Landscape Maintenance

People today have busy lives. Why spend your free time mowing your lawn, trimming your hedges or, worse yet, renting poorly maintained equipment to aerate or de-thatch your lawn? JT Landscaping will professionally maintain your landscape with our meticulous maintenance crews to ensure that your home looks better than ever.

Trust the Pittsburgh Landscape Maintenance Experts

JT Landscaping began years ago as a landscape maintenance company. While we have grown into a business that is capable of handling much larger projects, lawn and landscape maintenance makes up a large part of our services. Our maintenance crew is proficient in every facet of landscape maintenance. You will not be disappointed.

Regular Services

Aeration
Dethatching
Overseeding
Trimming / Pruning
Mowing
Irrigation Maintenance

Fertilizing and Weed Control
Pest Control
Seasonal Cleanups
Fresh Mulch
Leaf Removal

Click on each section below for more detail.

Aeration

Aeration is the process by which a machine called an “Aerator” removes cores of soil about 4 inches long from the lawn. The mechanical process of aerating is a fundamental step in trying to achieve a healthy green lawn. The goal of aeration is to loosen the soil that has become compacted due to natural compression. The biggest contributor to compaction is heavy rain and soil composition. Many lawns lack the soil mixtures that promote natural cultivation. Aerating provides that service to your lawn.

Loose soils allow the root systems of the turf to penetrate into the soil. As the roots become stronger, they are more resilient, and are able to fight off the effects of drought or disease. Air exchange directly to the soil encourages microorganisms to become more abundant and help in breaking down and preventing the formation of thatch in the lawn.

Benefits of aeration

Improved air exchange between the soil and atmosphere
Enhanced water intake
Improved fertilizer uptake and use
Reduced water runoff and ponding
Stronger, deeper grass roots

Reduced soil compaction
Enhanced heat and drought stress tolerance
Improved resiliency & cushioning
Enhanced thatch breakdown

How Often?

We recommend that you have your lawn aerated once a year. The benefit to having it done will be evident within the first few applications of fertilizer after the initial aeration has been completed. As you continue to have the lawn cared for using this service on a yearly basis, the long term benefits will speak for themselves.

Dethatching

What is Thatch?

Have you ever noticed on the surface of your lawn, just below the vertical stalks of green turf, a brownish straw colored material? That is called thatch. It is a byproduct of mowing, leaves, and the buildup of dead grass. It’s a natural occurrence that houses microorganisms in all varieties of turf grass. As thatch forms, it creates a weave over the surface of your soil. This layer of decomposing material is very detrimental to a healthy lawn.

Why Dethatch?

Why would you want to remove this material from the surface of the soil? While thatch is building up, the ability for your lawn to receive and absorb fertilizers is significantly reduced. When pesticides and fertilizers are applied, they can be absorbed by the thatch and never make it into the root systems below. Once the thatch is removed, the lawn looks greener.

Studies have shown as much as 50% of a fertilizer application can be lost to a heavy buildup of thatch in a lawn. The material that is in the composition of thatch is actually dead material that is decomposing. While the decomposition is happening, the healthy turf around it also subject to the effects of the decomposition. You wouldn’t want moldy bread next to good bread would you? Same thought process.

Thatch also absorbs rain water and irrigation water that should be absorbed and utilized by the roots of your lawn. This leads to a faster burnout in the event of a drought.

Dethatching Procedure

Our dethatching machines use a thine reel system. When these power rakes run over the turf, it loosens up the thatch and brings it to the surface of the lawn. We are then able to remove the dead material.

It is often surprising to folks to see us fill a dump truck after dethatching a standard sized lawn. There is that much dead material surrounding the lawn. Dethatching should not be done yearly. Once on a good maintenance program, dethatching should be done every other year.

If you have not had your lawn dethatched for some time, call to schedule a free estimate with us. The best time to dethatch is before the stressful and oppressive heat of the summer hits. The fall is also an opportune time to perform this service as well.

Overseeding

Most cool season grasses are bunch type grasses. They grow in a bunch, but growth habits are largely misunderstood. When lawn grass seed germinates, a single grass blade emerges. At the plant’s center, or the crown, the plant has roots growing down from the crown and blades growing up. Grass plants expand as new grass blades, called tillers. The tillers continue to grow alongside the original stalk. Hundreds of new tillers can develop, each having its own crown, roots and blades. A blade of healthy cool season perennial grass has a generally short lifespan. Because of this it must continually produce new tillers or the turf thins out.

After several years, lawns begin to slow down their reproduction rate. Because the grass lives only an average of 45 to 60 days, it is necessary that the continued production of new tillers be accomplished. Newly established seed will produce tillers much faster than older grass. In order to replenish this ability to create tillers rapidly, overseeding is the best method to achieve this. Overseeding is a great way to keep your lawn young and vibrant. Young grass is more resistant to drought and disease. Young grass is much more responsive to fertilizer applications. Overseeding lawns will reduce or eliminate competition from unwanted weeds. A thick lawn is not a welcome place for weeds to thrive. Overseeding will also help to fill in any bare areas that have developed due to foot traffic or mower damage.

When is overseeding necessary?

As far as time of the year is concerned, overseeding lawns in cool season climates should be done in spring or in the fall. The factors for determining the right time to seed have to do with soil temperature, rain availability, humidity, and air temperature. During the summer when high humidity and spiking temperatures are prevalent, overseeding is not recommended. In order to accomplish overseeding at its peak performance, it should be done after dethatching and aerating has been completed. By doing both of those mechanical services, you allow the newly applied seed to have good soil contact, as well as good transfer of air. The need for carbon dioxide is imperative for photosynthesis. The efficiency of the new turf to be able to accomplish this is done with no thatch present and air available from aeration.

Once the seed has been applied to the area, usually by means of a broadcast spreader, it is top dressed with mushroom manure compost. This creates a thin layer of organic material to keep moisture in after watering. Mushroom manure is also rich with nutrients beneficial to the lawn once established. Pelletized lime is applied to bring the pH of the lawn to its optimum level. A base that is too acidic will be more difficult for turf grass to germinate in. Lime is the perfect counter measure to the acidic nature in soil. Finally, starter fertilizer is applied which has the correct measure of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potash available to feed the seed and newly emerging tillers. As with most fertilizers, the coatings available on the exterior of the pellets, allow the product to be released over time. This ensures continuous feeding over the course of several weeks as the lawn area continues to be irrigated.

Trimming/Pruning

Trimming or pruning shrubs and trees is a type of regular maintenance required for plants in landscapes. Shrubs and trees are normally the anchor in a landscape. As a result, these plants need proper care to retain their beauty, form, and shape. When done correctly, proper clipping will help to promote health and flower production. Our crews take special care to properly trim each shrub to its specific requirements. We take note to identify the different needs of all plant types in a given landscape.

Upon arriving on location we evaluate which shrubs need trimmed as well as how much needs cut back. We take into consideration each plants flowering cycle, natural growing tendency, and shape. Dead and damaged branches, as well as old wood is removed to promote new growth and reduce stress on the shrub.

Trees require less frequent maintenance. Service can range from a full canopy pruning, to simply removing low branches and root shooters.

Each customer’s preference and style are important to us and we strive to give a personal experience to each client. Our priority is to maintain your plants the way you like them. Whether you prefer a looser natural look, or a tighter more sculpted trim, we try to accommodate your taste. We offer complete trims, light touch ups, hand pruning, and severe cut backs of all shrub types.

Fertilization and Weed Control

If your lawn is distressed and you are not sure why, call the local experts at JT Landscaping to get a free evaluation.

Lawn Care and Treatments

We offer season long treatments to keep your lawn strong and healthy while keeping it free of pests and weeds.

Our season plan has five treatments:

Early Spring Application

Consists of a slow release pellet to fertilize with rainfalls over the course of 5 weeks. Also our crab grass prevention additive to stop germination of crab grass is included in this as well.
Spring
Application

Consists of a high nitrogen content in granular form, and a blanket spray for broad leaf weeds.
Summer Application

Slow release fertilizer with grub and chinch bug control.
Early Fall Application

Nitrogen pellets and a blanket spray for broad leaf weeds.
Winterizer Application

Promotes root growth and prepares lawn for winter.

Also available are pelletized lime applications to manage the pH level of your soil, and Fungicide treatments to control diseases such as dollar spot, red thread, and snow mold.

Mowing

No yard is too big or small; from postage stamp front yards to several acre farms we have the variety of equipment to handle any type of lawn care task.

Large business plazas and townhouse communities run by management companies are challenges we welcome. Our crews are experienced in all lawn types and take care to maintain your lawn the way you like it.

Whether you request short or long, bagged or mulched, we are flexible to accommodate your preference. The finished job is a crisp lawn with alternating lines, a detailed trim with a weed trimmer, and cleaned up sidewalks blown clear with our back pack blowers. The grass clippings are disposed of by us.

Annual Flower Installation

Bulbs are the early birds of spring. We install them in the October and they come up year after year. Most show in late March and stay through a good part of April. The summer annuals get planted after the threat of frost is over. We usually install them around the middle of May.

A variety of flower types and colors are available for all your beds and planters. We carefully select the right flowers for the right bed locations. Full shade, part sun, and full sun are all taken into consideration to give you the best combination of healthy looking flowers. All our flowers are installed into fresh mushroom manure, which is full of nutrients to keep them looking beautiful all season long.

We also offer mums in the fall if you wish to have your flowers switched out as the cold sets in. Mums come in many different colors to mix and match, so your landscape gets a fresh pop of color that will last as the frost returns.

Seasonal clean ups

Spring clean up

When the snow stops, and spring is right around the corner, we begin the process of cleaning up and getting your yard ready! We clean up leaves that were late to fall or blown in from the neighbor’s yard. Perennials that grow late into the fall, or decorative grasses that stay up through the winter, all get cut back. Weeds get pulled and beds are professionally edged in preparation for the spring application of mulch.

Fall clean up

All you have to do is enjoy the beautiful colors of the changing leaves. Let us handle them once they fall. We use rakes, backpack blowers, and push blowers to clear the leaves from your lawn, beds, and porches. We remove the leaves from your property using a truck outfitted with a vacuum system. Decorative grasses and perennials are cut down and annual flowers are removed and disposed of.