Heat, drought, humidity, fungus and insects, ouch! By this point in the season, many of your lawns might be looking like the one pictured below

5 ways to repair your lawn and spruce up for Fall

1. Eliminate invasive weeds
If you are on our lawn maintenance schedule, we have already begun the process of renovation by applying weed controls to remove the weeds that have invaded the open spots in your turf created by receding grass.

2. Soil test to determine nutrient levels
With this step we can compare results with last year's testing, and customize the nutrient needs for your property. 
  
3. De-thatch and Core aerate
De-thatching is the removing of dead grass and weed layer that forms under living turf. Removing this thatch has several benefits for your grass -- it eliminates an area that harbors turf insects, allows for better moisture percolation, and lets fertilizers enter the root zone more readily.
Next, we core aerate the lawn. Core aeration involves punching a hole though the turf and into the soil and root to provide a sufficient opening for air, moisture and nutrient exchange. Core aeration also provides benefits your lawn by bringing "good" bacteria to the surface, which aides in the breakdown of dead grass.

 A power seeding machine slits the existing soil so new seed has the best opportunity for germination. If your lawn surface is rough, we may also suggest topdressing with a thin soil layer to provide a better germination bed at this stage


 5. Apply a seed-starter fertilizer
Finally,  fertilize the lawn with a seed-starter fertilizer that includes phosphorus to encourage root growth. This is the only time of the year that we incorporate phosophorus into our lawn fertilizer. (If you are interested in the reason behind that, send me an e-mail and I will be glad to explain in further depth.) If your soil test shows a need for soil acidity adjustments, we make a note of that and will follow up later in the fall to make that adjustment.


If you'd like help with repairing your lawn, please contact us now to be placed on our fall lawn renovation schedule. We would love to help.



Winter Pansies
Start planning your future garden palette

 

Hardy winter pansies can make a great addition to your garden. As the weather begins to cool down, the performance of summer annual flowers starts to fade. We like to begin the Fall gardening season by adding some visual interest back into the garden palette. After removing summer flowers, we plant spring bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, snow drops, crocuses and hyacinths, and then pansies on top. The pansies bloom until the weather gets very cold, usually mid-December, when they go dormant.

When the sun returns and the days grow longer in spring, the pansies awake from their winter slumber and begin to blossom again. The spring flowering bulbs planted among also emerge amongst the pansies, and the result is a beautiful cacophony of color.

We are now putting together pansy and bulb orders with our select suppliers. We do this early to ensure the best color palette and the quality that you expect from Cedar Run Landscapes. Please let us know if you would like to add these beautiful, seasonal displays to your gardens.

 

 

Recap of Alex's Lemonade Pond Tour

Our second annual pond tour was a great success. Although it had to be postponed due to heavy storms, our friends, customers and neighbors came out and enjoyed a great day of touring water features at locations in the Philadelphia suburbs and New Jersey. The donations we accepted continue to help a great cause.

Special thanks to the host families for generously opening up their private gardens to our tour participants. If you missed the tour, please call so we may arrange a time for you to visit some of the features that were presented. If you would still like to make a donation to the Alex's Lemonade stand foundation, we are happy to accept them on behalf of the foundation.


 

Meet our Staff
Curtis Goldman, Supervisor

 

Curtis began working with Cedar Run Landscapes in 2006 as a landscape technician, and is now one of our supervisors. If you have a water feature built or maintained by Cedar Run, it is Curtis who you will see performing maintenance on it, as needed.

 

Curtis chairs the Cedar Run Landscapes Safety Committee, overseeing our compliance and training programs. He also helps in the orientation and training of new employees. His certifications include Interlocking Concrete Paver Institute (ICPI), Segmental Retaining Wall (SRW), and he is in the process of becoming a Penn. Licensed Pesticide & Herbicide Applicator

 

Curtis enjoys traveling, sports, being outdoors, and spending time with his wife, Lindsey, and  9-month-old baby, Colin. "My most memorable job at Cedar Run Landscapes was the Montgomery Elementary School Pond for Kids...I loved seeing how enthusiastic and interested the children were!"

Curtis helping Montgomery Elementary students with planting

If you see Curtis, say hello!