An alpine meadow filled with tall purple flowers of the Fireweed species may make for a lovely landscape photo, but the presence of this pesky weed popping up in your lawn and landscape is not a desirable find. Fireweed is a cool-season plant that grows in the top thatch layer of your grass, as opposed to growing in the soil, which makes it more difficult to control. Pre-emergent herbicides that seep into the soil to eliminate soil rooted weeds are not an effective solution.

Although you may not have had trouble with Fireweed in the past, these weeds are spread by seeds that may be blown into your yard by the wind, or carried in by other means, which means you cannot control the spread of it either.  Your best defense is to keep your lawn mowed short, which will keep it from going to seed and spreading further.

The good news is, since the root layer on these weeds is so small, they can be easily pulled up by hand or mowed down, and since it is a cool-season plant, they will die off as summer sets in. However, if waiting for summer is not an option, give us a call – 479-856-9800 or contact us here to take control of your fireweeds.

~Lawn Care Services for Fayetteville, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Farmington, Prairie Grove & Springdale, Arkansas~

Did you know that the health and vitality of your Arkansas lawn is directly related to the health of the soil beneath it?
It’s true.
Your lawn will have less weeds and be disease-free when you maintain your soil. Plus, you save money when your soil is in good health. You won’t need to spend as much money on fertilizer or pesticides to get your lawn to the level you want. You’ll witness your turf’s vitality to its ability to crowd out weeds and to grow thick with less applications throughout the spring, summer, and fall.
Fortunately for Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Farmington, Fayetteville, Prairie Grove, and Springdale, AR, it’s within your grasp to have a healthy lawn due to sustainable soil life.

There are five different types of soil:
1. Silt – Your soil is powdery. The soil particle is bigger than a sand particle but smaller than a clay particle meaning that water percolates faster than desired. Your lawn’s turf won’t thrive in this type of soil.
2. Sand – The particle in sand is the smallest out of all soil types. Water percolates right through it requiring you to irrigate your lawn a lot. It’s difficult for your turf to grow deep root systems and to keep nutrients in sandy soil.
3. Clay – This type of soil has large particles and will absorb water for a longer period of time. Yet, this soil type leads to compaction and hard to drain soils. It oftentimes needs to be core aerated to allow water, oxygen and light to penetrate into the soil, as well as allowing carbon dioxide to be released from it.
4. Soil layering – This type of soil is the result of development. When builders clear land for building a new home with a new lawn, they take a lot of top soil with them. Thus, the soil is weak and not prepared to handle grass seed. Because of soil layering, turf roots are unable to develop strong roots as well as keep in nutrients and water.
5. Loam – This is the ideal type of soil you want. It holds in water and nutrients as well as allows air to penetrate through its layers. Loamy soil produces robust lawns.

How do I find out what type of soil I have?
A soil test is the only way to determine your property’s soil type, its pH, and what it’s lacking in nutrients.
We can take soil samples from your property to be tested for type, pH and what nutrients need to be replenished to rebuild your soil. After we receive your results from the lab, we’ll be able to design a lawn care plan that will rehabilitate your soil closer to loam.

Other helpful tips
Maintaining your soil is only one part of the equation for a thick, green lawn. You also need to add the following to keep your Benton or Washington County, AR yard looking beautiful:
1. Add top dressing – Top dressing is a compost mix that naturally adds nutrients to your soil.
2. Consider greencycling – You can add your own fertilizer by allowing your grass clippings to stay on your yard after each mow. They’ll quickly absorb back into the soil.
3. Add slow release fertilizer – If your soil does need a boost of nutrition, use only slow release fertilizers that deliver nutrients slowly into the soil. Your turf will evenly receive nutrients too.
4. Plant the right grass at the right spot – Make sure you use the right type of grass for the shady and sunny areas of your Arkansas lawn.
5. Mow your yard at the right height – You should only take a third of the grass blade off with each mow. By allowing your grass to be a little bit longer, you help it resist disease, maintain its thickness, and crowd out any weeds.
6. Irrigate your lawn responsibly – Most people think they need to water their lawn with a light sprinkle every day. Yet, studies have shown that the healthiest lawns are given a deep soaking once a week in the early morning.
Does the idea of maintaining your soil and yard seem overwhelming to you? Would you rather relax on the weekends instead of spending countless hours mowing and irrigating your lawn?

Let us at A Clean Cut Lawn Care take the pain out of yard maintenance for you. If you live in Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Farmington, Fayetteville, Prairie Grove or Springdale, Arkansas, call us this spring at 479-856-9800 or fill out our request a quote to handle all of your lawn care needs from the soil up.
Sources:
Briggs & Stratton. “How to Get Healthy Soil and Grow a Beautiful Lawn.”
EPA.gov. “Greenscaping: The Easy Way to a Greener, Healthier Yard.”
Francis, Paul, B. “The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture: Soils.”

Weeds are the bane of every gardener’s existence. They are the mortal enemy of anyone who has ever set out to grow and maintain a home yard or garden. They are aggressively persistent and can grow in most environments. But they are not indestructible. In fact, you wouldn’t believe how big a difference it makes having just a little extra knowledge on how to keep your weeds under control. The following tips will help you get the ball rolling. But if you really want the garden your home deserves, look into our weed control Fayetteville AR services, as we are experts in the field of all things pertaining to home lawn care.

Tip #1: Focus only on the seeds that meet the surface

An unfortunate truth about weed seeds is that they are virtually everywhere that there is soil. They exist deep within the ground and are spread all across all parts of your garden and your lawn. The good news is that most of those seeds will never germinate. And thus most will never grow into the headache you know them to be. Only the weeds that are close enough to the surface of the soil will receive a sufficient amount of sunlight to grow. The real goal is for you to pay close attention any time you need to dig beneath the surface. Make sure to promptly fill whatever area you dug up afterward, whether that be with a plant or mulch.

Tip #2: Never underestimate the significance of mulch

The degree to which you care for your mulch will determine the physical state of your lawn and garden. Mulch applies a cooling factor to the soil. The moisture that the mulch causes helps prevent the infiltration of sunlight, which is what weeds need to survive. Moreover, the right kinds of mulch also attract certain critters that feed on weed seeds, which also acts as a deterrent from allowing weeds to grow. Keep in mind that while mulch is an effective deterrent of sunlight, those who fail to replenish their mulch frequently run the risk of the mulch containing its own weed seeds. If you fail to pay close attention to the quality of the mulch and the frequently with which you replace you, you defeat the purpose of even laying the mulch in the first place.

Tip #3: The cardboard trick

When it comes to weed prevention, sunlight is not your friend. Sunlight is the lifeblood of every weed outbreak. Mulch is effective in limiting sunlight and keeping the soil moist. An added step for the cautiously minded is to lay a bed of cardboard beneath the mulch. This ensure that absolutely no sunlight will reach any further than where you want it to go, meaning you can focus on growing only the plants that you actually want in your garden.

Give us a call – 479-856-9800 or Contact us here

Do You Want Your Fayetteville, Ark. Lawn to Look Mean and Green?
A Clean Cut Lawn Care LLC Helps You Get There ~ Weed Control and Fertilization

This spring and summer, do you want to walk out of your front door and see an emerald green lawn with few weeds? Then consider hiring a professional lawn maintenance weed control company in Fayetteville, Ark.

A Fayetteville home lawn care service will come to your home to treat your yard for weed control and fertilization. Your goal for your Arkansas lawn should be a healthy, vibrant lawn because healthy turf means there’s no room for weeds to grow and take over.
The Science behind Healthy Lawns
Turf experts have long stated that growing a healthy lawn is the vital first step to keeping weeds out of your turf. Granted, no yard is perfect. Yet, you want to lessen the amount of herbicides you use on your lawn, both for you and your family’s health, as well as for the local eco-system.
In most cases, it’s inevitable that some herbicide treatment will be needed to keep weeds at bay. But it should be in limited quantities and used at the right time of year.
At A Clean Cut Lawn Care, LLC, we encourage all homeowners to adopt healthy lawn maintenance practices. We partner with other area lawn maintenance professionals to keep your Fayetteville, Farmington and Springdale yards healthy with few weeds.
Here are 9 ways that we and our partner, Ace of Blades, work together to make your lawn look mean and green every season:

1. Four lbs. of nitrogen. The University of Arkansas recommends that Arkansas lawns get four lbs. of nitrogen per 1,000 sq. ft. of lawn. Ace of Blades, which takes care of weed control and fertilization services, provides the right amount of nitrogen, spread throughout the entire season for your Springdale, Farmington, and Fayetteville lawn.
2. Overseeding. If you have bare spots on your fescue lawn, we’ll overseed them so that weeds won’t land there and start to sprout.
3. Springtime Pre-emergent. Ace of Blades will apply pre-emergent to your yard to prevent crabgrass and other nuisance annual weeds from cropping up.
4. Spring broadleaf control. In March through April, Ace of Blades will use broadleaf herbicides to control weeds such as dandelions and other broadleaf weeds. They also use a quick-lease fertilizer at the same time to give your grass a quick green up.
5. Mowing. Good mowing techniques, such as sharp blades and only taking a third of the grass blade off will encourage deep root growth and strong plants. And turf with deep root growth is healthier and will grow denser so there is not a lot of room for weeds to germinate. You can rest assured that at A Clean Cut Lawn Care, LLC, our mowers have sharp blades and are set at a higher setting to only take a third of the grass blade off with each mow.
6. Irrigation management. Another key to a healthy lawn includes correct irrigation maintenance. It boils down to this simple fact: You don’t want to overwater your lawn. In the old days, the rationale was to water your lawn every day—a sprinkle here, a sprinkle there. But science has shown that infrequent, deep watering is the key to a healthy lawn. We provide irrigation system maintenance to help you conserve water and save on your utility bill each month.
7. Summer fertilization. From May through June, Ace of Blades will apply their summer blend, a slow release, balanced fertilizer, on your yard to keep it healthy and give it the nutrients it needs. They’ll also spot spray broadleaf weeds at this time. In June and July, they’ll return to apply a second application of their fertilizer blend to keep your lawn healthy and green for the rest of the season.
8. Fall weed control. In the fall, it’ll be time to apply broadleaf herbicides again since there’s a second generation of weeds that pop up between September and October. Then, in October and November, Ace of Blades will visit your home one last time for the year to apply fall pre-emergent herbicide to prevent unwanted winter weeds, such as henbit, from taking over your yard.
9. Clean up. Every time that we or Ace of Blades work on your yard, we’ll blow away debris, including excess fertilizer, from your driveway, walkways, and patios.
At A Clean Care Lawn Care, LLC, we want you to have the healthiest lawn possible. By partnering with other green businesses who have the same philosophy as us, we’re able to make your Washington County yard look mean and green.
Are you ready to schedule your weed control and fertilizer program? If you live in Fayetteville, Farmington, or Springdale, call us at 479-856-9800 or fill out our contact form.

Sources:
Boyd, John. “Home Lawn Weed Control,” University of Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Service.
Ibid. “Introduction to Turfgrass Weed Control,” University of Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Service.
Patton, Aaron. “Fertilizing Your Lawn,” University of Arkansas, Cooperative Extension Service.