Lawn Care Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Proper Landscaping Inc.

Jun 09

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How to change your lawn mower oil in the field

By Vas Sladek | Lawn Care, Tips | No Comments

Spring is here and weekly lawn care is part of our routine. Our commercial machines see daily use and work extremely hard for us as we deliver great looking lawn care. On some days the mowers will run all day. Five days a week all the way to November.

Key changes

To keep the machines running well all year there are a few key things we can do them. We have to change oil, air filter, blades and pull cords. Luckily most of these tasks can be done in the field on the fly. Some landscape companies employ small engine mechanics, some take the machines back to their shops for maintenance. But to save time, it makes sense to make easy adjustments in the field.

I love this light, simple commercial Honda mower.

I openly confess to struggling with machines. I prefer handling plant material. But again, my advice to all landscapers is to become total professionals by knowing everything. That includes machines. So I took notes today when our guys were changing oil in the field.

Oil change in the field

Let’s take a look at a simple commercial Honda push mower.

Locate the oil tank.

2. Now we need to extract the used oil. It might help to run the mower briefly so the oil flows better. We used a fluid evacuator. Simply stick the hose into your oil tank and start pumping until the oil is out. Never pollute. Put the used oil into your empty oil container and recycle it at a proper facility.

3. Replenish your oil with the proper formulation. Check the owner’s manual. We used 10W-30 Lucas oil. The Honda push mower requires 250mL of new oil. The exact amount will depend on the model of your lawn mower.

Frequency of oil changes will depend on actual use. Our machines work hard all season so we change the oil every two weeks. One oil change for every twenty to fifty hours of use is a general guide.

My old Honda mower sees limited action so I change the oil once a year. However, that might be a mistake. I think seasonal oil changes would be better: spring, summer and fall.

A funnel and measuring cup

In conclusion, it’s obvious that your mower will run better and last longer with regular oil changes. It definitely pays to stop during your busy week to do this quick change. Schedule it into your week and do it.

Apr 25

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How to give your lawn a facelift with power rake and soil

By Vas Sladek | Lawn Care, Strata Maintenance | 3 Comments

Yes, it’s finally spring on the West Coast, so why not give your lawn a facelift? Perhaps you have bare spots showing in your lawns. Let’s add a light layer of top soil and over seed it. Or there is too much thatch and moss in your lawn. In that case, we can bring out a power rake and comb out the offenders from your lawn.

With moisture and higher temperatures your lawn should perk up very soon.

I did some of this work last week so let’s recap the steps so you can do it for your own lawn. Or you can hire a good landscape company that will do it for you Properly.

Power raking 101

The power rake doesn’t look like much but it packs a punch, if you let it punch. The key issue is the height level of your tines. If you drop them low, the machine will rip up your lawn. So be ready for some bare brown spots that will need an application of good, weed-free top soil and over seeding.

If you set the machine high, you will just tickle your lawn. So experiment and adjust the height depending on the condition of your lawn.

The key number two is clean up time. Don’t underestimate your clean up times. If you hit your lawn hard, expect to rake up a lot of debris. Budget your time accordingly.

If your lawn is fine

If your lawn only suffers from some bare spots, then skip the power raking step and move on to top dressing. We need good quality top soil, most likely turf blend. Turf blend contains a higher percentage of sand. It should also come from a good source and be weed-free. There is nothing worse than saving a few dollars per yard only to introduce weeds into your landscape.

The rule for top-dressing is to rake the soil in nicely so that your bare spots are covered but the rest of your grass isn’t smothered. Rake the soil nicely into your existing grass. It should still be visible.

Over seeding is also very easy. Just beware of wind. Apply seed carefully around bed edges so you don’t create a headache for later. Monitor your lawn for seed germination and re-apply as required. With some moisture and higher temperatures everything should be fine.

step 1 power rake

step 2 rake up

step 3 top dress with soil

step 4 rake in the soil

step 5 over seed

Your lawn will thank you for your hard work!

Mar 29

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Lawn aeration: start with why

By Vas Sladek | landscape maintenance, Landscaping Equipment, Lawn Care | No Comments

My introduction to lawn aeration wasn’t the best. My employer at the time, a prominent Lower Mainland landscape maintenance company, forced me to aerate roughly one half of their many strata properties. Incredibly, nobody even told me why we were putting holes into lawns. And the days were so busy I forgot to ask. I was that new to landscaping. It usually took two crews three weeks to aerate all of the properties.

Start with why

Now, many years later, I get to train new workers in the field. Before they even got to touch the lawn aerators, I made sure they knew why they were doing it. Armed with this knowledge, their physical punishment is easier to take. It also limits corner cutting. Once the dudes get tired, the number of holes and their depth decline. Don’t let up. Push on.

The one best thing

If you don’t do anything to your lawn all year, definitely aerate it in spring. Aeration allows air and water to reach the grass root zone which improves growth. Leave the cores on the lawn. They will disappear in no time.

Home owners without regular landscape service will probably get a knock on the door from a young guy with a pamphlet and machine in the driveway. Most strata landscape maintenance contracts include this service automatically with lime application.

Aerated lawn. leave cores in place

Hands vs machine

If you have a smaller lawn you can easily hand-punch it with a hand core aerator. I love the Fiskars model because it’s larger and doesn’t get blocked with debris like smaller models. I use it on smaller client lawns where renting a machine wouldn’t make sense.

Fiskars core aerator for small lawns and inaccessible corners

If you have larger lawns, you will need a machine unless you have a teenager at home with energy to burn. It’s fairly simple to operate. Just remember to slow down as you approach pavement and fencing. The big hog needs a second to slow down.

The machine comes with weights so use them to get nice deep cores. Skip the extra weights if your lawn is soft. Remove them when loading and unloading the machine!

Conclusion

Let’s review. Lawn aeration allows water and air to reach the grass root zone and should result in a healthier lawn. If you don’t do anything to your lawn all year, at least aerate it. It’s worth the effort. Your lawn will thank you for it.

Feb 17

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The hardest day of 2016

By Vas Sladek | Landscaping, Lawn Care | No Comments

The plan for our sunny summer day was fairly simple. Remove a circle of astro turf and turn the area into a grass field. Fine. Working with your boss is what I always recommend to our workers. I had no idea this day would almost kill me. A day before my vacation flight to Japan no less. It was easily my hardest day of 2016.

Step 1: remove astro turf

The turf peeled off quite nicely and the rolls we created were nice and neat; if slightly ambitious. For as we soon found out, the turf was brutally heavy sitting as it was on sand. This would be the hardest part of the job. The chunks were heavy and had to be moved by wheelbarrow to a nearby truck.

As the removal progressed, the rolls got smaller and uglier. By the end of it, we couldn’t even call them rolls. Both wheelbarrows were on their last legs. We loaded and dumped three truck loads for a total of 8,500kg. Where were the young guys which my boss insists the landscape industry is built for?

All rolled up, and the brutality begins. There was no easy access for our truck.

Sep 1 completed, and my body was completely exhausted

Step 2: blow in some soil

This was a joke compared to step one. A company showed up and blew in the required amount of soil on top of the sand base. This used to be a putting green when the two residential towers were built. Massively underused, the strata finally decided to make changes. Grass field it was.

Step 3: hydroseeding

So you want grass on what used to be a putting green. Now what? You have a few options to consider.

Hand seeding may result in a patchy lawn and it may take longer to establish.

Sod is expensive and the installation is time consuming. Also consider the headache of sodding a circular putting green. Sodded lawns also have lines and there could be transplant issues because the sod is laid on soil the grass wasn’t grown in.

Hydroseeding is a fast and easy alternative. It uses a slurry of seed and mulch and produces beautiful lawns in just weeks, at a fraction of the cost! This was my first direct experience with hydroseeding and looking at the pictures, I’m convinced it works well.

I won’t soon forget this brutal day. I thoroughly deserved my long visits to Japanese hot spring baths.

Dec 30

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Perfect lawn: “American Green” book review

By Vas Sladek | Books, Landscape Industry, Landscaping, Lawn Care | No Comments

This is a true story about green lawns and how they came to dominate in the United States. Ted Steinberg’s “American Green: the obsessive quest for the perfect lawn” is an excellent book.
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Steinberg is an environmental historian and it shows. Landscapers, gardeners, and people who love or hate lawns should definitely read it. As a landscape professional I found it fascinating on my second reading.

The book isn’t new. It was published in 2006. I read it and my copy ended up in storage until now. My second reading was better. I recommend buying the softcover edition for your own library.

Steinberg takes you from the Origins, through the Dark Side and into the Future. With global warming and severe droughts in California, the Future chapters would look different if the second edition were to be published now in 2016.

Some things haven’t changed. People still die in ride-on mower accidents and Latinos still dominate the workforce in places like California. The excerpts from Spanish Phrases for Landscaping Professionals alone are worth the book cost. For example, Nosostros no ofrecemos seguro de salud (we don’t offer health insurance.)

In the Origins you will meet the key characters that shaped the landscape industry and made the lawn a key feature. It really is a fascinating question: why should the lawn dominate so much? A huge industry developed around it as landscape turned into landscaping. A father and son would share the lawn care work around their home but eventually a new industry rose up to do the work for them. Fertilizer and pesticide use went up and soon a debate started. Lawn lovers versus detractors.

This client loves his lawns….

The case for brown lawns now makes a lot of sense. With water restrictions in the US and Canada, it makes sense to let lawns go dormant in summer. Unless you are rich and living in a place where brown can’t happen. But that will be the subject of a future blog post based on a recent Harper’s magazine story from California.

You can dive deep into this subject if you follow Steinberg’s notes. I looked up an interesting story from 1983. It was a case where a wife in Massachusetts wanted to surprise her husband with a beautiful lawn. She hired a company but managed to catch a worker urinating on her property. When she confronted him, he assaulted her, choked and strangled her and eventually crushed her skull with pieces from a retaining wall.

Defence lawyers argued that repeated exposure to chemicals made the 23 year old worker unable to decide between right and wrong. The jury disagreed. First degree murder charge carried an automatic life sentence for the recent college graduate. A sad and bizarre story.

If you work in the green industry, this is one must-read book. Likewise if you love or hate lawns. Five stars out of five.

Vas now understands how landscape turned into landscaping

Dec 23

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A note on landscape bathroom breaks

By Vas Sladek | Lawn Care | No Comments

Landscape bathroom breaks

At first glance, this may seem like an off-putting blog post topic. You’re right. But read on because it gets better. Landscapers spend long seasons in the field dealing with rain, extreme heat, machine noise, and sometimes unkind clients and harsh bosses. Lack of proper bathrooms on work sites is the final indignity.

If you’re lucky, your strata complex has a fob key and you have access to proper bathrooms. This is especially important for female workers. Driving off-site to use proper bathrooms is an unfortunate loss of time. Guys have it easier. Sometimes you can find a pee break site with benefits. In one case, it was ready access to ripe native salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis).

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One of the best pee break spots with ripe salmon berries

David Garabedian

Now consider the bizarre March 29, 1983 case of Dave Garabedian, a 23-year-old lawn care worker. Dave was a recent college graduate and worked for the Old Fox Lawn Company in Chelmsford, MA, USA. One day he URINATED on his client’s lawn. The client, 34-year-old Eileen Muldoon confronted Dave about his indiscretion. An argument ensued and it turned into assault as Dave used his hand to choke and strangle the woman. He then removed a drawstring from his uniform and strangled the woman a second time. Skull-crushing rocks followed at the end, taken from a retaining wall.

The prosecution said “it began with an argument, it escalated into an assault and it ended with an execution.” And what about the defense? The defense built a case around the chemical dursban. It argued that Dave’s repeated exposure to dursban in the two weeks prior to the incident made him unable to distinguish between right or wrong. The six man jury deliberated and disagreed. First-degree murder convictions in Massachusetts carry automatic life sentences.

All the woman wanted was to give her husband a gift of a beautiful lawn. Sad. And bizarre.

Sources: UPI.com archives; “American Green: the obsessive quest for the perfect lawn” by Ted Steinberg

Dec 02

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Crushing frosty lawns!

By Vas Sladek | Landscaping, Lawn Care, Strata Maintenance | No Comments

In November 2015, as I arrived at a small Burnaby commercial site on a cool Saturday morning, my task was very simple. All I had to do was collect leaves from the base of a cherry tree. But, the lawn was very frosty and I had to be at another site in a few hours.

As I took my first step onto the frosty lawn, I recalled an article from the New York Times I had read several years ago. Let us see what is happening under my big foot.

Big frosty steps

During the growing season as we walk on our properly maintained lush green lawns the individual grass plants are in active growth. The cells that make up their leaves are full of water, food and gases that help them hold their shape and bounce back when stepped on.

When the grass is dormant, the intricate biological processes that happen in the leaf slow to a near stand still. As temperatures dip in winter, the nights are cold enough to begin to freeze the soil below. Now as you walk over the frosty lawn the ground below has little give because it is frozen and the cells in the dormant leaves can not rebound. This is the key point: The grass plant can get crushed under your foot. It is best to limit traffic until a blanket of snow provides cushioning. Aside from cushioning, plants also use snow as insulation, moderating temperatures around their buds and shoots when the temperatures drop.

Hoping that any damage to the lawn was minimal or better yet, imagined, I quickly collected my leaves from the site into a tarp and left. Still feeling a bit guilty. The winter rains would come soon enough. Snow, as good as it is for plant insulation, is bad for business.

It is best to stay off frosty lawns

Guilty steps!

Nov 04

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Landscape maintenance mistakes, vol.3

By Vas Sladek | Edging, gardening, Landscaping, Lawn Care | No Comments

Here is volume three examining basic mistakes made in landscape maintenance. Learning from other people’s mistakes is much easier. It speeds up our progress. And to become landscape professionals we must progress. That’s mandatory.

A) Re-fuelling like pigs

Sure, accidents can happen. But unnecessary fuel spills cost money, they pollute the environment and they look awful. Imagine if you park your truck in the same spot once a week. It becomes an eye-sore and a potential source of complaints.

Gas up on tarps. (Stay away from grass as it burns and turns yellow.)

B) Don’t leave deep edging chunks behind

Proper deep edging requires a 90 degree edge. Nothing else will do. As you deep edge you will most likely generate some turf chunks. When you clean up, remove all chunks. Finesse the bed like a pro.

Inadequate clean-up; note weeds and chunks

Much better!

C) Mower collisions with trees

This is horrific. One collision may be fine. The tree will be forced to spend precious resources on fixing the damage, instead of on growing. Repeated collisions will kill the tree as water flow is interrupted. Keep your mowers away from trees. Period. Put up tree guards.

A tight fit. To stay on the curb, the mower deck collides with tree bark. Weekly!?

D) Stepping on frosty lawns

If you can help it, stay off frosty lawns. When the lawn is frosty, the grass blades have little oxygen and water inside. That means they can not bounce back the way they do in summer. They get crushed.

Stay off frosty lawns if possible

With little water and oxygen inside frosty grass blades they can’t bounce back and get crushed.

E) Mohawks

Mohawks result from improper overlap. When you finish mowing a line, pivot on the back wheel as you turn. Do not move the back wheel, just spin it around. That should get you nicely lined up.

Mohawks also result from failure to mow straight in laser lines. It takes some practice. The mohawks must be fixed because one week later they will be really noticeable. Practice mowing until you eliminate mohawks forever.

A huge Mohawk. Practice!

Have fun in the field.

Aug 08

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Common landscape maintenance mistakes, vol. 1

By Vas Sladek | Landscaping, Lawn Care, Strata Maintenance, Tips | No Comments

There are many mistakes made in landscape maintenance. I’m hoping that by publishing the common ones, new landscapers can learn from other people’s mistakes. Not the hard way. Here we go.

A) Damage

Line trimmers, blade edgers and mowers have spinning parts and can cause a lot of damage. Get familiar with your work areas and identify any potential hazards. Companies have to pay for damages. Don’t be surprised if your boss has a go-to window guy on speed dial. It happens, so be careful.

Don’t assume these covers are tightened when you mow

line trimmer damage; one little corner full of pebbles, first time line edging here

B) Scalping

This is the biggest lawn care sin. Why? Because grass regenerates from meristems located about a third of the way up a blade of grass. Not from roots. When you scalp the lawn you get a bald spot. Even worse is scalping in November when the grass doesn’t grow much anymore. Don’t scalp. Remember to stay away from edges; the line trimmer is coming by to cover the edges. Your mow should be easy and stress-free. The same goes for line edging.

the mower was too close to the edge and slipped off

extremely harsh line edging

C) Line crossing

Yes, I know, speed is critical to your success in mowing. But when you finish putting in your laser lines don’t ruin your presentation. No line crossing. Take the long way if you have to or follow existing lines. Always. This is especially noticeable around towers where residents look down on their lawns.

Don’t cross over your lines! Use existing lines or take the long way out.

D) Don’t mow through tree wells

This is my favorite example because we get to review. 1) the space is too narrow for the mower deck, which leads to 2) scalping (brown spot), 3) soil compaction in the root zone (wheel marks) and 4) it crushes our deep edges. Let the line edger take care of the narrow spot. Mowers don’t belong in tree wells.

Learn from other people’s landscape maintenance mistakes and work like a pro. Good luck!

Aug 01

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Nematodes vs. European chafer beetles

By Vas Sladek | gardening, Landscaping, Lawn Care, Tips | No Comments

One of my clients on the Westwood Plateau in Coquitlam loves his lawn. When his lawn got ripped up by animals searching for European chafer grubs, he was shocked. He installed an irrigation system and hired me so his lawn could receive good, consistent care.

Damaged lawn by animals looking for tasty grubs

Repaired lawn

Once I repaired the damaged lawn, my client decided to try a nematode application. He pre-ordered the nematodes in June. $80 cost plus my labour.

June is a busy month for the European chafer beetles. As they mature, they emerge out of the lawn and fly off to nearby trees to mate. Then they look for new lawns to lay their eggs in. If you’re lucky, they pick your neighbour’s lawn. Cutting your lawn higher means it’s more difficult for the beetles to stick their back ends in to lay their eggs.

Europen chafer beetles ( the bottom 3 are playing dead!)

The recommended nematode application window is from the third week of July. This is what we did once the nematodes arrived. They were kept cool in a fridge.

A) Cut your lawn short and water it really well prior to nematode application. The microscopic nematodes require water to penetrate into soil. There they seek out the grubs. Important: get a municipal water permit.

B) Because the nematodes are photo-sensitive we waited until there was no direct sunlight hitting both the front and back lawn areas.

C) We prepared a 4L bucket of water. The we opened the package and soaked the sponges in the water. Also soak the plastic bag holding the sponges. Carefully squeeze each sponge ten times. Then stir the solution well. Discard bags and sponges.

D) Carefully fill up your hose end sprayer. We used a funnel. Don’t forget to stir the solution before every re-fill.

E) Turn on water and spray methodically. Use sticks, tools or tape if it makes it easier for you to keep track of where you’ve sprayed. We soaked the worst damaged spot.

F) Water your lawn after application.

Pre-order nematodes in June (NemasysG “seekers are best)

Hose end tank and 4L bucket for nematode solution; funnel and stir stick

Soak the nematodes in your bucket, squeeze several times, also wash the plastic cover just in case

Hose end applicator $17 tax included

If everything goes well, the chafer larvae will get eliminated by the nematodes. Two problems with nematodes is that they might have to be applied annually and they eliminate all grubs they find in the soil. In the meantime, the lawn will receive better care.

Lawn Care