Consumer Information Bulletins

Each year we mail and email the Massachusetts Consumer Information Bulletins for pest control, termite control, lawn care and plant health care to all our active customers.
If you did not receive one, or would like another copy, please follow this link to the Pesticide Consumer Information Bulletin web page.

Sean Greenhow
Greenhow, Inc

Snow Mold

These photos were from a customer site from Thursday, March 3rd. You can see snow mold in this photo where half the yard on the south side of the home was still covered in snow. This area was uncovered and green, but heavily marked with snow mold. Check out this fact sheet on snow mold from UMASS for further information.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Soil Test for Lawn Success

Use a soil test to determine what deficiencies may exist in the soil. Soil is made up of a combination of sand, silt, clay, air, water and organic matter. Organic matter is the universal soil improver, helping the soil hold moisture and nutrients. Key results we look at are the soil pH, the ratio of calcium to magnesium and level of calcium and the the important Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC). The CEC is a measure of the soil’s ability to hold and exchange cations such as potassium, calcium and magnesium. Also important, the Percent Base Saturation (next to the CEC on the UMASS Soil Test Report) shows values for potassium (target 2 to 5%), magnesium (target 10 to 15%) and calcium (target 65 to 75%).
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Soil Conditioner

Aerations are underway at many customer lawns. If you are considering aerating your lawn, make sure you also overseed at the same time. An additional step that can vastly improve your lawn is the addition of soil conditioner. A soil conditioner can be many different types, and is used to improve drainage while improving water retention. We use the Turface brand soil conditioner, specifically Emerald Field and Fairway to permanently improve soil conditions at customer sites.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

GreenHow, Mexico.

Occasionally we recieve a call for the unrelated business of GreenHow, Mexico, which offers high quality fertilizers and technical service for customers in Mexico from their facility in Guadalajara. Visit the link above for commercial and agricultural applications south of the Rio Grande. This business is not related to our Boston, Massachusetts based lawn care, pest control and termite control company.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Leave the clippings.

For quality lawn care, as summer begins, finally, it is time to raise mowing heights to 3" or higher, and try to leave the clippings on the lawn or turf. It is important to leave the clippings to reduce fertilizer use by returning nitrogen back to the soil. Leaving clippings can add as much as one lb of nitrogen per year. Contrary to popular belief, it does not increase thatch.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Fungus

Many Boston Area lawns have brown or yellow splotches and circles on them, after a week of mostly wet weather including rain days and cool nights in the upper 40's and low 50's. The suspects? Many customers rightly say the grass looks stressed or burned but they know water is not the issue. Other customers have said they suspects insects, but grubs probably haven't caused that kind of damage yet, more toward July and August. In most cases we have inspected, the cause is fungus. There are many lawns with brown patch or yellow patch and red thread. Against intuition, these areas affected tend to be the sunnier parts of the lawn. The reason, according to Craig Heffron from John Deere Landscapes, the temperature in these areas is high enough to incubate the fungus. Cultural controls are critical for fungi, illustrating the importance of balanced lawn fertility, and proper maintenance practices.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Spring Flowers!

Just this past week, while measuring lawns for lawn care quotes, in some areas it was possible to see the small green shoots of bulbs coming up in some garden beds. Even though it will be cold and snowy again this winter, it will do your garden and probably your mind a bit of good to think about spring. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, known for their work at Elm Bank on the Wellesley, Natick and Dover line, is putting on a Spring Flower Show at International Place. This event, BLOOMS, will run the weekend of March 13th to March 15th at One International Place, the Intercontinental Hotel and 125 High Street. Companion exhibits will be on display at area malls including the Atrium, The Mall at Chestnut Hill (both on Boylston St, Route 9, Chestnut Hill), and Copley Place (also on Route 9, but on Huntington Ave in Boston). These companion flower exhibits will be on display from March 12 to 22nd. Just going and seeing the color of displays should inspire spring ideas on these grey days. Take heart in the approaching spring with the signs of life, from budding bulbs, to even the return of carpenter ants and termites.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

Organic Lawn Care

It seems like a funny time of year to consider lawn care, since we can't see any grass right now. It is a great time of year to update what we know about lawn care. To that end, we sent a representative to the NOFA accreditation training that started January 14th and goes January 14, 15, 16 then 20, 21, concluding with an exam on January 21. NOFA stands for Northeast Organic Farming Association. The program began in 1999 as the Organic Land Care Program to educate the industry about a vision of "organic" land care. This program developed into the a program based on the NOFA Standards for Organic Land Care written in 2000-2001. NOFA developed and offers a training course that is offered with or without an accreditation exam. We decided early in 2008 to make sure that we attended the accreditation training in 2009, and are happy the training is underway. We look forward to giving you an update on our progress toward accreditation.
Whether updating materials or training, in order to meet our customers' needs and fulfill our mission, we need to think about lawn care even when there is snow on the ground.

-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.

End of year, 2008.

It is great to end the year and look back at the success and misses, and get to plan for a new year. This year started out with a ordinary termite swarm season, moved into a wet spring and summer, helping to keep the lawns looking great, and ended with a fair amount of rodent activity. Overall, pest control activity was strong. This year we added the soil conditioner option to the lawn care service, improving the soils ability to hold and drain water. We also end the year with plans to add service certifications and accreditations to our programs in 2009, stay tuned.
-Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
www.GreenHow.com. Effective Organic & Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control & Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.