Brian Jenkins

Lawn patches are the bane of every avid gardener trying to maintain a lush, green lawn. Whether it's 'visits' from a neighbor's dog or overuse of fertilizer, the end result is the same: ugly brown patches where grass has died or lost color.

The unmistakable signs of lawn moles might just be one of those sights that sinks the heart of anyone who's ever invested time and effort into maintaining a lawn. Lawn moles are a particularly unpopular pest because unlike most, they're very difficult-if not impossible-to get rid of permanently. In most cases, the best you can do is reduce their activity level and try to learn to co-exist somewhat peacefully.

One of the reasons people don't bother to maintain their lawn (or have difficulty doing so) is that they believe there's too much work involved. They might simply have a problem with figuring out how often to do each of the necessary tasks, when to do them, and when not to do them.

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, or so Alfred, Lord Tennyson once wrote. For some of us, our thoughts tend to turn to more mundane issues, such as the color of our lawns. Getting a gorgeous green lawn requires a bit of work, and the owners of the best lawns know that work starts well before summer hits.

Proper watering of the lawn is one of the most important aspects of achieving that bright green color, and for maintaining overall lawn health. For owners of larger lawns, it can be an enormously time-consuming chore to do by hand. Fortunately, the right lawn system will take care of that problem.

Like most good things, achieving a bright green lawn takes some planning and work, all year round. It's not enough to take care of your lawn in spring when it's about to start growing. Good lawn care requires that you combine some essential elements-sunlight, water, mowing, and nutrients, in the form of fertilizer.

If you have moved into a new house, or just need a new lawnmower, there are a lot of choices available. Now-a-days, you can purchase anything from a basic reel mower that just uses your body for power to riding mowers that can also be used to work in the garden and around the yard.

Crabgrass has been the bane of landscapers and lawn enthusiasts since the first yard appeared. The fancy, scientific name for the most common crabgrass found in North America is Digitaria sanguinalis. This weed is sometimes called finger-grass because the stems where the seeds develop shoot off from the main plant and look like, well, skinny fingers.

Grubs are, basically, baby beetles, mostly Japanese Beetles and Masked Chafer Beetles although there are many varieties. In July, adults look for a good place to lay the eggs for the next generation of beetles, and, all too often, it ends up being your lawn.

Do you strive for the perfect lawn? Do you want your lawn to rival even the best kept baseball diamond outfield, soccer field and golf green (before a game, of course)? Have you gotten down to measure individual blades of grass to make sure they are the same height? OK, maybe that's going a bit far, but you know what I mean.