December 27, 2022 Patrick Vaillancourt
As this year comes to a close, it brings with it a special milestone…ten successful years in business. A decade of creating healthy, green grass and managing pests within your home, lawn and landscape. Equally as enjoyable and rewarding as helping to maintain your property, have been the many great relationships we have been able to develop with customers over the past ten years. Our growth has always exceeded that of the previous season, with this year being no exception. We want to take this opportunity to say that we appreciate your business, as each and every job equates to a portion of Northern Turf’s continued success.
Another key factor to the continued success of our fertilization and pest management programs is our commitment to constant evaluation and evolvement. We strive to be the best at what we do, and pride ourselves on being the premium service provider. While certainly not the least expensive nor the simplest approach, our NorGro custom blended products are designed by and exclusive to us. As environmental stresses arise, the plant’s defenses have been built up, so recovery becomes much easier. It’s very rewarding to drive down a street and see the turfgrass we manage boldly stand out at any point in the season.
In continuing with our commitment to constantly being on the cutting edge of the green industry, we again added several specialized pieces of equipment this season. These range from seeding/cultivation tools to innovative application equipment. All of these help us with our goal of being able to provide the best, most premium services to our customers in the most efficient manner.
We are preparing for the upcoming 2023 season as we speak and look forward to maintaining your property in the months ahead. As always, please call (207) 544-9420, text or email with any questions about plants or pests.
Please note the following turf issues to be vigilant about:
Grub Damage: These destructive insects have always been around but exponentially more lawns have succumbed to them. Not only do they eat the roots of the grass plants, but the skunks/crows that forage for them seem to do more damage than the insects themselves. Because of how quickly these pests can effectively destroy a lawn, preventative grub control is the easiest and most cost-effective intervention. Due to recent changes in regulations, we no longer have effective curative controls at our disposal for controlling these pests once they begin their damage.
Chinch Bug Damage: These pests continue to be active throughout the summer months within our service areas. Some of the damage may go unnoticed at first, as it can look very similar to drought stress. In conjunction with hot/dry weather, chinch bugs will also frequent areas that have excessive thatch accumulation (see below).
Excessive Thatch Accumulation: As we examine more and more soil cores every season, we’re finding that the majority of lawns have somewhat of a thatch issue. Turfgrasses may be able to deal with it during periods of average rainfall and temperatures but, when the extremes hit, the weak spots are visible. Thatch can impede the movement of nutrients and moisture down to the rootzone, as well as create a perfect habitat for chinch bugs. The easiest prevention (and cure) for excessive thatch is usually core aeration. In some cases, wetting agents and bio-soil stimulants may be necessary to aid in water movement and to help internally “digest” the thatch layer.