<font color=red>QUICK TIPS</font> Late Summer Lawn Care

Summer weather extremes and outdoor gatherings can take their toll on clients' lawns. Yard Doctor Trey Rogers Ph.D., offers some emergency help for troubled areas and tips on what can be done right now to help promote better yard next year.

"There's always something you can do to make your lawn and yard look a little better," says Rogers, a turf scientist who is the Briggs & Stratton Yard Doctor.

Here's what to do now:

• First aid for a battered lawn.
  By late summer or early fall, your grass may be worn down from foot traffic. When you fertilize, give these areas one extra pass with the spreader to help the grass recover.
• Need green in a hurry?
  Apply a light dose of urea (pure nitrogen fertilizer) and water it in for near-instant green in two to three days.  It will last a couple of weeks.
• Prepare for the weed war.
  Those most hated of weeds - perennials like dandelions and creeping Charlie -- should be tackled in early fall for a better lawn next spring.  They are germinating now and are easier to kill.  Use a broadleaf weed killer.
• Raise the mower blade.
  Give customers' lawns a break by letting them grow just a little longer. Whenever you mow, never cut more than one-third the height of the grass blade to help lawns stay healthy.
• A great time to seed.
  Whether you are seeding an entire lawn or fixing dead patches, late summer and fall are great times to do it. Rake off any dead grass,loosen the soil and add a starter fertilizer before you seed or add sod. Keep the area moist until the seed sprouts and the sod sets roots.
• Plant trees and shrubs.
  Fall is a good time to add landscape elements, and they're generally less expensive this time of year. Water trees and shrubs thoroughly and continue to water until the first frost.