Greco Landscaping News Page

Four Seasons & Greco News!

This page is designed to give you the latest in our Company news, but more importantly, how we can help you keep your property at its peak during the season and the next to come.

Spring 2009

From our recent e-newsletter:

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence. ~ Hal Borland

April 8th, 2009

Hello Again! There are almost 50 people receiving this newsletter now! So thank you for all for asking to be on our newsletter mailing list! This month's issue focuses on pests and how to reduce or eliminate them.

As we said in our last email, refer your friends and neighbors to us and if we get the job, we will give you some "green." That "green" being one free lawn fertilization – spring (with crabgrass weed control), summer, lime, or fall fertilization per referral.

Happy Spring Everyone!

Sparta Independent, "The Children's Edition"

Our sales rep, Sherri Gaffney from the "Sparta Independent" gave us an opportunity we couldn't resist. We have placed an ad in the newspaper's "Children's Edition." Children from The Helen Morgan School in Sparta were given the task of creating advertisements for the paper. The parameters were to select a business, create the drawing (without computer graphics), and have fun! Seventeen kids selected us to create their design (all we had to do was provide the wording). The result? Too many great drawings to pick from and artwork for our refrigerator here at the shop!! We picked one at random and are using a page on our website to display all the hard work that went into the project. Thanks to ALL of the kids that participated!

Click on the picture to take you to the page where all of the pictures are!

Flea & Tick Prevention

Unfortunately, flea problems are widespread. Once a home becomes infested, control can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive. A flea-infested dog or cat can introduce hundreds of new flea eggs into the home each day. There are more than 200 species of fleas in this country and they will feed on anyone in the household cat, dog or human. These insects will most likely choose a pet, whose fur provides warm camouflage for their breeding ground. By mid- to late summer, pet owners often find themselves fighting a losing battle against established flea populations that are enormous.

The public awareness of deer tick's and Lyme Disease has increased dramatically over the past several years. This has come from the newspapers, our doctor's and sadly, from personal experience. As you well know, symptoms of Lyme disease can be severe, including acute headache to more serious nervous system impairment, symptoms resembling rheumatoid arthritis, expanding red rash on or near the tick bite, low grade fever, abdominal and joint pain, dizziness and stiff neck. Left untreated, the effects can be extreme. New reports have linked spinal meningitis to Lyme's.

As that ol' kite-flyer Ben Franklin once said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Little did he know he was talking about one of the steps in reducing your family's exposure to the ticks that carry Lyme disease. Our tick spray requires only a small amount of chemical mixed with water to produce potent results.

Here are a few tips to help you protect your family:

Reduce Ticks in Your Yard

Modify your landscape to create tick-safe zones. To do this, keep play areas and playground equipment away from shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation. Also, regularly remove leaf litter and clear tall grasses and brush around homes, and place wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas to keep ticks away from recreational areas.
Provide a vegetation-free play area. Keep play areas and playground equipment away from away from shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation.
Use our chemical control agent. Effective tick control chemicals are available for use and even limited applications can greatly reduce the number of ticks. A single springtime application can reduce the population of ticks that cause Lyme disease by 68–100%.
Discourage deer. Removing plants that attract deer and constructing physical barriers may help discourage deer from entering your yard and bringing ticks with them.

Here are a few links on the web that will also give you more information:

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/StopTicks/

http://www.allivet.com/Articles.asp?ID=113

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/arachnids/tick6.htm

Horticultural / Dormant Oil

Quick Facts...

Certain oils, diluted with water and applied as sprays, can be effective controls of many plant pests.
Horticultural oils are usually highly refined petroleum oils combined with an emulsifying agent. Some plant-derived oils also are used.
Advantages of oils include safety, effectiveness and limited effects on beneficial insects.
Do not use oils on certain sensitive plants. Plants under drought stress may have increased risk of injury.

Various oils have been used for centuries to control insect and mite pests. Oils remain an important tool to manage certain pest problems (e.g., scales, aphids, mites) on fruit trees, shade trees and woody ornamental plants. Several recently developed oils extend this usefulness to flowers, vegetables and other herbaceous plants. Oils also can control some plant diseases, such as powdery mildew. Oils used to protect plants have been called by many names, but perhaps horticultural oils best describes them.

Oils pose few risks to people or to most desirable species, including beneficial natural enemies of insect pests. This allows oils to integrate well with biological controls. Toxicity is minimal, at least compared to alternative pesticides, and oils quickly dissipate through evaporation, leaving little residue. Oils also are easy to apply with existing spray equipment and can be mixed with many other pesticides to extend their performance.

If you have not scheduled yet for dormant oil for your property, call the office to schedule or to arrange for an appointment for a free estimate.

"What's a broadleaf weed?"

Broadleaf weeds often have showy flowers. The leaves have a network of small veins that originate from a principal vein. This main vein divides the leaf in half. Broadleaves usually have a strong main root known as a taproot. Dandelion is a good example of a broadleaf weed.

Of course, we have the remedy. Our sprays and granulares will rid your lawn of these eyesores.

Four Seasons & Greco News!

Reduce Ticks in Your Yard

Quick Facts...

Send mail to russ@grecolandscaping.com with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: 01/12/10

Send mail to russ@grecolandscaping.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 01/12/10