Melting snow reveals green grass still not dormant As the temperatures and snowflakes begin to drop on the area in late fall, many things are happening to the lawn that are often ignored.  As attention turns to gift buying, cooking and holiday festivities, the lawn is doing things most people don't realize and that can help answer many misconceptions about lawn care and lawns by most homeowners.  Lawns in the area are primarily cool season grass types which will actually thrive until the soil freezes.    Early snow cover will blanket the lawn and act as a heat trapping blanket, while extended snow cover between now and spring may cause severe snow mold and vole damage that will need to be repaired in spring.  Snow shoveling will begin to cause severe ...

There are many tasks involved in caring for a lawn throughout the year that often get overlooked.  Winter preparation is one of them.  Preparing your lawn properly for the oncoming stress of a Midwest winter is a very important task that shouldn't be forgotten.  This involves clearing as many leaves, limbs, landscaping debris, mulch and any dead plant material that may have found its way onto the lawn from an landscaping projects throughout the year.  This is commonly referred to a fall cleanup and is currently being performed daily across the county.  The lawn should also be trimmed back to the minimal height as possible without removing more than a third of the leaf tissue or scalping the lawn down to the crown.  A late fall fertilizer should have been or being applied that consists of a high Nitrogen fast release form.  This allows for immediate uptake as the plant is still alive and before going dormant.  The turf will absorb the fertilizer...

What is all that white moldy looking stuff on my lawn? Snow mold is present on most lawns in Antioch, Gurnee, Lindenhurst, Lake Villa and Northeastern Illinois this early spring.  Snow mold is a fungus that grows on leaf tissue under wet snow cover during the winter months.  It is dependent on cool temperatures, moisture and dark cover.  We just experienced about 35 days of continuous snow cover from early January through this past week allowing the fungus to grow to moderate levels.  The quick warm up we are experiencing has melted the snow cover fast.  As the snow melts, sunlight warms the newly exposed ground elevating temperatures outside of the acceptable range of growth for the fungus.  Raking or mowing the fungus while still active could actually spread the spores and cause more damage next year under similar conditions.  The best thing to do is to let the turf and fungus dry out while the sunlight and temperatures rise.  Most lawns w...