Maier Tree & Lawn News

Fertilizers come in many types, and just like most lawn care tools, there’s a right way and a wrong way to utilize them. Too much or too little can leave you with lackluster results, and the wrong mix of chemicals may do more harm than good. Rather than leaving it to chance, consult with the fertilization professionals at Maier Tree and Lawn. We can help you establish a lawn care plan that maximizes the power of your fertilizer and leaves your Rochester, MN lawn healthy and nourished throughout the season.

What are Fertilizers?

Simply speaking, fertilizers are mixtures of beneficial nutrients that can supplement various aspects of your lawn. They’re generally composed of nutrients like potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen that help to keep grass green and soil fertile. But it’s important to remember that just because fertilization is meant to help lawns, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for fertilizer to cause damage.

The ecosystem of your lawn is dependent on a delicate natural balance. Too much of one element and too little of another can result in unfavorable results or damage and plant death. It’s also important to remember that thanks to rain and run-off, what you introduce to your lawn may not stay exclusively on your property. Even if you elect to use chemical-free fertilizers, without the proper amount of know-how, you may find yourself struggling to keep that balance steady. This can leave you with a dwindling amount of growth and, in severe cases, a burned lawn.

The process of fertilization is generally instigated with a certain goal in mind. Bolstering lawn health, addressing dead spots, and increased growth are chief among them. When applied properly and professionally, it’s possible to target these goals in a safe and effective way. The lawn care experts with Maier Tree and Lawn can help you do just that.

We can help you select suitable types of fertilizer for your lawn and ensure that the application is done in the right season and in the right quantities. Depending upon your lawn care goals, our fertilization options may be just what you’re looking for.

Contact Your Local Lawn Fertilization Experts

If you’re a Rochester, MN area resident in need of lawn care support and fertilization, you can reach out to Maier Tree and Lawn to find out more. We provide organic and chemical options for all of your fertilization needs. Call today at (507) 286–8733 or visit our website here to find out more about our lawn care programs and fertilizer options.

Minnesota is a state that boasts flourishing greenery and a diverse population of plants and trees. While this lends to its beautiful landscapes, our trees and plants can also play host to all manner of crawly creatures, some of which may not be beneficial. In Winona, MN, encountering unfriendly insects is fairly common, but whether or not unfamiliar bugs are a cause for concern depends upon the species in question. At Maier Tree and Lawn, we can help mitigate insect damage and prevent infestations from taking hold on your property and jeopardizing your plants’ health.

Despite their unassuming stature, insects can do significant damage to trees and plants. Along with eating healthy greenery, they can also burrow and bore, make nests, string webs, and interrupt the delivery of essential nutrients that help maintain plant health. It’s also possible for insect damage to spread from plant to plant and tree to tree, making an insect problem become more serious without intervention. A single infested tree or shrub may become the catalyst to a property-wide issue.

One species that tends to cause trouble across a variety of plant species is the Japanese beetle. These beetles begin as little white grubs and grow up to be half-inch-long pests that wreak havoc between July and September. Unlike other bugs, the insect damage caused by Japanese beetles isn’t limited to a single tree or plant species. Japanese beetles feed on over 300 different Minnesota species, from flowers to field crops. Because of their indiscriminate taste, an infestation on your property can be devastating regardless of what you’re growing.

In order to mitigate the insect damage perpetuated by Japanese beetles, it’s important to be proactive and consistent in your treatments. At Maier Tree and Lawn, our professional arborists and plant health professionals can help you create a treatment plan that keeps your property insect-free. From basic care to in-depth insecticide applications, we can consult with you to develop a strategy that matches your needs and preserves your land.

If you’re struggling with insect damage or are concerned about Japanese beetles on your Winona, MN property, Maier Tree and Lawn can help. Contact us today at (507) 454-7000 or visit our website here for more information on insect species and our proactive preventative treatment options.

For many Rochester, MN, homeowners with a bit of a green thumb, a wide-open yard can feel like a blank canvas for creative expression. While it’s easy to picture a beautiful design for your property, making it a reality tends to be a bit more complex. This is especially true if the lawn in question isn’t in peak condition. If you’re looking to do some major planting, the lawn care professionals at Maier Tree and Lawn can provide in-depth insight into your lawn’s ecosystem to help facilitate new growth and prevent unhealthy changes that may do more harm than good.

Creating your dream lawn is possible, but it helps if you’re starting with a healthy foundation. Planting, fertilizing, and treating a lawn willy-nilly without proper preparation can lead to lawn damage and plant death. Before you start to experiment with plants beyond the basics, it’s important to verify the strength and integrity of your “base layer.” Lawns with dead patches, excess weeds, and pest problems may not allow much to thrive, even if you’re just planting grass.

A good base layer for lawn care basically means that there’s an established environment well suited to growth and plant support. Your lawn’s ecosystem is a delicately balanced combination of factors that range from soil quality to water access and beyond. Throwing seeds without thought may yield some results, but careful planning and early care will almost always go much further.

Requesting an assessment from lawn care professionals is a great way to get started with your lawn design. Our lawn care experts can identify concerns with your lawn’s ecosystem and propose solutions that best suit your long-term goals. Some solutions may include fertilization, aeration, seeding rotations, and suggestions to supplement your regular lawn care routines. Once you’ve established a care plan, you can finalize a lawn program and design that will thrive on your property.

A weed-free, dense lawn is a great starting point for new growth, but making a lawn design that flourishes will likely require a bit more strategy. If you’re looking for lawn care insight or are interested in treatment or a lawn assessment, Maier Tree and Lawn can help. Rochester, MN, area residents can call at (507) 286–8733 or visit our website here for more information.  

Weed control is a common struggle in the world of lawn care, and this is true for Winona, MN, lawns as well as lawns across the country. But with proper preparation and follow-through, weed control doesn’t have to be an all-consuming aspect of lawn care. At Maier Tree and Lawn, our lawn-care options can help prevent and remove weeds, so your lawn stays healthy and thrives without being constantly under threat of a weed-based takeover.

Priming your lawn for weed control means creating an environment that prevents weeds from taking root. If your turf is in good condition and kept that way, weeds will struggle to find a space to settle in. This condition can be accomplished with a variety of lawn-care techniques such as aeration, fertilization, careful watering and regular mowing, and effective seeding methods. The goal of many of these techniques is to encourage your grass to flourish to such an extent that weeds simply don’t have the room to encroach.

For most lawns, the right application of the preceding techniques removes the threat of weed growth before it even becomes a challenge. But for other lawns across the country, weed control is already a struggle, and treatment is more pressing than prevention. The good news is that lawns already struggling with weed control can still benefit from many of the preceding methods as well as additional mitigation and consistent lawn-care treatments. Weed sprays and targeted lawn treatments may be the solution that your lawn is waiting for.

At Maier Tree and Lawn, our lawn-care experts work to foster a weed-free environment for your property using proven techniques to improve the health and beauty of your turf. If your property is contending with weed growth, minor or major, our specialists can work with you to create a turf-friendly management plan that benefits your property and satisfies your lawn-care goals.

Contact Your Local Weed Control Experts Today!

If you’re a Winona, MN, area resident looking for weed control support, contact Maier Tree and Lawn today at (507) 454-7000 or visit our website here for additional information on our lawn-care options. For prevention and post-growth treatment alike you can rely on us to manage those weeds and restore your lawn to a healthier state.

Living in Minnesota means contending with just about every weather extreme that you can imagine. Extreme cold and extreme heat are both part of the local weather equation as well as humidity, drought, and unexpected freezes. While many native grasses can survive such turbulent conditions, the species of residential turf that grace many Rochester, MN, lawns may not fare quite as well. In order to combat the extremes of nature, the lawn care professionals at Maier Tree and Lawn offer support for your battered lawn whether the damage stems from the blazing sun or anything else Minnesota weather brings on.

What You Need to Know About Heat Stress

Heat stress to lawns manifests in a multitude of forms from an increased chance of compacted soil to widespread browning to even grass death, and heat can cause serious lawn damage in the space of just one season. Plus, extended periods of intense heat can also lead to lawn dehydration, especially if you’re hesitant about (or restricted from) running your sprinklers day in and day out to compensate for extreme weather. Dehydration on a lawn can present as brown spots and dry grass, and like the heat, can also be deadly to your lawn. If the heat conditions persist long enough, lawns may begin to die in large swaths that even daily watering may not be enough to save.

Treatments for heat-based lawn damage vary depending on the extent of the damage and the “root” cause, literally and figuratively. In some cases, a bit of extra lawn care will be enough to counteract the worst of the heat damage; but in other cases, additional steps could be necessary. For instance, a heat-damaged lawn may benefit from aeration in order to lessen the impact of soil compaction. Or in other situations, new grass seed can be planted to compensate for grass lost following extremely hot weather.

Because the treatments for drought and heat-based lawn damage vary, you need to work with lawn care experts who can assess your lawn and provide customized support options. At Maier Tree and Lawn, we provide lawn care and lawn damage mitigation services that can jumpstart the recovery process. If your lawn has experienced damage during a drought, our lawn care specialists can provide in-depth consultations to identify and create a treatment plan for your lawn. 

Tackle Lawn Damage with the Experts on Your Side

If you need lawn care support following a heat wave or other extreme weather, we can help. Rochester, MN, residents can contact Maier Tree and Lawn today at (507) 286–8733 or by visiting our website here for more information.

Insects are just part of life in Winona, MN. When it comes to your lawn, however, sometimes you have to draw a line at how many bugs are just too many. This is especially true when bugs are causing ongoing damage to your property, garden, and grass. For lawns struggling with pests, Maier Tree and Lawn offers comprehensive insect control. Our services can keep your yard healthy and safe, even if the pests seem too numerous or stubborn to treat.

Despite their small stature, insects can do a lot of damage to a lawn’s ecosystem. With eating, laying eggs, and attracting predators looking for snacks, pests can become a major thorn in the side of your lawn care. In fact, in some cases, pest damage is ongoing and may not be possible to fully resolve with your regular lawn care routine. If you have pests that are regularly laying eggs, making nests, and hatching grubs, without expert insect control you could find yourself fighting an uphill battle.

Pest damage to a lawn can vary depending upon the insects in question and the duration of the infestation. Plus, not all insects are inherently dangerous. Rather than panicking every time you see something crawling, it’s important to watch for signs of damage during your lawn care routines. If your lawn is experiencing odd dry patches, yellowing or discoloration, new holes, visible pests, or webbing, that means it may be time to ask for help.

The insect control professionals with Maier Tree and Lawn have a wide skillset and carefully catered toolbox for safely contending with pests while keeping your lawn healthy. Insects can be reigned-in with insecticides, grub control, and careful monitoring and treatment. Relying on the support of trained and experienced lawn care experts is essential to prevent additional damage to your lawn. Applying insect killer without proper knowledge and technique can end up doing more harm than good. 

Don’t let destructive grubs and insects ruin your lawn! If you’ve noticed pest damage on your Winona, MN property, contact Maier Tree and Lawn today for expert insect control and pest removal services. Take action by calling (507) 454-7000 or visiting our website here for more information. 

Tree damage isn’t exactly a one-size-fits-all scenario. It can manifest in dozens, if not hundreds of ways. Depending upon the species, the season, and the age of the tree, you have to stay observant to everything, from obvious breakage to an overabundance of pests. Maier Tree and Lawn’s tree health experts remind tree owners that it’s important to remember that some tree damage isn’t quite so obvious. Watching for these indicators of subtler tree damage may be the difference between healthy growth and withering trees on your Rochester, MN property.

Noticing a large number of leaves falling from a healthy-looking tree is one sign of a change in tree health. It’s important, however, to look beyond the leaves when you’re concerned about the health of a tree. Specifically, examining and noting any damage or changes on the trunk itself. Tree bark acts as a protective shell for your trees, but it can also be an indicator of tree health. Check the trunk semi-regularly for gouges, stripped bark, discoloration, excessive brittleness, fungus, holes, or strange textures such as spongy spots. Spotting any of these concerns early and requesting a consultation can be a great way to mitigate further tree damage.

The angle of your tree is also something to keep a close eye on. This is especially true after significant blunt damage or a severe windstorm. It’s possible for a tree to be pulled up and dislodged, even if you don’t have a full tornado on your hands. Being proactive when you see a new tilt, lean, or sway in your trees can help catch hazards and root damage before it becomes worse. After flooding or significant rain, it’s possible for trees to suffer from root rot and death. If a tree appears to be leaning significantly, be sure to contact a tree health expert before getting too close on your own. With enough of a lean, the tree could be a serious hazard.

It’s always best to err on the side of caution when there’s a new injury or existing tree damage appears to be spreading. Even if it appears minor on the surface, there could be a deeper problem that just hasn’t made itself apparent. Watch for new fungal growth, pest nests, or discoloration around the base of the trunk as well. If any of these become apparent don’t hesitate to contact a tree health professional.

If you have concerns about the health of one of your Rochester, MN area trees, the tree health professionals with Maier Tree and Lawn are here to help. Reach out today for a consultation at (507) 286–8733 or by visiting our website here for more information.

Lawn fungus is a common problem in the Midwest thanks to a variety of factors including fluctuating weather conditions and lawn care techniques. It may manifest as an occasional seasonal frustration, or it could be a chronic and deadly struggle for your lawn. At Maier Tree and Lawn, we provide anti-fungal treatments and lawn care methods that support every aspect of your Rochester, MN lawn year-round.

Mold and spores exist all over in nature. Occasional mushroom growth and small patches of fungus are normal, but it’s possible for lawn fungus to become severe enough to kill large patches of turf. It’s important during your lawn care routine to look for changes in growth or color, especially following long periods of rain or drought.

Fungus can manifest as rings of spores, grass discoloration, slimy textures, or even powdery and fuzzy growths. Different textures and appearances indicate different types of diseases or fungi, but every type of lawn fungus is potentially damaging if left untreated. Early detection and treatment are key in preventing spread and limiting the damage to your lawn.

The conditions that facilitate fungal growth are wide ranging. Too little or too much water can both contribute to lawn fungus. Improper lawn care, such as over-mowing and compacted soil, can make an impact as well. It’s also possible for fungus to grow even if you’re doing everything right. What’s most important is watching for these signs and investing in proper treatments before a small problem becomes a danger.

Our lawn care professionals at Maier Tree and Lawn provide anti-fungal treatments as well as spot treatments and lawn care consultations. Our lawn care experts are trained to recognize a wide range of lawn diseases and treat them effectively and quickly.

If your lawn has been impacted by lawn fungus or you suspect the health of your lawn is suffering, Maier Tree and Lawn is prepared to help. Rochester, MN residents can contact us today at (507) 286–8733 or by visiting our website here for additional information.

Soil has a reputation for being a fairly self-sufficient aspect of your lawn. Unless you’re an avid gardener, there’s a chance you’ve never really thought about the soil at all during your regular lawn care routine. Like every aspect of lawn care, however, there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to soil. Treating your soil well and ensuring it receives all the nutrients it needs can help everything on your property thrive, from flowers and trees to sod. At Maier Tree and Lawn, we help address every level of lawn care from bottom to top so your Winona, MN lawn looks its best and stays healthy.

When it comes to soil, there are some basic lawn care aspects that most homeowners are familiar with; fertilization, watering, and sunlight being chief among them. Before water and fertilizer come into the mix, your soil has to be primed to absorb everything they have to offer. This absorption can be encouraged by the incorporation of pro-soil habits into your lawn care such as taking active steps to reduce soil compaction.

Soil compaction occurs when soil is compressed so tightly that it can no longer properly absorb air, water, or nutrients. This is especially common for lawns that experience a lot of foot traffic, but soil compaction is possible even when there are no extreme stressors present. Any amount of pressure applied to your lawn over time can gradually compress the soil until it’s too dense to penetrate. In severe cases, compaction can even lead to plant and grass death. The good news is that this condition can be alleviated with proper aeration. Aeration decreases compaction, helps reduce lawn thatch, preps a lawn for additional care, and allows valuable nutrients to seep deeper into the root system.

Though there are a variety of forms of aeration that you may encounter, core aeration is the most common. This process systematically removes small plugs of soil from your lawn in a gentle and non-damaging way and allows all of those good nutrients to work their way deeper into your lawn. Plus, it’s a great way to prep for the rainy season or for fertilizer application if you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck.

If your lawn doesn’t seem to be supporting growth effectively, Maier Tree and Lawn’s lawn care experts are here to help. Our aeration services can help reduce soil compaction, encourage new and sustained growth, and help you create a lawn care routine that will support a great looking lawn year-round. Winona, MN residents can call us today at (507) 454-7000 or visit our website here for additional information.

As members of the Rochester, MN, community, it’s part of our responsibility at Maier Tree and Lawn to protect the trees that surround our city. Sometimes this means providing basic care or implementing damage mitigation after storms. However, other times, it means collaborating to ensure that dangerous tree diseases like oak wilt don’t spread in our area. Maier Tree and Lawn is committed to providing tree disease consultations and disseminating information to ensure that all of our local trees live long and healthy lives.

What does oak wilt do to trees?

True to its name, oak wilt prompts extreme and rapid wilting of leaves among oak trees. Signs of the disease include everything from wet-looking, wilted leaves to necrosis (death) of the leaf tips, especially throughout the tree crown. With enough leaf damage and leaf loss, the trees may lose their ability to adequately gather and process essential nutrients. This disruption can quickly lead to tree death.

Which trees are impacted?

Oak trees are, appropriately, the most vulnerable tree category when it comes to oak wilt, with red oaks being the most visibly and dramatically impacted by the tree disease. In fact, a red oak that has been infected can wilt completely in as little as six weeks! Though any oak species is susceptible, the signs and symptoms may vary slightly based on the specific tree type in question. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to consult a tree disease professional like Maier Tree and Lawn when tree health begins to wane.

Once a tree contracts oak wilt, it can quickly spread the disease to surrounding oak trees. This is especially true in heavily forested areas that have a high density of oak trees and intricate, interconnected root systems.

How can I do my part?

It’s important to remember that oak wilt is highly contagious. It can be spread by insects, by root grafting, or via exposure to diseased wood. Part of keeping your trees and Minnesota forests safe means staying educated and aware of the progression of this tree disease as well as other risk factors that surround it. Some simple steps you can take include limiting firewood transport and learning to recognize common signs and symptoms of oak wilt before trimming or disposing of branches.

Rochester, MN, area residents can take steps today to ensure that local forests and trees survive tomorrow. When it comes to tree diseases, it’s difficult to underestimate the power of education. If you suspect that oak wilt or another tree disease is impacting your local trees, call Maier Tree and Lawn now at (507) 286–8733 or visit our website here for additional details.