A Healthier, Happier Lawn
With Yard Guard!

Author: Colin

What is Compost Tea?

You can show your lawn a HEAP of love by giving it a healthy drink of compost tea! 

What is compost tea? Compost Tea is the liquid version of compost, one takes compost and “extracts” all the good parts into a liquid solution to then be applied to desired plants and/ or soil. 

Think about how you would start a vegetable garden. Your first move is to probably build a healthy base with great quality soil consisting of composted material. However, when we want to have a healthy lawn, our first thought is to establish the seed or sod and then grab a jug of chemicals. There has to be a better way!

Over the last couple years, while building and testing our Blended Organic program, we have been working with a Montana farm and rancher testing inputs based on organics and biology rather than chemicals. When we started working together, he was in the process of converting 200 acres to a sod farm. So far he has only added compost tea and local compost to the soil and the results are awesome!

We’ve partnered with a local company, Yes Compost, that takes local organic waste to create high-quality compost and worm castings. We are then able to take their compost and worm castings which we then run through our extractor to make fresh tea daily into a tea to apply to your lawns and gardens. This tea is packed with organic material, amino acids, humic acid and micronutrients that give your lawn the best liquid concentrate possible.

Compost tea is a natural solution that uses biology to improve soil health. It has been used by avid master gardeners for years! When applied to your lawn, it acts as a nourishing tonic, providing the essential nutrients and microbial life necessary for a thriving ecosystem beneath the surface. The diverse range of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms in our compost tea work together to break down organic matter, enhance nutrient availability, and promote root development.

By receiving this application, you’re working to feed the lawn, aerate the soil, inoculate the biology and restore organic material, thus giving your soil the fighting chance to outcompete weeds on its own. Plus it works as a liquid aeration! The carbon present in the tea helps to create “carbon stacking” air pockets within the soil, improving its structure and allowing for better water and nutrient absorption. This not only benefits your lawn but also reduces the need for excessive watering.

Paired with our Blended Organic lawn care program, you are on a quick path to repairing your soil organically instead of relying on synthetic treatments every few weeks to keep your grass green and weed-free. 

Fill out the contact form below to get a quote for Compost Tea for your home!

Is My Lawn Dead? Can You Fix It?

 

Leaf Spot Disease

Last week, we found the first example of Ascochyta Leaf Spot this year.

What you’re seeing is a fungal disease called Ascochyta Leaf Spot or “Melting Out.” The fungal spores are always present but usually don’t affect the turf unless it’s stressed and unable to protect itself, like these photos above show. Turf stress comes from poor or lack of irrigation, shallow / poor soil, or being mowed short. Although things will look worse before they look better, the lawn will recover if cultural practices can be changed (more water and mowing at the tallest height). It takes roughly 2-3 weeks of good cultural practices to start to catch back up. 

I know it is hard to believe, but the rain we get in the spring isn’t close to enough. The whole month of April we got a half inch of rain (enough for one watering). Most of the rain storms we get produce around .1” of rain or 1/15 of what your lawn needs in a week. 

In the photos, you can see tracks. You can see damage from the disease where the mower pushes the grass down killing the tissue of the leaf blade, leaving dead looking lines from the mower tracks. From there it can expand to patchy spots that make the lawn appear the lawn is “melting out”. 

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?

With proper watering and mowing your lawn is going to naturally grow out of it in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, we recommend following these guidelines: 

  1. Start Watering! Lawns are a living organism and like us, they need water to survive. As a general guideline if you have healthy soil, an inch and a half of water is recommended per week (be sure to follow watering regulations) and water in the morning between 4-8 AM. 
  2. Put your mower to the maximum height. This is SO important: taller grass = more plant tissue for photosynthesis, longer roots (they mimic the top growth), shaded soil to hold more water, and GREENER GRASS – the longer the leaf blade the more green there is. 
  3. Now that you’ve put your mower to the maximum height, wait a week or two to mow. Allow the turf to come back and strengthen itself while maintaining or slightly increasing your watering schedule.
  4. Add more organics to the soil. More organics means more healthy bacteria and fungi that can help fight diseases such as this one. Just like our gut, when we add the right bacteria, our immune system is typically more strengthened and can outcompete sickness. Healthy soil full of organic material holds way more water! (If you are not on our Blended Organic Program what better time to start.)

If you want to learn more, we encourage you to read this article published by Colorado State University.

As always, please send us photos if you’re not sure what you’re seeing 406-222-1152.

How Do I Get Rid of Voles?

WOW, ever since the snow has melted, the first issue we noticed was how bad the vole damage was this year! Since we had a longer winter, the little buggers had more time to hang out in your lawn and eat the precious grass roots, that we as your lawn care company, try to keep strong and healthy! 

We want to share ideas for how to keep these rodents at bay in the future as well as what you can do now that the vole damage has already been done. 

So, what do voles actually do to your lawn? These rodents eat the crown of grass roots and the bark on trees and shrubs during the winter. Typically, they move in from nearby rangeland areas under the snow and then once the snow melts, they’re gone and your property might show signs of damage like below:

Now if you have these unsightly tunnels right now, stay patient, typically by June everything will look back to normal and you will forget that this was even an issue!

But…WHAT CAN YOU DO RIGHT NOW?

First things first, go ahead and rake up the dead grass. Many times after doing that, you will see that there is already newly established grass in those tunnel areas and it’s going to fill in and look fantastic. However, if you have extensive damage, we would recommend applying a half inch of topsoil to the area. This soil will keep the roots moist while the grass continues to grow back. 

 

If you have any additional questions or whether you have vole damage, send us a photo of your lawn at 406-312-7633. Our team would love to help you!

Why is Your Lawn Brown?

With the crazy spring weather, we have seen a huge increase in brown lawns all around Bozeman and Livingston, MT. There are two main circumstances to attribute this to: drought and lawn fungal disease.

DROUGHT:

drought stress lawn montana    irrigation problem lawns montana

How is drought possible with the rain we got?!

Yes, even with the rain we received, your lawn still needed much more water. You probably noticed that as soon as temperatures warmed up, your lawn started to get a slight yellow tinge if you hadn’t turned on your sprinklers yet.

With good soil, cool season grasses need one and a half inches of water per week to maintain a healthy profile. The rain was giving it a half inch at best.

What can you do if your lawn looks like this?

  1. Turn your sprinklers on!
  2. Set your mower blades at max height. This will help shade your soil to retain water.
  3. Be patient, if your lawn has already gone dormant and it may take up to a month to recover.

FUNGAL – LEAF SPOT “MELTING OUT”:

lawn fungus montana melting out - leaf spot

What is this?

Leaf Spot occurs when there is a rapid change in temperature and/or moisture in the lawn. In a weeks time the disease can overtake even the healthiest lawn in the neighborhood.

Your lawn can start to appear burnt or “melting out” as the fungal spores spread through the grass blades. Mowers help spread spores around which creates the pattern you see in the top photo. This is why you will sometimes see it stop right at property lines. The good news is once temperatures cool down lawns can usually recover on their own.

What can you do if your lawn looks like this?

  1. Continue to water, fertilize, and mow at 4″ height
  2. Using a fungicide every 14 days will help the recovery time, focus on the affected and surrounding areas. We recommend using something with the active ingredient Propiconazol like this product: Fungus Control For Lawns
  3. Be patient, fungicides will help but you won’t see real results until temperatures start to cool again.

If you’re not sure whether you are experiencing leaf spot or drought, please text us a photo and we’re happy to help diagnose it! 406-222-1152

Is Blended Organic the Future of Lawn Care?

There has been a growing demand for organic lawn care programs due to several reasons:

  • Drought
  • Concern of what products our families and pets are surrounded by
  • The sustainability of pollinators, etc. 

The challenge for Yard Guard is: how do we satisfy our customers’ requests and provide a lawn they can be proud of?

About Blended Organic
There are two modes of thinking for organic lawns. First, customers want a fully organic program and have never tried it before and second, customers who have tried fully organic and realized that it does not work. Our Blended Organic program gives you the best of both worlds. 

Organic lawn care programs target different areas of the yard than a traditional lawn care program. Think: organic treats the soil and traditional treats the blades of grass. Over time, if you’re feeding the soil the proper nutrients it needs to maintain strong turf, your yard is going to look amazing, but BE PATIENT. Organic programs take time (think about 1.5 years) to get to a place where you are happy with the turf health. Traditional lawn care provides immediate results if you need control over weeds.

Most organic programs do not offer any weed control which means that the lawn is never able to outcompete weeds. If you are fine with this, then a 100% organic program is for you. However, if you want to get rid of the weeds and have a beautiful lawn, then our blended organic program would be a great option! This program is ever evolving for us. Containing 70% organics, it provides excellent nutrients for your lawn while maintaining weed control with our minimal application of herbicide. It does require some work on your end as the customer, though. 
| Be sure to follow our mowing and watering tips below to get the best results. | 

Add Carbon Back Into Your Soil
We use a blended organic slow release fertilizer that binds nitrogen, potassium, phosphate, sulfur, calcium and other micronutrients to carbon. Adding carbon back into the soil is key because it reduces greenhouse gasses, builds up your soil’s makeup and allows it to store water and nutrients better, creating a quality profile for healthy grass.

Our blended organic program follows the Trout Friendly Clean Water Coalition Guidelines. 

Our Five Step Blended Organic Program:

  • Step 1 – Blended organic granular fertilizer application. We’re using a cutting-edge, carbon-based product that’s bonded to peat moss to help retain moisture while returning carbon to the soil.
  • Step 2 – Combination liquid product based on kelp, molasses, traditional fertilizer for some nitrogen and weed control.
  • Step 3 – Blended organic granular fertilizer application. We’re using a cutting-edge, carbon-based product that’s bonded to peat moss to help retain moisture while returning carbon to the soil. We spot spray at a minimum rate to control weeds.
  • Step 4 – Liquid fertilizing product based on kelp, molasses, and traditional fertilizer for some nitrogen. We spot spray at a minimum rate to control weeds.
  • Step 5 – Blended organic granular fertilizer application. We’re using a cutting-edge, carbon-based product that’s bonded to peat moss to help retain moisture while returning carbon to the soil.We’re able to take advantage of the cooler temperatures to put down a higher amount of nutrients.

Best Watering and Mowing Tips: 

  1. We know you may want to cut your grass shorter, but please set your mowing height to 3.5″- 4″. It will require less water and look better!
  2. Less frequent, deeper watering’s early in the morning between 4:00 am – 8:00 am, are best. Start with every other day and adjust if necessary. We recommend increasing your watering times once temperatures heat up in July. Let us know if you have any questions or need more help!

At Yard Guard, we offer the blended organic program to our customers in Livingston, Paradise Valley, Bozeman, Belgrade and Three Forks, Montana. 

Give us a call or send us a text at 406.222.1152 to find out more about the program and to get a quote for your property!

Sprinkler Blowouts

Fall is coming, it’s time to winterize your sprinklers!

Space is limited. Fill out your information to get added to our schedule.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Broken sprinkler lines are not fun to deal with come spring. At Yard Guard, our trained staff is here to set your system up properly and give you the peace of mind of a job well done. 

We’ve made it easy with our no contact method for sprinkler blowouts. Once you’re scheduled for service, we’ll text you a link that shows you how to turn your water off for well pumps and city water systems. After that our team will arrive to complete the winterization.

We will begin blowouts on September 15th and go until the end of October. Make sure to sign up now before our schedule gets full. There is already limited space available! Serving Bozeman and Belgrade, Montana.

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Your Neighbors Will Thank You

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