass.

How To Grow A Healthy Lawn

Zoysia is among the turfgrass varieties that turn a straw-like color when the first frost comes. Along with bermuda grass, buffalo grass, centipede grass, seashore paspalum and St. Augustine, zoysia is a warm season species that can go dormant during the coldest months of the year. Best established from sod, … Read Full Post »

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How to Aerate Your Lawn for Happy Green Grass

. Posted by in , • Austin
happy healthy grass

Beautiful, healthy grass makes a great yard for play, right? While this is something many of us would love to have, it’s easy to overlook some of the factors involved in having such a luxury – including the soil below the lawn.

In many ways, the soil underneath your lawn is like the foundation of your house. The key function of the foundation is to provide a stable base, so your house doesn’t shift.

Similarly, the soil beneath your lawn must be healthy and nutrient-rich for your lawn to thrive. The best way to keep the soil beneath your lawn healthy is to aerate your lawn.

Aeration provides important benefits to any lawn

The process of aeration removes small plugs of dirt and help to break up compacted soil, where it can be difficult for plants to grow. There’s less space for roots to spread out in compacted soil. That means those roots can … Read Full Post »

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Watering Your Trees in the Dry Summer Heat

. Posted by in , , • Bryan-College Station
watering trees in summer

 

Summers in Bryan-College Station are hot and dry. Even in a year when we’re not in a drought, our trees, shrubbery and other landscaping plants will struggle to make it through our long summer days.

Established trees can withstand stretches of dry conditions during the summer, but if you planted any new trees or shrubs in the past year, they might be struggling by now. Lack of water causes stress that weakens plants, making them more susceptible to disease and fungus, and their root systems can become compromised.

Why is this an issue? Isn’t the drought over?

Even with all the rain we received this spring and early summer, the heat and intense sun will dry out the soil.

Each day, trees take in water through their roots and then transpire that moisture out through their leaves. Your majestic oaks have developed extensive root systems, including deep tap roots, which allow them to find … Read Full Post »

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Embracing New Technology: Pay For Services Without Picking Up The Phone

. Posted by in , , • Austin

Austin is a city that has always embraced technology. With industry giants like Apple, Dell, and IBM in town, it is easy to understand why talented people want to live and build their lives in Austin. Austinites also have emerging expectations for business in the city, including ABC Home & Commercial Services.

Our number one priority is appeasing the needs of our customers. That’s why we have adopted new and better ways of doing business to match new and better expectations.

Introducing ABC’s New Online Appointment Scheduling & Payment System

We have heard you loud and clear. Getting on the phone can be tiresome and inconvenient. And when you’re dealing with something pressing like a pest problem, you may be feeling a little impatient.

We built our new online appointment scheduling system to make your life just a little bit easier. And we also know that this is what consumers expect to see in … Read Full Post »

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How to handle your neighbor’s overgrown trees

. Posted by in , , • Austin
tree trimming services

 

Large, established trees are a fixture in many older neighborhoods. Think about the new home developments you’ve visited, and they all likely have one thing in common: no established trees! These older trees provide shade on hot summer days, a home and food source for animals, play areas for children, and can even provide energy savings when blocking sunlight from entering a home.

With all of these benefits come several challenges. Property lines in neighborhoods exist in fixed areas, and tree growth of both roots and branches do not conform to any set location. Homeowners commonly run into situations where a tree sits on a property line, or a tree trunk grows in one yard with its branches hanging into another yard.

As a homeowner, what is the best way to deal with a shared tree that requires maintenance?

First, understand that this is a very common issue. The root systems of trees … Read Full Post »

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Why The City of Austin Still Has Water Restrictions

. Posted by in , • Austin

It seems like Austin has switched places with Portland or Seattle this year. We’ve received record amounts of rainfall. And along with the rains, we’ve enjoyed cooler temperatures and a later summer than normal. You’ve heard it on the news – the lakes are full, hurray!

Despite the rain, the City of Austin is still enforcing water restrictions, and has made some long-term changes to reduce water use in the Central Texas area. So if the lakes are full and our water supply is back to previous levels, why are we still operating under water restrictions?

How Austin-Area Water Sources Work Today

Our primary water source in Austin comes from the Colorado River and the system of Highland Lakes along the river. The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) manages this water source, and the City of Austin is its customer.

There are five dams along the river and six lakes created by those dams.

Lake … Read Full Post »

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Rain and Your Lawn: How Much Is Too Much?

. Posted by in , • San Antonio

In San Antonio, we’ve experienced an exceptionally wet spring season, with several downpours over the past few months. While we’re grateful not to be in a drought, and our lawns certainly appreciate the rain, in this case, it is possible to get too much of a good thing.

Below we’ll look at some of the ways heavy and prolonged rains can harm your lawn, and some tips you can follow to avoid most of the potential damage.

Roots

A lawn can get too dependent on rain. If water is abundant, grass and other plants don’t need to develop healthy root systems. When a wet spring is followed by a hot and dry summer (as most of our summers are) the grass won’t have the deep roots it needs to survive.

Furthermore, too much water will actually suffocate your lawn. Most plants can’t stand in water for extended periods of time because waterlogged soil doesn’t … Read Full Post »

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9 Ways to Bring Butterflies to your Garden

. Posted by in • Corpus Christi
how to attract butterflies

Summer is nearly upon us in Corpus Christi. There’s nothing better in the summertime than a yard filled with flowers and butterflies. Did you know that attracting different species of butterflies can be as easy as adding a variety of flowering plants to your garden, as well as following a few safe gardening practices?

Below we’ll look at some of the ways you can turn your yard into your personal butterfly garden.

How to attract butterflies

There are a number of plants that attract butterflies, and they fall into a couple of categories.

First, there are plants that butterfly larvae (caterpillars) love to eat. Growing some of these plants ensures that butterflies will mark your yard as one of their favorite places to visit.

Second, butterflies are garden pollinators. Like bees and wasps, they help pollinate flowering plants by feeding on their nectar and transferring pollen from one flower to the next. Be sure to … Read Full Post »

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Lawn Fertilization Do’s and Dont’s

. Posted by in • Bryan-College Station
Lawn Fertilization

Weather extremes impact our lawns and landscaping.

With the recent drought followed by torrential rains here in Bryan-College Station, your lawn might be starved of essential nutrients. The dry conditions prevented many microbes and insects from doing their job to break down organic materials, and then recent rains likely washed away trace elements your lawn needs to be healthy.

As we greet another spring in Bryan-College Station, let’s look at how you can start your lawn off right. In this article, we’ll examine some of the things you can do to improve the condition of your lawn right now, especially how and when to fertilize your lawn in the spring.

Lawn Fertilization Do’s

There’s a lot of things you can do to give your lawn a boost this spring.

Begin fertilizing warm season grasses such as St. Augustine as soon as three weeks after the last frost. In Central Texas that’s usually mid-April, so get … Read Full Post »

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Preparing a Storm-Resistant Yard

. Posted by in , • Corpus Christi

Here in Corpus Christi, it’s possible to maintain a beautiful yard and landscape despite severe thunderstorms and hurricane season that bring hail, high winds and torrential rain to our backyards.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can make sure your yard can withstand the forces of Mother Nature year-round.

Lawn

If you plan to reseed your lawn in the spring, be sure to check the weather forecast to ensure that rainy weather isn’t right around the corner. It’s never a good idea to plant seeds or small bedding plants right before severe storms. Heavy rains will wash away seed and fertilizer, and hail and winds will destroy tender bedding plants that haven’t had a chance to get established.

When possible, apply mulches or ground cloth, such as hemp netting, to further protect fragile topsoil from pounding rains. These will hold plantings in place as well as prevent rainwater from washing … Read Full Post »

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