With winter storms hitting Atlanta, snow brings chilly days and even colder nights and as you stay cozy in your homes our feathered friends are busy working hard to find food and water. Many birds have to change their eating habits due to shorter supply of assessable insects. Many start eating berries or other forms of wild fruits and veggies that they find. You will start seeing birds flocking together to help find food and to protect.

So what can we all do to help our feathered friends you ask? Here are a few ideas for feed options for your feeders and yards.

• Suet attracts birds that cling to vertical surfaces: nuthatches, titmice, chickadees and woodpeckers.

• Thistle seed is a favorite of finches. Use a tube feeder with small holes to dispense the seed.

• Coles* Blue Ribbon, Special Blend, Hot Meats and Blazing Hot are also favorites.

Inexpensive bird food mixes often contain wheat, millet and hemp seed. These are not bird favorites and the birds will simply pick through what they don’t want while looking for the food they desire.  The Family Tree Premium Bird Feed and Coles* Bird Feed are good options and don’t have any additives that aren’t healthy for the birds!

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Due to the record setting cold temperatures we experienced on January 7, 2014,  we are starting to see wide spread case of cold damage to our evergreen ornamental plants.  Cold injury can occur to all parts of plants including flower buds, leaves, stems, trunks and even roots.

Typically, we first notice cold damage on the leaves of our ornamental evergreen plants. The damaged plant’s leaves discolor and turn brown to a grayish black color (see image). You may notice your broadleaf evergreen plants such as Azaleas, Gardenia, Indian Hawthorn and Loropetalum leaves turning brown along with light to heavy leaf drop.

We may experience cold damage to flower buds on Azaleas, Camellias, Loropetalum and other flowering woody ornamentals. Cold damage to flower buds can reduce flowering in the spring or in some cases, we can have a total loss of blooms. You can check flower buds for cold damage by removing several buds and cutting the buds open to inspect the condition. If the tissue inside the flower bud is green your flower buds are safe. If the tissue is a brown color or darken, the buds have cold damage.

Another problem which may occur is stem damage or bark splitting.  We will not know if we have stem damage or bark splitting until spring.

What to do?

Our recommendation for now is to wait and see. Wait until spring to see what damage may have occurred.  If the foliage is brown and unsightly you can take a rake and shake the damaged leaves off the plants for now. No reason to start pruning away what you think is damaged because it still may be alive.  Once spring growth begins, you will be able to determine if you have stem damage or bark damage. Heavy pruning should be delayed until new growth appears in the spring. Waiting ensures you are not removing healthy wood.

If we can be of service, or if you have questions please contact us at 770-923-0387.

Thank you,

Simply Green Lawn Care PLUS Team

Due to the chilly weather conditions, there isn’t much to do this time of year related to your landscape other than test your soil. This is a great time to test your soils pH and monitor nutrients in the soil. Soil testing is a very important part of growing healthy lush green lawn. Soil testing is the only way to determine the available nutrients in your soil, your soil pH and your soils cation exchange capacity (CEC).

By testing your soil now, we can customized you lawn care program to meet the needs of your lawn. In some cases, if your pH is very acidic (pH below 5.8) we can apply additional limestone to help raise the pH or if you have low phosphorus (P) or low potassium (K) we can apply additional P or K depending on your soil analysis results. Soil testing takes the guess work out of growing lush green lawns! More on soil testing here.

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Warmest Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Simply Green team! We would like to express our greatest appreciation for all of the love and support you have given to us and are excited for 2014.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best in the upcoming year!

Best,

The Simply Green Team

Simply Green provides the following residential turf care programs in Atlanta to provide year round beauty for your lawn. Our specialists will visit your property every 4-8 weeks depending on the time of year to maintain turf care. We use the finest products and procedures to ensure your lawn looks its best and we guarantee great results. If you ever have a concern between visits, we will be happy to come back and retreat at no extra charge. Here is a breakdown of winter lawncare:

Bermuda, Zoysia Lawn Program

Winter: 2^nd Pre-emergence to help continue to prevent winter weeds, spot treat any existing weeds if needed. . Root zone fertilization to build strong roots for winter. .

Late Winter: 2^nd Pre-emergence to help continue to prevent winter weeds, spot treat any existing weeds if needed. . Root zone fertilization to build strong roots for winter.

Fescue Lawn Program

Winter: Fertilization to prepare your lawn for winter and treat for any existing weeds. Fertilization to provide early spring green-up. Pre- and post-emergent weed control to prevent weed problems in the future.

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Tis’ the season for great green gifts for the green thumb on your list this holiday season! From must-have tools to eco-friendly lawn mowers, we have put together a great selection of gear to update, upgrade or start your own collection of key green garb to get you or the ones you are gifting excited about spring lawn maintenance!

Rechargeable electric lawn mower by Black & Decker. It’s lightweight 12-amp, 18-inch model. It needs no gas, oil, or tune-ups! From lowes.com

Super-Slim Lightweight Hoses: Hate dragging around heavy hoses? Give yourself a break with this ingenious, super-light polyurethane hose. It weighs less than half as much as a conventional hose, yet is built to last with industrial spring guards at each end to eliminate annoying kinks, and extra-long, crush-proof, chrome-plated solid brass fittings to ensure leak-proof connections. – Gardener’s Supply Company

Gardening Book: The Georgia Getting Started Garden Guide by Walter Reeves & Erica Glasener is a great option to get for any green thumbs on your list! – WalterReeves.com

Simply Green lawn analysis: This gift really won’t break your bank! If you have someone on your list that has been complaining about their lawn but haven’t done anything about it, give us a call and we can help you, help them with a free estimate on getting their lawn looking wonderful this spring!

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As we enter into the chilly holiday months ahead, it’s time to start getting your lawn equipment back into the shed, garage or indoor space for safe keeping. Safe keeping means protecting your equipment so it’s usable next spring! Your lawn equipment will benefit from some TLC before they hibernate for the winter months ahead. Here are a few tips to get you going on cleaning and prepping your equipment. Get started now and you will be thankful you did when everything works perfect next spring!

1. Drain oil from all of your equipment. When any tool or machine that uses oil is not being used for a long time, it can cause the oil to get sludgy which will make the engine not work as well as it should, or at all.
2. Replace broken, old or missing parts. Make sure your equipment is in tip top shape before storing it away for the season.
3. Check your fuel filters, you will most likely have to replace them. Having a dirty fuel filter will only make your equipment harder to maintain in the future.
4. Get rid of the dirt and rust. Cleaning up your mower is so important before you store it. The amount of dirt, grass, etc that get’s in and around it can ruin your equipment if not properly cleaned before storing.

Hope these helpful tips will get you started on storing your equipment this winter!

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Image courtesy of [Simon Howden] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

From the beginning our objective has remained the same for our Atlanta lawn services:

1. Strive to exceed your expectations at every opportunity!

2. From the sale to the service, beginning to completion, we aim to provide only the best quality Atlanta Lawn Care, tree and shrub care services available.

Simply Green residential lawn care and corporate lawn care services are backed by our high quality staff and guaranteed service. Simply Green is locally owned and operated. We are the answer to corporate and residential lawn care in metro Atlanta, Georgia!

Services for Your Home: We offer both residential lawn care and commercial lawn care services. Click on the links below to see our residential offerings:

• Lawn Care
• Tree and Shrub Care
• Core Aeration
• Fescue Aeration & Seeding
• Fire Ant Control
• Save On Your Water Bill

Services for Your Business: Whether you are a property manager for a large office park, a lawn maintenance company looking for help with turf care, or a seasoned landscape professional looking to take your lawn care service to the next level, Simply Green can help!

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The biggest benefit of soil testing is it provides you with your soils pH and measures the availability of soil minerals and nutrients.  Healthy soil equals healthy lawns and plants. The most important test we look for in a soil test is the pH level.

So what exactly is soil pH and what does it measure?

Soil pH is the measurement of acidity or alkalinity of your soil. The pH scale runs from 0 to 14 with 7 being neutral.  A pH above 7 indicates an alkaline soil and below 7 indicates an acid soil.  Our soils tend to be on the acid side. Lawns prefer a slightly acid soil 5.8 to 6.5.

Why is this important to know?

When your soil has low pH say around 5.5 it means you have an acid soil, between 40% to 50% of fertilizer is unavailable to your lawn because the plant can’t absorb the needed nutrients/minerals.  Half of your fertilizer is going to waste and your lawn will not hold its color. That means  you will not have a thick lush green lawn when spring arrives!

So what’s next? How do I check my soils pH?

You can take soil samples and submit to your local extension service for a small fee or you can contact Simply Green Lawn Care and we will submit to a local soil laboratory for a small fee. Both options provide you with a soil analysis detailing your pH (the most important), phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium along with manganese and iron levels.  Once we have your soil analysis we will customize your lawn care program to fit your lawn requirements.  We recommend you take a soil sample every 3-4 years.

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