How to Take Care of Your Lawn & Garden

Transcript Hi, my name is Patrick Weisel, and I’m a landscape professional in New York City. I wasn’t always a New Yorker. I was born on a strawberry farm and spent the rest of my childhood on the family nursery in southern Missouri. I came to New York City as a graphic designer and an …

Transcript A lot of people ask how to prune a hedge and that’s a pretty broad topic, but I’ll see if I can give you a few pointers in this short video. First of all you have to ask yourself, what kind of hedge are you looking for? Are you looking for something real formal …

Transcript If you’re looking for landscape tips, here’s a few simple ones I can offer you. Probably the most important thing you need to note when you’re out thinking about what to plant and where to plant it, is where’s the sun and where’s the shade. Too often, people plant sun-loving plants in the shade …

Transcript Now we’re going to roll the tree into the hole and position it where we want it. That looks pretty good. Once you’ve got the tree in the hole, and you’ve got any of the twine, or that, removed from it, you want to get a look at the tree and, sort of, turn …

Transcript A lot of people ask about fertilizing plants, trees and shrubs and there’s a couple ways you can go about doing that. Obviously one of the most common ones is to use chemical fertilizers. Generally what you do is get a granular fertilizer and then you would mix it into some quantity of water …

Transcript In this video we’re going to talk about how to prune your shrubs. Now that’s a very big topic and we can only cover a little bit here in such a short video, but I’m just going to give you a few pointers. The things you might need to prune your shrub are hand …

Transcript A lot of people ask me about pruning trees and I would caution you that that’s a pretty complex topic. For most of your tree pruning issues I would call a professional and leave it to the pros. You can do serious damage to your tree if you don’t know what you’re doing, if …

Transcript That’s exposing some of roots as well as settling the soil, a mixture of soil from the pot and the surrounding lawn, into the bottom of the hole so that they’ll really congeal around the root. Then once you have a little water in there, you want to backfill the rest of the hole …

Transcript In this video we are going to show you how to plant a tree. Not just any tree, but a ball and burlap tree, which is how many of the larger trees come from the nursery. It is a little different than planting a potted plant so you need to be to be careful …

Transcript Patrick: What you’ll see Howell is doing right now is roughing up the root ball a little more now that it’s moist. It was a little hard before. What we’re doing here might seem to you to be a little rough, but there’s really only a few things that you can do to damage …

Transcript Many people ask me about mulch, and mulch is really a very broad topic. There’s a lot of different kind of mulches. There’s wood mulch, there’s even rubber mulch. You could use stone as a mulch, you can straw as a mulch. Mulch just means a top layer of some kind of matter, organic …

Transcript This is a short video on how to plant flowers. Like any plant, one of the key thing you want to remember is not to plant it too deeply. Many people make that mistake and end up making a little bathtub in which water collects and the roots eventually rot because they’re too wet. …

Transcript So some of you have searched for how to grade your yard. A think to remember is grading is better left to professionals. Grading is actually changing the slope of your yard and changing the drainage. That’s not something a homeowner wants to do. What you really mean is probably how do I level …

Transcript While there are common concepts and practices to pruning all roses, it does help to know what kind of rose you have before you start pruning. Whether it’s a climber or a classic tea rose with the big buds we’re all familiar with, or something more carefree like these knock-out roses. You want to …

Transcript If you’re wanting to know how to plant a shrub, I’m going to give you just a quick demo here. The important thing when you’re planting any plant is to really be sure that you don’t plant it too deeply. If you plant the plant too deeply water collects in the hole and generally …

Transcript We might want to talk a little bit about soil now. So here are a few soil basics. First, what is soil composed of? Well, basically there are three components. There is sand, silt, and clay. Sand is the coarsest of this. We are all familiar with sand on the beach. Silt is a …

Transcript Whether you use a drop spreader, a broad (?) spreader, or even a little hand spreader like this; it’s critical to get even seed distribution rather than spreading by hand. As to how much seed to use, you should definitely consult the bag. It’s going to take a little math to figure that out, …

Transcript So some people have asked how to prepare your soil for grass seed. Well the first steps in that are to loosen the soil and then get the rough material, the highs and lows leveled on it. But then once you’ve got that, then you want to come in with a finer rake, something …

Transcript Some of you have searched for “How to pickaxe my soil.” That’s a pretty peculiar question because a pickaxe is not really something we use in gardening. What we use in gardening is a tool called a mattock. Instead of a pickaxe which would actually have an axe on this end we have something …

Transcript An alternative to reseeding your lawn is to start your lawn from sod. Now why might you want to do that? Well, obviously it’s instant gratification. Seeding a lawn takes up to three to six months to fairly establish and look like something we’re familiar with as a lawn. Where sod, you can put …

Transcript At the end of the season, people start thinking about putting their lawn mowers away, and so they ask me; how do I winterize my lawn mower? Well, there’s really not too much to it, unless you’re in the extreme north, where it gets really cold. Mostly, you’ll just want to wash off your …

Transcript A lot of people think because they have a sprinkler system, that they don’t have to worry about water any more. That’s actually not a very good idea, because the weather changes and so will the amount of water that your lawn needs. So, what you’re going to have to do from spring through …

Transcript Occasionally I get asked how to choose a lawn mower. What kind of lawn mower should I buy? Well there’s a lot of different kinds of lawn mowers out there. There’s electric mowers. There’s gas mowers. There’s self propelled mowers. There’s push mowers. There’s even riding mowers. The first thing I would suggest to …

Transcript If you really want to know what’s going on with your soil, you’re going to have to take a soil test. Now where do you get a soil test performed? Every state has a local county extension, and on that extension website, you’re going to find a form that you can download and print …

Transcript Some people have asked me; how do I get rid of weeds in my lawn? You have several tools at your disposal to get rid of those weeks in your lawn. The first is just a simple weeding tool, going out there by hand, getting down and digging out those weeds. If you only …

Transcript Some people want to know how to tune up your lawn mower. The important thing when tuning up your lawn mower is to remember that a mower or an engine on the mower needs three things to operate: it needs air, it needs fire, and it needs fuel. So if you’ve already got fresh …

Transcript People sometimes ask me how to control insects in your lawn. Well, your best defense against insects is to have healthy turf. That means, mowing high, fertilizing, watering. But if you find that you have an insect infestation and you really have to turn to something stronger than healthy turf, you’ll want to consider …

Transcript A lot of people ask me, “Patrick, how do I keep my grass green?” Well, the most important thing to keep your grass green, is you’re going to have to water it from time to time. As a rule of thumb, grass needs about an inch of water per week, so if mother nature …

Transcript A lot of people ask whether they should overseed their existing lawn or tear it up and start from scratch, seeding a new lawn. A basic rule of thumb is take a good honest look at your lawn. Is it more than 50 percent bare spots and weeds? if it is, you’re probably going …

Transcript For those of you who are wondering what’s the best way to mow a lawn; here are my tips for mowing a lawn. Number one, the really crucial thing for most lawns to stay green and healthy is to mow as high as you can. A lot of people are tempted to mow low …

Transcript Wherever you are, if you want your lawn to stay green, you’re going to have to water it, particularly in the heat of summer because they tend to brown out, especially here in the North. As a general rule of thumb, most lawns need an inch of water per week and when it gets …

Transcript In this video, we’re going to talk about how to prevent lawn diseases. The first thing you want to do is make sure you’re mowing with a sharp blade, because a dull blade will tear the grass blade and leave a ragged edge which invites diseases and pestilence into the grass plant. Next, you’ll …

Transcript A lot of people ask about fertilizing their lawn. The important thing to remember when fertilizing your lawn is that there’s two parts to that. There’s the fertilizer, and there’s the spreader. So first, let’s talk about the fertilizer. With any fertilizer, the first thing to look for are; there’s going to be three …

Transcript A lot of people ask me; How do I revive a dead lawn? Or say my lawn is dead, what do I do? The first thing I’d say to you is that your lawn is not dead. Or it’s very unlikely to be dead. Lawns tend to go senescent, or go to sleep when …

Transcript Some people would like to know how to remove leaves properly. Well there’s the old tried and true way which is to take a rake and go out there on your lawn and rake up all the leaves. That’s a lot of work and in the end you have a pile of leaves that …

Transcript A few of you have asked about warm season grasses. Since we’re here in the Northeast where we generally grow cool season grasses I can tell you that I don’t know specifically the species. But what I will tell you is that south of North Carolina our cool season grasses will not work. They’ll …

Transcript In this segment we’re going to cover how to mulch your lawn. The easiest way to mulch your lawn is to use a mulching mower. That’s a mower that does not have a side shoot that you’re probably all familiar and sees that throws the grass clips out the side, but rather its entirely …

Transcript In this video we are going to be talking about cool season grasses. If you live from the middle of the country to the northern half, say, about Virginia, Northward. You’re going to want a cool season grass because those grasses are more tolerate of winter cold. However, they do tend to brown out …

Transcript In this segment I’m going to be giving you my best grass cutting tips. If I had to say one tip for cutting the grass I would advise everyone to mow high. Most people like to mow low. They think it makes the lawn look nice, but if you mow high, it will do …

Transcript Some people have asked what’s my spring lawn care checklist. There’s not really a checklist per se; there’s not that much you have to do. You’ll just want to get out there early with the rake and rake all the debris up off the lawn. There will be a lot of twigs that have …

Transcript In this segment I’m going to be offering you my best lawn care tips. If I had to tell the homeowner two things that they could do to make their lawn better, they would be to mow high and fertilize in the fall. I know these sound counterintuitive. A lot of people like to …

Transcript In this video we’re going to talk about how to choose a grass variety. The first thing you are going to have to consider is; what part of the country are you in? There are warm season grasses and there are cool season grasses. If you are in the South you are going to …

Transcript Hi, I’m Patrick Weisel. In this section we’re going to be talking about the very broad topic of how to maintain your lawn. The first thing you have to ask yourself is what kind of lawn do you want? Do you want something that’s highly manicured? Do you want something that’s a little more …