Category: News & Tips

Making sure your lawn stays healthy takes a lot of work, especially maintaining your watering schedule. There are some days you’ll do anything to make that process easier.

Traditional sprinkler systems definitely help keep the grass alive and lush, but they can waste too much water and take up a lot of your time.

Not only is that bad for the environment as a whole, it’s hard on the wallet too. You obviously don’t want to give up your luscious lawn, so what’s an easy way to save water and money?

A Wi-Fi-controlled irrigation system. Welcome to the future.

No one likes pulling into the driveway and seeing a dark house. It isn’t welcoming or homey, and who knows what could be lurking in shadows. When you’re away for days at a time, if your house is dark, it is at risk. Gain peace of mind while you’re away and a welcoming home when you return with a customized lighting system.

Brighten up your home and keep it safe with a custom LED lighting system from Pro Outdoor.

Why LED Lights Are the Best Choice

Energy efficiency

You might be worried about over-the-top energy costs when installing a new lighting system, but an LED-based lighting system will provide energy efficiency at a lower energy cost than other lighting systems. LED lights use about 50% less electricity than incandescent, fluorescent, and halogen lights.

Your outdoor lights will be on for extended periods, so the energy cost savings from LED lights will be kind to your wallet.

Extended life

LEDs don’t “burn out” or fail – instead, they dim over time. If you had incandescent lights, you’d have to replace the bulbs more frequently or risk a bulb outage when you need the lights on most.

Quality LED lights have an expected lifespan of 30,000-50,000 hours depending on the quality of the light. Comparatively, incandescent bulbs only last about 1,000 hours and compact fluorescent lights last 8,000 to 10,000 hours.

The extended light of LEDs reduces labor costs of replacing bulbs in commercial locations and makes it easier on homeowners too.

Work in cold temperatures

Unlike fluorescent lamps that require high voltage at lower temperatures, LED performances increases as temperatures drop. That makes LEDs a perfect fit for outdoor lighting systems in cold areas.

When the sun goes down earlier in the winter, you rely on your outdoor lights even more, and you don’t want to worry about them in a cold snap.

Instant On

Most fluorescent lamps don’t provide full brightness the instant they’re turned on, and they might need a few minutes to reach maximum light. LEDs come on at 100% brightness almost instantly. This is especially helpful for motion sensor lights and following a power outage.

Make Your Home a Bright and Safe Sanctuary with a LED Lighting System

With a solid selection of transformers, fixtures, finishes, and filters, our home lighting system designers can surround your home with light that will improve overall appearance, security, and home value.

Contact Pro Outdoor today and ask about LED lighting system installation.

Your lawn doesn’t require as much care in the winter as it does the rest of the year, but you don’t want to ignore it completely.

Winter can be unpredictable, especially in the Midwest, and may put your lawn through some extreme conditions. The best thing you can do for your lawn is to take care of the grass now and “put it to bed” before winter officially sets in.

If you take steps in the fall to keep your lawn healthy over winter, you won’t be kicking yourself when spring rolls around, and your lawn isn’t as green or luscious as the previous spring.

Take the following steps this winter to ensure the health of your lawn come springtime:

Aerate and Fertilize Your Lawn

Aerating your lawn gives it a chance to breathe before it goes dormant and helps relieve any compaction that built up during summer.

Once your lawn is aerated and breathing, it’s a good time to fertilize. Your grass will get the essential nutrients it needs to prepare for winter.

The grass roots absorb and store the nutrients during winter and then, in the spring, the grass roots tap into those nutrients to give it a head start, making it green and lush.

Taking care of your lawn now means your lawn won’t be ragged and run-down in spring.

Keep It Clean

It’s likely that leaves piled up on your lawn during fall, and that could lead to your lawn suffocating before winter.

Leaves left on your lawn could get too wet and invite disease. If the layer of leaves is too thick, wet, or matted down, you’ll want to rake them up and remove them. If they aren’t too thick or wet, mulch the leaves with your mower to recycle the nutrients back into your lawn.

Avoid Traffic on the Lawn

When the lawn has a layer of frost or its laying dormant, try to avoid walking on it too much. Even the strongest grass can become weak if the same path is walked over too many times.

Prepare Now

Have your winter lawn care plan in place well ahead of time. Once there’s a chilly breeze in the air, keep an eye on the forecast, so you leave yourself enough time to put your plan into action before the first frost arrives.

Call the experienced team at Pro Outdoor today to ensure your lawn remains healthy all winter. They can help with aerating and overseeding your lawn for fall and winter. Your lawn is an investment, so you should get help from the best.

During fall, adjusting your sprinkler system should be part of your regular outdoor maintenance. Early fall looks a lot like summer – especially in the St. Louis area – so your lawn will still need to be watered at the same rate as summer.

As fall progresses, though, you’ll find that your lawn doesn’t need as much water, and you need to adjust your sprinkler system to meet the decreased needs of your yard.

As a general rule, your lawn needs an average of two inches of water per week during a hot, dry summer and a ½ inch per week during fall.

If you need help determining the exact amount of water your lawn needs, contact the Pro Outdoor team. We’ll help you get your sprinkler system adjusted for fall and ensure your lawn stays healthy.

When to Stop Watering Your Lawn

When the temperatures begin to drop and the days are shorter, your grass growth slows down. With less heat and sunshine to evaporate the water, your lawn needs less to drink, but that doesn’t mean you suddenly stop watering altogether.

Conditions tend to vary, especially in the Midwest, but you can follow these general rules for when to stop watering your plants in fall weather:

• Continue to provide supplemental moisture as needed until the ground freezes
• If you receive one inch or more of precipitation per week, you don’t need to water
• During times when the weather is warm and dry, water a few times a week
• If you have a new lawn or one that has been overseeded, you need to maintain regular watering practices for root establishment and growth promotion.

Adjusting your watering schedule in the fall will give your wallet a break and prepare your lawn for the upcoming winter months.

Install a Rain Sensor

Some areas might see an increase in rainfall as autumn rolls in, which means your lawn and plants will need less water from your sprinkler system. You don’t want to overwater your lawn, so installing a rain sensor might be the way to go.

Some areas might see an increase in rainfall as autumn rolls in, which means your lawn and plants will need less water from your sprinkler system. You don’t want to overwater your lawn, so installing a rain sensor might be the way to go.

The rain sensor will shut off a scheduled watering session if the grass already has enough water, and you don’t have to worry about over-saturating your lawn.

Prepare for winterization

At the end of fall, you’ll need to winterize your system. Sprinkler winterization is turning off the system and removing all of the water, which is why you want to get it done before a freeze. You don’t want to damage your system because water froze in the pipes over the winter.

Sprinkler winterization usually takes place from September through November. Your lawn doesn’t need as much or any water from your sprinkler system, so it’s the perfect time to schedule a sprinkler winterization appointment with Pro Outdoor.

Your sprinkler system is an investment, so you should treat it like one. Leave it to the professionals to winterize your sprinkler system. They’ll get it done right, and you can rest easy knowing your system will perform optimally when spring rolls back around.

Schedule a sprinkler fall winterization service appointment with one of our expert technicians today and have one less thing to worry about come spring.

You know when you see small cylinders of soil on someone’s lawn and you think, “huh, what’s that about?”

That person had their lawn aerated. They were taking care of their lawn and achieving a thicker, healthier lawn.

Regular lawn maintenance goes a long way in creating a thicker, healthier lawn. Even tasks that you only need to do once a year can play a significant role in maintaining your lawn’s health and appearance.

For many homeowners, aerating their lawn is a regular task they do annually. But why do they do it?

Why aerate your lawn

First of all, aeration involves perforating the soil with small holes so that air, water, and nutrients can penetrate down to the grass roots. This helps the roots grow deeply so your lawn is stronger.

Lawn aeration also relieves soil compaction and enhances grass growth. Compacted soil inhibits the flow of the air and nutrients that will make a significant difference in the health and beauty of your lawn.

Benefits of aeration

Aerating your lawn can help make it healthier and reduce your maintenance requirements because of these benefits:

• Improved air exchange between the soil and atmosphere
• Reduced water runoff and puddling
• Stronger roots
• Reduced soil compaction
• Enhanced heat and drought stress tolerance
• Thatch breakdown
• Improved resiliency and cushioning

When lawns need aeration

The best time to aerate your lawn is during the growing season so that the grass can fill in any open areas after soil plugs are removed. Ideally, you’d aerate your lawn in the early spring or fall.

It may not seem like your lawn is compacted or that it has enough traffic for it to become so, but it happens easier than you may think. Vehicles or small equipment driven on the lawn are obvious offenders, but a lot of playing in the yard or hosting parties can leave your lawn compacted.

If your grass looks stressed and the soil is hard to the touch, or rainwater puddles up where it used to be absorbed, you probably have a compaction problem.

What do I do after aerating my lawn?

After your lawn has been aerated, let the soil plugs dry where they fall. They’ll break down during the next rainfall or crumble when you mow next. They add beneficial soil and organic matter to your lawn surface.

Right after aeration is the perfect time to overseed and fertilize your lawn. Seeds and nutrients will have direct contact with the soil through the openings created during aeration, giving roots the direct and fresh pathways they need to grow.

Aerate Your Lawn with the Team You Trust

Get a jump start on a greener lawn with Pro Outdoor. With our irrigation expertise along with aeration services, there will be increased success in achieving a healthier lawn.

Give the Pro Outdoor team a call today and get started on the aeration process.

Overseeding sounds like a bad thing, right? Something you want to avoid doing to your lawn?

Actually, overseeding is a way to fill in bare spots, improve the density of your lawn, and enhance your lawn’s color. It’s the secret to achieving the beautiful lawn you’ve been wanting.

Maybe you’ve been eyeing the neighbor’s luscious lawn and wondering just how they managed that. It was probably overseeding.

If your lawn looks old, if it needs an increasing amount of water and fertilizer, or if it’s disease and insect prone, it’s the perfect candidate for overseeding.

The Benefits of Overseeding

Overseeding with a newer turfgrass variety can help your older lawn withstand insects, disease, drought, shady conditions, and heavy traffic. The investment in overseeding pays off by reducing the overall amount of fertilizer, water, and pesticides needed throughout the year.

Plus, a renovated, overseeded lawn stays greener longer and looks thicker and healthier.

When is the Best Time to Overseed?

Late summer or early fall is the best time to overseed your lawn. Soil and atmospheric temperatures are most favorable for optimum seed germination and growth at that time of year.

With adequate moisture, fertilizer, and sunlight, your new seedlings will be established before cooler fall weather sets in. Also, weeds are less of a factor during late summer and early fall, which gives your grass seedlings a better environment to develop and flourish.

Overseeding Aftercare

Depending on the conditions of your lawn and the type of seed, new grass seed will usually start to emerge in about a week after seeding. An overseeded lawn can be fully established in about eight weeks.

Proper watering is critical to make your overseeding efforts a success:

• Immediately after overseeding, water heavily to wash grass seeds into slits.
• For the first 10-14 days – or until the grass seeds germinate – water lightly on a daily basis, soaking the first inch of soil.
• After germination, water less frequently, but allow for deeper soaking and penetration into the soil. This will encourage deeper root growth.
• After your grass is established, water at the recommended level for the type of grass planted.

The key is patience. Proper overseeding will produce a healthier, more luscious-looking lawn that will respond better to mowing, fertilization, and water. But it does take some time, patience, and dedication to make your lawn look healthy.

Get the Healthy Lawn You Want with the Team You Trust

You’ll see the difference in everything we do – from understanding every challenge as you see it, to leaving no questions unanswered about how we can help your lawn stay green and healthy.

We are Pro Outdoor. And if you believe like us that quality, service, and value still matter, then you’re ready to grow with us.

Contact Us and start the journey to a healthier lawn.