We have some beautiful holly bushes, which are basically small trees now, surrounding my property. We've lived here for five years, and have trimmed them where we can reach them but nothing overly aggressive in respect to height and width.

My brother is a landscaper and he gave me some free advice years ago, which I thought that I would pass on.

The advice he has given me about trimming is this: "Take your time. Five years is a long time for us but a short time for a tree."

I hated this advice but it's spot on.

When we moved into our house there were some lilac bushes in the front of the house that the previous owners has shaped into trees. This would have been nice, but well, the trees had been neglected and there were some dead spots.

We had wanted to remove all of the dead spots and bring the trees down to a more manageable height but my brother encouraged me to take my time. As it turned out some of the dead spots were only dormant and over the last few years we've gently shaped it into something a bit more treelike.

Had I been as aggressive as I initially wanted it would've taken ~10 years for the tree to recover.

As for holly bushes, they are extremly hardy.

They will grow back faster than new plants even if you cut them all the way down because of the root system. If we really wanted to make them smaller we would get the latter and hedge trimmer out. But we'll save that for when they are too big. Since, there is not much of an alternative to aggressive cutting.

I guess I am really lucky. My brother is a landscaper so I get a lot of my knowledge for free. The stuff that I end up paying for is when I make a mistake.

Then it costs me.

But for today's question the answer is no. You are paying for their experience, their guarantee, and the cost of not doing it yourself.

Let's start off with:

1. consider getting your supplies from Lesco/John deere. It is what most professionals will use if there is one in the area.
2. part of what you get with a lawn service is their guarantee, most will come out and retreat weeds till the problem is corrected and you are satisfied. It may take a few calls.
3. most everything is negotiable. Most lawncare services are competing for business. Price a couple out. I had it to the point where the lawn service cost was about what I was paying for Lesco products... Then it just comes down to preference.

While there are pesticides that you need to be licensed to apply, they are called "Restricted use pesticide" or you may hear them called RUP. They're generally much stronger than what you can buy or will ever need. And if you did need them you would want somebody who knows what they are doing to actually apply them.

By all means, learn what you are doing. Even with the over the counter products you can buy you are exposing yourself to potentially health harming subtances!

My brother just suggested that I use the Scott's 4 step annual program. I was going try out the 4 step annual program at my local Home Depot, it is much like the one from Menards.

Where it also comes down to, is for costs. Application equipment (proper, not a cheap-o spreader) and Herbicides is where the consumer loses.

But when I look out and see our yard there is the sense of pride and accomplishment. I don't mind the extra cost and the effort. Plus if I make a mess my big brother will always be willing to put it right.

Try not to use products that mix fertilizer with weed killer or pre-emergent. This is a common mix so you will have to look hard so as to avoid it.

That said, you will also want to pay attention to the release. This is important and it is the main differenc, at least from what I have heard between cheap and quality fertilizers.

A cheap fertilizers will often have a lot of urea (fast acting) nitrogen added to it. There will be a lot of top growth and the nitrogen will be used quickly. If they are not watered in deeply and/or using them during a hot day, then cheap fertilizers will burn the lawn.

Quality fertilizers on the other hand have a higher percentage of slow acting nitrogen that are safer to use and last a lot longer.

Milorganite is clearancing at $5 dollars for a 35# bag across the country right now.

I have heard it's both Walmart and Home Depots. So the cost factor isn't really true if you pay attention to sales and that is how you get your quality fert. It comes down to certain environmental factors for each individual. Both will get you there for your lawn.

But it may be hard understanding how this actually comes into play when you start applying the fertilizer on your lawn.

The easiet way to solve this problem for me has been to ignore the weight of the fertilizer bag and simply divide the amount of nitrogen desired (1.0 lb nitrogen per 1000 sq ft) by the percentage of nitrogen in the bag (26%). When using percentages in calculations, convert the number to its decimal form (for example, 26% = 0.26; 5% = 0.05).

Another common problem involves determining the area that a bag of fertilizer can cover and how many bags are needed to cover large sites. This is mostly based on peoples gut feeling rather than an understanding of the task at hand.

I guess what I'm saying is develop a plan, and then use products appropriate for that plan. Not the reverse.

When trees are in among other trees, they have to use most of their energy to grow tall and straight to get as much light as possible.

When a tree is out in the open, it can get more light by spreading out and not shading out any of its own branches. So the same tree grown in different places will look different.

If you keep pruning the lower branches, the trunk itself can get thicker and stronger. It encourages canopy growth, but bigger/wider canopies don't necessarily translate to vertical growth. Removing the two lower branches will help redirect growth to the upper canopy. It leads to epicormic growth causing a few new long, streight and usually vertical growing branches to form.

If you want the tree to grow taller, remove one of the codominant leaders, fertilizer twice a year with a slow release fert, auxins and giberrellins are the two main hormones associated with tree growth, and give supplemental water in the summer to help prevent stress. This will make your tree grow taller.

When the Snow Melts

This seems to be a common idea people have about winter, and getting the fertilizer down before spring hits. When the snow melts they think that they can fertilize and have it sink into the ground.

Well.

It seems logical, sort of, but let's look at it like this.

One of the major causes of the algal blooms in our lakes is due to overfertilization. The reason is that when the next rain comes along, everything that hasn't been absorbed flows right out the lake. Fertilization really isn't necessary if you mulch the grass clippings back in through out the season.

Companies want you to buy lots of their product so their recommendations are very high. If you do fertilize, please make sure to use much less than the recommendation.

You can definitely over-do it as is apparent with my neighbor's lawn now he has a bunch of bare areas and wants somebody to repair it for him.

It is going to be costly.

Follow the Holidays

Still, just because you can over do it it doesn't mean that it is all bad.

Good rule of thumb is to follow the holidays for fertilizing.

• Easter, first good fert and preemergent
• Memorial day, weed and feed
• 4th of july if its not too hot and dry

Dont fert if grass is in heat dormancy, should have grub protection going down now. Labor day big fert and prepare to overseed and aerate if needed. If its still hot and dry push it off a few weeks closer to halloween.

Which Order?

Aerate/Fertilize/Overseed

Using a good top dressing with a higher peat will really boost your nutrient value better than just lots of fertilizer as the more organic matter in the soil will hold onto them better.

If you get the soil too rich too quickly you open up to diseases and weeds while your lawn is establishing . To much nutrients quickly will also make your current grass bolt expending their energy quickly.

Yet you should take it in steps. The reason is because gradual improvements will make your grass stronger and easier to maintain.

Milorganite

I spread it last year in May, late June and early August. However, there's some things that you should use other fertilizer for.

Milorganite is great as a general fertilizer to put on several times a year. It's fantastic for the summer because there's no risk of burn in. If you're overseeding or reseeding, you should choose something else. Milorganite is slower releasing, so for a new lawn, it's not going to help as much for the seedlings. I use it and my grass is the deepest green color and healthiest of any lawn in my neighborhood.

Basically milogranite is a good summer fertilizer, but it's not for the fall. Slow release organic fertilizer needs microbes to break it down. Cooler temps slow microbes down.

There is so much you can do right, so much that you can do wrong.

When in doubt, contact a landscaping company to have them give you a recommendation. It might be better to just let someone else treat their lawn than to buy spreader/bags/ rent aerator/thatcher.