Your grass may not be growing but you still need to keep your lawn clean!  If you have trees anywhere near your yard then there no doubt by now that you have seen a ton of leaves.  Depending on the types of trees will depend on the size of leaves, amount and the time they fall. In the start of Fall, using your mower to mulch them up will sometimes be enough.  As you get further into the year however, you will usually have to pick up and remove the leaves at least 1-4 times. When you mow over them with a mower it turns them into mulch like it does cutting grass.  The issues start when there are too many leaves. You will end up contributing to the thatch layer that sits above the root system in the lawn. Some thatch is an ok thing, too much is harmful to the grass. The issues however are going to be delayed and you won’t see the negatives for some time like when the grass is struggling to grow thick next summer.  Another issue is when too many leaves start to form a sort of mat on top of the grass. Over time this mat will stay wet and keep the grass wet. This will then lead to rotting of the grass and other possible fungus issues. Just remember to not let the leaves build up too much on your lawn and unless your mower can make them disappear, there are to many and they need to be picked up and removed.  Hope this helps!

Here’s a pretty relevant tip going into the weekend. If you have Christmas lights installed and they turn off and won’t come back on, chances are you have a tripped GFI plug. Have you ever noticed the random plugs around your house with the button on them? They are usually in your garage and bathroom. These are called GFI plugs and are a safety against water and electricity. It’s not uncommon during heavy rains for these to get tripped and need to be reset. Hope this helps!

A common mistake we see this time of the year is Knockout Roses getting trimmed. Sometimes, inexperienced homeowners and lawn care guys will cut the Knockouts and Drift Roses back during their fall cleanups. The proper time for their next trim is not going to be until February or early March depending on the temperatures outside. Trimming them know could lead to new growth which would make the plant vulnerable to injury and disease during the cold winter. They don’t look their best right now because they just finished a bloom cycle and are full of dead blooms. Be patient though and you will have more on the way! Hope this helps!

Have you ever wondered why or how Mistletoe became a Christmas tradition? Most everyone knows about stealing a kiss under the mistletoe but why? It all started in ancient Greece. The plant was thought to have links to fertility since it is able to grow during the winter, it must be strong and able to live. People would make tea out of it but the issue there is it can be fatal. The tradition of kissing that we know today is thought to have started in England. Whenever someone is caught under some hanging, you can steal a kill on the cheek. It’s even said that if a woman denies the kiss she wont get proposed to for the entire year. After taking you kiss your suppose to remove one of the berries. After all the berries are gone the kissing stops. So there you have it! There are some other versions out there on how it got started but this is the one most people agree with!

Now that it’s time to hang your Christmas lights let’s talk about a few options for making sure they give you that crisp professional look.  Other than the obvious of using commercial grade bulbs, the next important piece of material used in the clip that holds the light. There are 4 basic types that are used for installs.  The best in our opinion is the shingle tab. This allows the plastic tabs to slide under the shingle and hold the lights in line. Another option if you have gutters is the gutter clip or all in one clip.  These simply grab the gutter and hold the light in place. Surface mount clips can be used to line walls, fences and other places where you want lights on a flat surface. Another one that most people do know exist is the magnetic lights.  These have an actual magnet in the base of the socket and can attach to anything metal. All of these clips have their own specific use and serve a different purpose. Hope this helps!

It’s going to get into the 30’s the next few days and several people are worried about their plants.  One plant everyone stresses about are palms. Generally speaking, you only need to worry about these when there is ice and snow covering them.  In the event we get into the low 20’s so long periods of time you can expect some damage as well. All that said with the upcoming weather you will be ok.  You can however expect to see some damage to your summer time annual flowers. This isn’t a huge issue though because it is time for them to die off anyway.  Depending on if we get a frost as well you may also expect to see some damage to your tropical plants as well. Again, this time of year we expect them to die back and require maintenance.  There is also no need to worry about your sprinkler system right now either. Frankly, it isn’t going to be cold enough long enough for there to be any freezing issues. Hope this helps!   

These are ShiShi buds.  In a matter of weeks or even days all of these buds will turn into flowers.  It is super important to remember this while doing your fall cleanups. When you trim the plant now, before it blooms, you will be cutting and removing the buds which create the flower.  Wait until the January time frame when the plants have completely gone through their bloom cycle. This is when you want to trim and feed them. The plant is not meant to be a manicured one so in a lot of cases they will just need a light trim to get any limbs that have outgrown others.  Hope this helps!

Deer vs Hair: If you are having issue with deer eating your plants, consider a trip down to the barber shop. Not to get your hair cut but to get a bag of hair. Deer hate the smell of humans. By getting a bag of hair and sprinkling it around your land scape, the deer will avoid the strong smell of humans in the area. The smell will wear off over time so be prepared to re apply.

This time every year we get asked about “winterizing my lawn.” I guess what this actually means is kind of subjective. If you were living up north and had cool season grasses then there are a lot of steps that need to happen. Here in the south with warm season grasses not so much! Right now all you really need to worry about is Pre Emergents. This will help prevent weeds this winter and into the Spring. DO NOT apply any more fertilizer to your lawn this year. The grass is weeks away from going dormant and applying fertilizer will actually make the lawn open to disease and other issues. Later in the winter you can apply some supplements for the roots systems but for now just worry about the weed control with Pre Emergents! Hope this helps!