Tomlinson Bomberger

Groundcovers have been a staple in home and commercial landscapes for many years. This group of low-growing plants enhance almost any bed’s appearance, providing texture variation and color contrast for surrounding plants. Their beauty and aesthetic value isn’t their only function. Groundcover can help to cut down on weed growth in some areas, as well as aiding in moisture retention for trees and shrubs. A thick stand of groundcover can even reduce your annual maintenance costs, as it can substitute for annual mulching after it is established. There are also instances where turfgrasses cannot survive because of the limited availability of sunlight, which can be the ideal situation for some groundcovers.

There are hundreds of plants that can be used for groundcover. Selecting the best variety is key. There isn’t one perfect groundcover, but many have advantages and disadvantages. Examining your site, your maintenance implications, and function of use is essential to finding a groundcover that will be great, instead of one that will make you growl. Be sure to know what growing zone you live in to make the best selection for your landscape. Here are just a few of the popular varieties that are used in our area.

English Ivy (Hedera helix)

English Ivy is a widely-used, very traditional, evergreen groundcover. It establishes fairly easy and is a vigorous grower. Being a quick-grower can be its greatest disadvantage as well. Ivy will creep up structures, trees, and surrounding items, causing damage to surfaces at times. It’s a great choice, but carries a substantial consideration of maintenance, as it will need trimmed off of surrounding items several times a year. It does very well in low-light situations, can can also grow in partially-sunny areas as well.

Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis)

Another traditional ground cover is Pachysandra. This variety can be somewhat difficult to establish, but is a great addition to landscapes, because it is not a climber, and won’t scale walls and trees. Pachysandra develops a small white bloom in the spring, and is also an evergreen plant that will provide color to your beds year-round. One of the major disadvantages to Pachysandra is its likelihood of insect and disease damage. If this is the variety you choose, please know that there will need to be an insect and disease management program required to address concerns 4-5 times per growing season. It will tolerate shady and semi-shady situations, which gives it more usability than ivy.

Periwinkle (Vinca minor)

Periwinkle (Myrtle) is one of our favorite ground covers to install. This plant will tolerate both shady and sunny areas. It establishes at a moderate rate, is evergreen, and develops beautiful flowers in spring but will re-bloom throughout the summer. It is also not a climber, making it easier to manage in a landscape. It can develop some issues with disease when high night-time temperatures and abundant humidity is present, but overall is a pretty durable plant.

Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides)

Plumbago is also another terrific choice. This plant will flower in mid-summer with these beautiful blue flowers. In late summer, the foliage will turn a gorgeous coppery-bronze before shedding it’s foliage in fall. It typically prefers full sun, but can adapt into shaded areas as well. There are a few diseases that can damage the leaves on the plant, but it is at most times very resilient.

Choosing the correct ground cover is not the only consideration. A plant’s success is heavily impacted by it’s installation and maintenance, particularly while it is attempting to establish. Beds that are determined as the area of installation need to be properly prepared. The soil should be tilled to 4-6″ so the soil will not be too compacted for the young, expanding roots. Testing the soil and adding fertilizer and organic compost provides a nutrient-rich environment for the plants to mature. Proper spacing is critical as well as a light cover of mulch to help moisture to retain. Ground cover plants may take a year or more to mature to the point that they can tolerate periods of drought, so watering on a regular basis is essential. Managing weeds in your landscape beds can be somewhat problematic until the plants fill-in. Pre-emergent weed controls are helpful to reduce hand-pulling in these areas. If you use a local landscaper to install these plants, make sure they perform these recommendations as part of the installation, or you could be throwing away your investment.

Good luck growing great, green, ground cover!

Chad Diller

Marketing Coordinator

Certified Arborist

I recently met a lovely retired couple from Lancaster County with an unfortunate problem; Bed Bugs in their home.  Ugh!  I always feel sorry for people who have Bed Bugs.  Not only is the treatment costly, there is a tremendous amount of work that must be done in order to prepare for the treatment.  Then there are the psychological effects that Bed Bugs bring (people will feel things crawling on them in their beds long after they know the problem is gone).

Interestingly, this couple had no idea how this problem happened to them.  I asked them if they traveled a lot, to which they answered “yes”.  They then told me that they like to take their favorite pillows from home with them on vacations.  This is likely where their trouble began.

I decided at that point to write this blog entry.  If this information can help just one person or family prevent this problem from happening to them, then I will consider this time well spent.  Here are some tips I recommend everybody follow when traveling this vacation season:

Try to travel as lightly as possible. Pack only what you absolutely need.  Never take your own pillows or blankets with you (most hotels can provide you with any type of pillows or blankets you may need).  Try to pack only items that can be washed in hot water and dried in a hot dryer when you get home.

Leave your bags at the door and inspect your room (or time-share, or resort, or beach house) before you bring your belongings in.  Bring only a flashlight into the room and inspect the beds and furniture (the beds being the most important area).  Pull back the sheets and mattress covers and look for live insects, dead insects or cast insect skins, and bed bug spotting (digested blood).  Make sure you check the folds at the mattress edges, and the lower corners of the box springs.  Look between the mattress or box spring and the wall.  Also look behind the head board if it is easily removed. I know this seems like a lot of work, but you should be able to complete the entire inspection in about five or ten minutes, and it is time well spent.

Ask to be moved to another room if they are found. If you are staying in a reputable establishment, chances are that you find only evidence of a low level infestation, if you find anything at all.  If you do find low level evidence, ask to be moved to another room not adjacent to the room you were originally assigned, and begin the inspection process again, and please remember, it is not the hotel’s fault.  Bed Bugs are carried around from place to place by people, and the hotel or resort will certainly appreciate your bringing this situation to their attention.  If you find a heavy infestation of Bed Bugs, then I would strongly consider changing hotels altogether, because the one you are in is obviously out of touch with the challenges being faced by the travel industry today.

Store Your Travel Items Carefully. Keep your toiletries, electronics, or any other items that cannot be laundered in sealed plastic bags when not using them.  Keep you luggage on racks, and not on the extra bed or on upholstered furniture.  Unpack if you like, but I recommend keeping stored clothing in sealed plastic bags as well.

Be extra cautious. Upon departure, put your luggage in large trash bags tied with a tight knot before you put it into your car.  When you get home, unpack outside, carefully inspecting each item before bringing it into the home.  Immediately launder all items in hot water, then a hot dryer.  Take all fine washables to the dry cleaner.  If you like, you can arrange to have your luggage heat treated (many pest control companies can do this for you), or you can treat your luggage with an appropriate spray.  There are several to choose from on the internet.  You can also buy a sealed luggage encasement before you go on your trip.

There is probably no way to be 100% certain you have not carried a single Bed Bug into your home, but if you follow these tips, you will greatly reduce the likelihood of bringing this problem home with you.  Personally, I perform the room inspection before moving in, and if I find nothing, I relax and enjoy my vacation, but each person has his own comfort levels and thresholds that can only be self determined.  Certainly it is, in my opinion, most important that you make sure you are not settling into a room with an active infestation.

Rob Braden

Pest Control Supervisor

No, we haven’t branched out to be fashion critics. Whether you look at this pattern and smile, or you look at it and crinkle up your nose, Pink Polka Dots are OUT when it comes to your lawn looking fabulous! This time of year, is when people have started breaking out last summer’s clothes, some hoping their trendy purchases from last spring will still hold their popularity. However, Pink Spots in your lawn are never cool. Some people refer to this as Pink Patch, or more commonly, Red Thread.

The good news is a lawn make-over to make your grass fabulous again, is really an easy task. Red Thread is a foliar disease that usually occurs on lawns during spring and fall. The fungus will be more likely to grow as warmer temperatures arrive on a more consistent basis, and there is heavy dew on lawns at night. It will continue to persist as long as those environmental conditions continue. However, if you feel you need a lawn-image intervention, that is also accomplished fairly easy.

Red Thread is most abundant on lawns with Kentucky Bluegrass, Perennial Ryegrass, and Tall Fescue, particularly if the Nitrogen level in the lawn is low. Nitrogen is used-up quickly in spring as your lawn rapidly grows. The best defense or cure for Red Thread, is to make sure your lawn is on a proper fertilization program. Infrequent or erratic fertilizing throughout the year will be conducive to Red Thread break-out. Mother Nature is often to blame as well, as a great spring to grow grass sometimes depletes its Nitrogen source, leaving the turf vulnerable to this fungus.

Applying a late-spring or early-summer application of a balanced fertilizer will usually do the trick. As the Nitrogen source gets replaced, the lawn grows and pushes out the fungus to get disposed of with mower clippings. When possible, it is advisable to bag grass clippings for a few weeks and to wash your mower’s under-body after each use. This will reduce the amount of spores that are being continuously spread throughout the lawn. Applying fungicides for this disease is not recommended because Red Thread rarely causes any permanent or significant damage to your lawn.

If you’re rocking the pink polka dots in your lawn, this is your intervention. It’s a major lawn-fashion fopah. Give your lawn a make-over and be proud to show your face around the neighborhood again.

Chad Diller

Marketing Coordinator/Account Manager

Certified Turfgrass Professional

Do you have a wild landscape? When you take a couple weekends and whip it into submission, do you turn around just a few weeks later to see it looking like jungle again? Those weeds sure don’t need much to thrive! In fact, it may seem you are doing a better job at growing weeds than flowers and shrubs in your landscape.

Canadian Thistle

Weed pressure in landscapes is different on every site, in fact, it can be completely different on one side of a residential home than the other just 30-40 ft. away. There are many factors that contribute to weed growth. Some of these factors can be influenced by controls, but problem areas will always exist in a landscape. The key is knowing which areas are the most wild, and need the most taming regiment.

When animal trainers take on a wild animal, they use assorted forms of reinforcement and conditioning to condition an animal’s responses. Some animal trainers may have a knowledge of the principles of behavior analysis and then employ tactics in positive and negative reinforcement to bring about an desired outcome. Your wild beast is your weedy landscape! To train it, you have to figure out why your landscape “behaves” well or badly.

The weeds don’t just come from nowhere. You may have inherited your landscape and the weeds were there from the get-go. They were introduced at some point. The majority of weeds grow from seeds. They are transported by all sorts of vectors such as wind, water, animals, new landscape plants, etc. Other weeds grow from tubers or bulbs. Understanding the “behavior” of these weeds is crucial to knowing how to control them.

You already know you don’t need much along the lines of positive reinforcement to make weeds flourish. However, understanding what allows that to happen will help you to realize times when you will need to be the most diligent in your efforts. Abundant moisture, warm soil temperatures, cracked and dry soil, thin mulch, and nearby areas full of weeds going to seed will all cause your landscape to produce more weeds. When these positive conditions are present, that’s when you must pay close attention to the wild beast nearby that is ready to attack.

In order to whip a wild, weedy landscape into shape, you need to follow a plan:

1. Remove as many of the weeds as possible. When possible, it’s more effective to use systemic herbicides like Round-up because the material translocates through the plant and kills all parts of it. This will reduce weed re-growth from weeds that aren’t easily pulled out. However, use care when applying herbicides because they may cause injury to desirable plants nearby. In these areas, hand-pulling may be your only option. If these tasks are something you can’t or don’t want to perform, find a local landscaping company that can both spray for weeds as well as has maintenance crews that can differentiate between weeds and flowers.
2. Apply pre-emergent weed control to landscape beds to reduce further seed germination. Consult the label for the best timing to do apply as well as any precautions for use or any specific plants you shouldn’t apply that material in close proximity to.  Please note that most of these materials only last for a couple months, and should be applied multiple times in year.
3. Mulch your beds annually. A 2″-3″ layer of mulch will reduce the weed growth in beds. Be sure to purchase good-quality mulch. You often get what you pay for. Steer clear of places with discount or even free mulch (such as your local municipality recycling facility) because they often contain weeds that other homeowners have disposed of and will be put right back into your landscape beds!
4. Keep a close watch! Don’t wait until things are out of control again. Stay diligent and spray/pull weeds when they are small. If you wait until they mature, you run the risk of them seeding off and multiplying more. You will recognize which areas of your landscape are the wildest. Pay attention to them each week when you mow or walk around your property.

So get out there and show them who’s the REAL King of Your Jungle!

Chad Diller

Marketing Coordinator/Account Manager

Certified Arborist

Certified Turfgrass Professional

You sit on your back patio, maybe even fire up the BBQ. You may even find yourself saying to yourself, “Wow, my lawn really looks nice this year.” However, possibly unbeknownst to you, there is a covert offense trying to destroy all the hard work you put into your lawn, and it will be lingering under the surface very soon! It’s the voracious and destructive White Grub (cues dramatic music)!

NOW is not the time you will see grub damage, however, NOW is the time to mount your counter-offensive, or defense to squash the mighty grubs and their plans for Lawn Domination!

Know Your Enemy: What is a grub? There are many varieties of grubs. They are the larval stage of beetles. In our area, we predominately see the white grubs of Japanese Beetles, Oriental Beetles, Northern Masked Chafers, and Green June Beetles. Most people can’t distinguish which larvae they have in their lawn, but that isn’t critical in mounting a proper defense against grubs.

Know Your Enemy’s Strategy: The timing of each species slightly varies, but typically, the adult beetles emerge around the end of June to mid-July in our area. Some species like the Japanese Beetle are easily spotted feeding on plants in landscapes such as roses and various trees. However, just because you aren’t seeing Japanese Beetles during the day, doesn’t mean you don’t have beetle activity on your lawn and landscape. Some species of beetles are nocturnal, and will be most active at night. Because beetles are flying insects, you can’t prevent them from running reconnaissance missions on your property (unless you have a giant plastic dome over your lawn). There are treatments that will reduce beetle damage on your plants, but this doesn’t mean you will be safe-guarded against grubs. Beetles will come to your property to eat and mate for approximately a month during the summer and will find soft areas of lawn to lay their eggs. These eggs will hatch out in the weeks that follow, and their young larvae, will have an abundant food source, YOUR LAWN!

The Inevitable Attack: Without any pre-planned defensive, your lawn will be gobbled up by the larvae. They feed beneath the surface, causing large areas of lawn to die, as they eat the root system right out from underneath. Most times, lawn owners don’t realize what is wrong with their lawn until they see it not recovering in the fall like neighboring lawns. A closer look will reveal the hidden army below. Your only chance to stop this attack at this late-summer or early-fall time frame would be to apply a Corrective Grub Control, such as Dylox, and then renovate your lawn. These materials, and obviously the cost of seeding will cost a great amount more than doing a Preventative Grub Control Treatment in the late-spring/early-summer.

A Turning Point in the War: If you had done your counter-intelligence in Spring, you would have know that was the time to apply Preventative Grub Control. There is an array of different materials, but the industry-preferred material for years has been Merit, or imadicloprid. Applying this material in mid-April through the end of June will be a defense that is no match for grubs. The material typically gets watered-in after application by Mother Nature. There it lays in the first couple inches of soil under your lawn, like a sniper in the grass waiting for intruders. When the young grubs hatch and go looking for food, it’s “Curtains” for their plans of lawn domination.

Joining the War on Grubs: We want YOU to join us in our fight to keep lawns beautiful! You would be wise to enlist a lawn program that controls grubs preventatively. Recruit a trusted, local lawn care company to perform this application for you. Some providers, like Tomlinson Bomberger, guarantee this service. Together, we can beat these lawn terrorists and keep our lawns safe and beautiful!

Chad Diller

Marketing Coordinator/Account Manager

Certified Turfgrass Professional

Your lawn is at war….with moss. I wish moss was easy to get out of your lawn, but the plain and simple truth is it is difficult to control. The plain and simple truth is, if you have a lot of moss in your lawn, you may have to go to drastic measures to get rid of it.

The most important bit of information to consider is WHY is moss growing in places you wish grass was growing. The answer is, because the area is more favorable for moss than it is for the grass. Areas that are very conducive to growing moss are often soils that are very low in pH, with low fertility, and compacted. The environment is often shaded for at least half of the day or more, and stays moist and even water-logged at times.

If you know ANYTHING about growing a nice lawn, you realize that these conditions are not the best environment to grow a lush stand of grass. Most turfgrasses prefer to have soils that have a pretty neutral pH, have abundant Phosphorus and Potassium resources, and also about 3-4 lbs./1000 sq. ft. of Nitrogen in a year. Grasses prefer to have at least 5 or more hours of direct sunlight per day, and like moisture rich environments that are well-drained so they don’t remain water-logged.

Obviously, these two are at odds. What happens in most situations, is one wins, not both. Even though you can find both grass and moss coexisting, one will eventually conquer over another.

So what’s the solution? Create the best environment for your grass that you can! Here are a list of things you can do to improve conditions:

• Correct the Soil pH and Fertility:  Make sure you are fertilizing the proper amount for the species of grass that you have growing in these areas. This means don’t OVER-fertilize, as well as, don’t UNDER-fertilize. Take a soil test to determine the existing soil pH, and take the proper measures with Limestone to correct the pH.
• Relieve Soil Compaction & Grow Some Grass:  Use a core aerator to work this area up. Run over it several times with an aerator, several times per year. Seed the areas to introduce new grass. If the areas are bare, an aerator alone will not do it. Either till the area completely, or slice-seed in addition.
• Get More Sunlight to these Areas:  This may require you to prune and even REMOVE trees. Yes, I said it. The sad reality is you can’t always have the best of both worlds. Any species of grass will require at least 3 hours of direct sunlight per day, so if these areas are not getting that much light even after pruning or removing trees, you may need to find an alternative to having a lawn in these areas.

Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. Like I said, I wish it were as easy as treating the moss with some selective herbicide. There ARE products that are available that CLAIM to control the moss. We haven’t seen anything make a big enough impact to recommend it. Even if you get rid of moss with a product such as them, you will get it back again because you aren’t fixing the real problem, which is the environment of this area of your lawn.

If you feel that you are at your wit’s end and can’t or don’t want to get rid of your moss, consult with a professional lawn care company that will also be able to prune your trees, and do the needed seeding work in those areas of your lawn. Good luck, and we hope you win the “Battle”.

Chad Diller

Residential Account Manager

Certified Turfgrass Professional, Certified Arborist

Tomlinson Bomberger would like to wish all of you a Happy & Safe Holiday Season!

Many of us get asked what a lawn, landscape, and pest control company does during the winter. The answer is, plenty! Most of our field personnel are unable to work during the winter months, as the cold weather isn’t very conducive to treating lawns, spraying trees, or mulching flower beds. However, there are a few crews that stay quite busy throughout the winter.

Our Pest Control Division works straight through the winter, servicing our clients on our Quarterly Pest Control Program. Winter is a hot-time for rodent activity, and the technicians also preventatively treat for other insect issues that can even arise during the late winter/early spring months.

If the winter weather isn’t too brutal, our Certified Arborists prune and remove trees throughout the winter. If you watch closely, you may see one of our trucks cruising through your neighborhood on some of the more mild days of winter.

Some of our Commercial Clients also have us perform snow removal on their properties. This emergency service utilizes our workers from across the departments here at the company, so that we can quickly respond to make our Commercial Clients’ properties safe once again.

We have over 60 vehicles in our fleet, and also lots of small equipment to help us do our jobs. Each winter, our dedicated staff in our repair shop performs maintenance and improvements on these machines to keep us up and running during the prime season.

Even our office staff stays busy throughout the winter! There is much preparation to be done for the time of March when the bulk of our workers return. During the winter months, Account Managers meet with clients to review service changes, and also meet with the occasional pro-active consumer who is looking for a change with their service provider during the upcoming season.

We have had a wonderful year here at Tomlinson Bomberger, and our clients are the reason. Thank you for making our business successful for another year. If you need anything at all, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Ah yes…Springtime…the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and insects are on the move. In many aspects, insects need what humans do. A place of warmth and shelter with easy access to food and water. This is how many insects can stay active all year long in the comfort of your home….rent free. As the outside temperatures rise and the days get longer most people start to increase their outside activities. The same thing happens in the insect world.

Bugs such as ants, centipedes, millipedes, crickets, earwigs, springtails, clover mites and others hatch out, wake up, and start to stir in the soil surrounding your home. As their numbers increase, so does the possibility of them invading your home. Overgrown vegetation and exterior areas that stay consistently damp are attractive to insect populations. Interestingly, insects have a unique moisture requirement; the smaller the bug, the harder it is for the insect to get enough water to effectively retain moisture.

Therefore, homeowners should be aware of leaky downspouts, clogged gutters, and landscaping that collects water as opposed to diverting water from the foundation. Even with good sanitation and moisture control around a structure, springtime pests still find their way inside. Exterior pipe voids, utility line entryways, doorways, windows, cracks in the foundation, crawlspace and attic vents, and expansion joints in concrete are all favorite thoroughfares for insects. Caulking and sealing cracks can help block these “pest highways”. But often, that’s not enough.

In addition, a key component is a thorough exterior inspection combined with a perimeter pest treatment with a residual insecticide. A professional pest control technician can apply long lasting materials in a safe and effective manner. These treatments provide a chemical barrier that insects crawl through and are essentially “taken out of commission” before successfully invading your home. Even if they do make it inside, they often are D.O.A. (dead on arrival) from the material’s active ingredient.

Don’t let springtime pests spoil your springtime fun…Permit a Pest Professional to Provide a Proactive Plan for Pesty Populations around the Perimeter of your home!

Barry Bradley
Senior Pest Control Technician

When spring arises and the exterior landscapes come alive, so do our pesky little friends, Odorous House Ants.

There are many different types of ants in our area but one of the most annoying and hard to control is the Odorous House Ant. These ants get their name from the odor they give off when crushed. Some people say it resembles a rotten coconut smell. Odorous House ants can be found foraging on exterior walls, across sidewalks, driveways and in mulch beds. On the interior one the most common areas they are seen is near kitchen sinks or other water sources. The house ant will be most active from spring through summer but can be seen any time of year.

When I see ants following a specific trail, what are they doing? When ants find a food source, they release a pheromone to light the path to their buddies. Typically, Odorous House ants are commonly seen foraging for food on the exterior which is also where most nests are located. The nests can be located under debris, in mulch, under stones and in other items in your landscape. Ants forage for food along well traveled trails and may feed on dead insects, sweets, meats and starchy foods. On the exterior one favorite food of the ant is the honeydew produced by feeding aphids and scale insects.

If I’m seeing a lot of ants on the exterior, does that mean they will get inside as well? Just because you have a lot of ants on the outside, it does not mean they will necessarily get inside your structure but many times they do. Ants can get into your structure through small cracks and crevices.  We recommend you seal as many of these on the exterior as possible. If you notice the ant trails entering a crack or crevice from the outside, this is most likely the ants foraging for food. The nest of these ants is most likely on the exterior but ants may create satellite colonies which can be located in your home. Wall and floor voids and areas that are warm and moist are places ants tend to build nests. A very common hot-spot for ants is anywhere there may be a portion of the home built over a concrete slab, such as a sun room or garage.

I am seeing ants in my home. What do I do now? Many times ants are seen in the kitchen or by another water source. Best practices in the kitchen consist of proper food storage and waste management. For example, place foodstuff in a sealed container or refrigerator. Rinse all recyclables and/or dishes after use and make sure to clean all surface areas. Many times the contact of soapy water will kill the ant but will have no residual effect. Various home remedies kill the worker ants foraging for food but generally have no effect on the colony as a whole.  Therefore, we recommend contacting a Professional Pest Control Company to remedy the situation. Since Odorous House Ants are one of the more difficult to control ant species, they will need multiple applications per year for good control. A Quarterly Pest Control Program is best when trying to rid yourself of these little stinkers!

Greg Tomlinson

Account Manager

Licensed Pest Control Technician

Before you call a waterproofing company you should know that your landscape could be the reason you’re getting water in your basement.

You may have never thought of this before, but the source of your water problem in your basement may be directly caused by a poor landscape design or up-keep. Obviously, landscaping isn’t always the problem, but in many cases, making these several changes to your landscape can make a huge impact on water getting into your home.

Do you get an A+ or an F? What’s the grade. I’m just trying to be clever here with a pun. The grade of your landscape means how it slopes away from your home. Crouch down and look along the side of your house where it meets the landscape. Does it slope away or towards your home? A proper grade should slope away from your home about 1″ for every foot it goes out from the foundation. This will cause surface water to direct into your lawn, instead of puddling against the walls of your house. Sometimes, adding a little topsoil, then covering with about 2″ of mulch  can be all it takes to steer the mighty waters away from your home. Hard surfaces should also be examined to determine how they are dispersing water. If patios, walkways, and driveways are the culprit, they may need re-installed or adjusted accordingly.

Get Your Mind INTO the Gutter! Gutters are meant to re-direct the precipitation landing on your roof, and to release it at the foundation of your home. Most times, gutter contractors just give a 90 degree elbow at the end to emit the water about a foot away from the structure. Homeowners often buy that black flexible pipe and extend it further. Although relatively effective, it’s not always the most attractive solution. We often will use PVC pipe and adapters to take this water flow even farther from the structure. In most cases, a Pop-up Drain Emitter can be installed on the end. This cap will pop up with the flow of water, and disperse into the lawn, hence its name. It’s a great solution that looks nice, and can be easily cleaned out. The best part is now instead of dumping the water a foot away from your house, it can be release 10+ ft. away.

Eliminate a Window of Opportunity. Sometimes, the window wells to your basement may be your problem. There should be at least 12″-18″ of gravel lining the bottom of a window well. The top lip of the window well should be at least 3″ above the finished grade of the landscape, or pooling run-off water may just fill the window well like a tub. This may mean ripping out the window well, digging out some earth, adding some gravel, and installing a new window well.

Drastic Problems Call for Drastic Measures. Maybe only these methods won’t fix your problem. At times, the grade of your lawn may need adjusted to create a swale. A swale is a purposefully lowered section of lawn, that will direct heavy flows of water in a specific direction. This may mean you will have to renovate a larger portion of your lawn, but if it fixes the problem, it’s well worth it. In some cases, there just isn’t enough space to cut a swale or change the grade. In these instances, catch drains can be installed. Similar to the grates you find in a street storm drain, these catch basins will collect water and use an underground pipe to direct the water elsewhere.

Good information is just that. If you really want to find out what’s going on, wait until the next downpour or heavy rain day you get. Grab the umbrella, slicker, and boots, and go outside and play hydro-detective. If you stand still enough and think long enough, you may find exactly what the problem is. We hope you find your answer, and remember, if you can’t figure it out, and/or don’t want to fix it yourself, find a great landscaper that can do grading and seeding (like us) for you.

Chad Diller

Residential Account Manager

Certified Arborist, Certified Turfgrass Professional