2018  Spring Newsletter

A Big Thank You

Well, another year is here.  First off we would like to thank you for being a wonderful customer.  We are not perfect and make mistakes and we really appreciate how you are tolerant of us when we have made mistakes and how you have been patient and given us time to try to fix them.  Thanks again!

A Dry, Cold Winter

I am very interested in weather and so I can’t help but talk about it a little.  It has been a very dry winter.  It was a drier than normal summer, with us, receiving only a couple beneficial rains in Oct.  As you can see from the drought map the whole state is in a drought and the extreme drought keeps creeping ever closer from the SW.  It has also been a cold winter.  I’m not sure if this is more normal or if the last few were abnormal.  A little side note, if you have a self-draining sprinkler system, it would be very beneficial to water your lawn on a  day that it is above freezing.  Fescue grass is semi-dormant and it is good for it to receive some moisture

Lazy in the Winter

Many of you ask what I do in the winter.  I would like to tell you a little bit about what Winter consists of for me.  I do stay very busy it seems like but it is a more relaxed busy than during the Summer.  It is also work that doesn’t seem to make money.  It seems like there is lots of maintenance to do that gets pushed off until winter. I also have some cows together with my dad so that takes more work in the winter also. 

Vidor Tx

Last week I was privileged to go with our church to Beaumont TX, to help with rebuilding after the devastating flooding that happened with Hurricane Harvey.  9 of us went with Christian Disaster Relief.  We worked together with an organization called Operation Blessing that is funding all of the work that we did.  We were housed at a church there in Beaumont.  We were working in an area that was flooded when the dam upstream from them had to be opened completely open to keep the dam from washing out.  They said a wall of water came downstream from that. One man told us his town received 60.25″ in 3 days.  That country is very flat.  Flatter than here. They do not build their houses up at all when they build like we do here which probably contributed to a lot of them getting water in them. 

Flooding in Beaumont TX

We worked at hanging sheetrock and mudding sheetrock for people that had from 16″ to 4′ of water in their houses.  I was not prepared for the widespread damage that we saw.  We worked in areas where every house on every street had water in it.  Very few if any people were back in those houses yet.  Most houses had just been gutted and the sheetrock was laying in piles in front of almost every house.  If you struggle to be thankful for what you have, a trip to Beaumont might change that.  See photos of some of the areas we worked.

Beaumont TX

New Product

Defendor^® Specialty Herbicide

 

Now for a little about what this letter is supposed to be about. We are hoping to be out starting to fertilize any day now.  We are excited to be using a new product this year.  It is called Defendor.  

• Extremely effective control of dandelion, clover and other broadleaf weeds
• Apply in late fall or early spring when temperatures are still cool — a time when other postemergence herbicides aren’t effective

It is designed to not let dandelions bloom.  This is a huge thing for us.  If we can spray this on early and keep the dandelions from blooming, then we can come back on our 2nd application and kill the dandelion before it can spread any seed.  Take note of the fact that Defendor will not kill the plant, only keep it from blooming.  It would be wonderful if you didn’t see any dandelions.  That might be too unrealistic to hope for but I think it will help a lot.  Also, it is a very good option for killing Clover.  It seems like our weather conditions have been perfect for clover the last few years and it has popped up in a lot of yards that haven’t had it for quite awhile.  

Here is what our program for this year is going to consist of:

Step 1.  Partial rate of Crabgrass Preventor, Defendor, Fertilizer, (liquid application)

Step 2. Partial rate of Crabgrass Preventor, Grub Preventor, Weed control, Fertilizer, (liquid application)

Step 3. Fertilizer [weed control if needed] (granular application)

Step 4. Fertilizer [weed control if needed]

Step 5. Winterizer

Pre-pay Discount

Like last year we are offering a 4% pre-pay discount if you pay for the whole season before March 10, 2018.  You are under no obligation to do so.  Otherwise, you can just pay for each application after it is applied and we leave a door hanger or send you an emailed invoice. 

You should be receiving your quote for 2018 any day.  Prices have stayed the same.  If you would like to pre-pay,  just pay off of the quote and I will apply it to your account.  That is the best way for me to keep track that you have a credit.

Online payment and emailed invoices

We would love to email your invoice to you instead of leaving it on your door, but the same applies here.  You are under no obligation to allow us to do that if you would prefer to have us leave a door hanger invoice.  If we do email an invoice to you, you can, if you wish, use the online bill pay option.  If you sign up, it saves your information so you do not have to re-enter it every time.  It is very simple.  Many of our customers use it and really like it.  So, if you are not already receiving your invoices by email and would like to,  please send your email to me at windyridgelawn@gmail.com.  

Customer Referrals

There is no better compliment than to hear that you told someone else about our services.  We are giving you $35.00 off of your next application for each customer that you refer us to.  (The new customer that is signing up must pre-pay the remaining year’s program for you to receive your discount.  I wish I didn’t have to add that but I have had customers that were working the system and we just did one application and they canceled.)  Once again, Thanks in advance for referring us to your friends and neighbors.