High quality lawns do not happen by accident.
   GreenGuard’s plant health care approach creates a rich, porous topsoil, and a thick, deep-rooted lawn that will flourish beautifully and keep the pests at bay.    Turfgrass quality is a measure of density, color, uniformity (free of weeds), smoothness, growth habit, and texture. An above-average or superior quality lawn requires special care. These services may be included in your lawn care program or may be purchased separately.

Aeration
Relieves Compacted Soil Conditions
   Good soil provides roots with air and moisture.
   Core aeration relieves the compacted soil conditions that lead to weak grass and more weeds. Aeration improves turf health and appearance by retarding thatch build-up, enhancing microbial activity, stimulating new growth, encouraging deeper rooting and making watering easier on heavy or hard-to-wet soils, as well as providing a good opportunity to follow up with overseeding.
   Core aeration physically removes small cores of soil, leaving small holes in the lawn. It is best done in the fall when temperatures are cool and the grass is still growing. Cool-season turfgrass can be aerated in the spring, fall or both.
   Turf specialists say most lawns can benefit from at least one aeration per year, and heavily used lawns will benefit from more aerations.

Seeding
Establishing a Dense Lawn
   Recommended for bare patches or to improve a lawn that may have suffered from summer heat and drought. Proper turfgrass selection is one of the most important factors for the success of a home lawn.
   GreenGuard seeds with a select blend of turf-type tall fescues, chewings fescues, and perennial ryegrass varieties selected for their dark green color, disease resistance, stress tolerance, uniform appearance, and low growing attributes. This blend was specially formulated to withstand the harsh growing conditions in our locality. It has outstanding drought and heat tolerance due to its extremely long root system characteristics.

De-Thaching
Free Your Lawn From Barrier Layers
   Thatch (a layer of dead grass) will encourage almost every lawn problem that you can possibly have.
   When thatch exceeds desirable thickness, it filters out the vital air, water and nutrients needed by the grass’ roots. In addition, the damp, contaminated thatch is an ideal breeding ground for diseases and insects.
Removing grass clippings will help, but it may be necessary to mechanically remove the thatch. De-thatching is best performed in late summer or early fall for cool season grasses.

Fertilization
Essential Elements for Healthy Growth
   N, P, and K are not enough to get the top-quality look for your lawn.
GreenGuard’s special lawn formula provides at least 16 basic nutrients needed of health turf growth. A lack of any one of them can cause stress and poor growth. Research has proven that lawns with good nutrient supplies are more able to withstand the effects of disease, pests and extreme weather conditions.

Weed Control
For High-Quality, Uniform Appearance
   For an above-average or superior quality lawn, weed control is often necessary. Most weeds reduce the quality of the lawn by their uneven texture and height in relation to turfgrasses, giving an undesirable low-quality appearance. Weeds will compete with turfgrass for space, water and nutrients.
   GreenGuard employs an excellent arsenal of pre-emergence and post-emergence herbicides to control the varieties of weeds appearing in this region.

Lime
For Optimum Soil Chemistry
   Lime applications reduce soil acidity and improves turf growth through the summer and fall. It is recommended to be applied in the fall to enable the lime to break down over the winter for the next season’s growth. However, if a soil test indicates acidic soil, lime can be applied anytime.
   Most of the soils in Virginia test below the pH at which turfgrasses perform best. The large amount of rainfall in our humid eastern region leaches the alkaline elements from the soil, resulting in the acidic soil conditions that adversely affect turf.
   Lime is very safe and non-toxic to humans, and will not cause pollution problems.

Soil Testing
Accuracy in Scientific Lawn Care
   Soil testing will evaluate whether the soil pH and nutrients (phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium) are in a range that favor turf growth. GreenGuard uses the soil tests to determine proper fertilizer and lime applications.

At GreenGuard, we take as much pride in your lawn as you do. Let our turf specialists work with you to design a lawn program that will best meet your needs.