Free from Curb’s / Seasonal tips
The things we tell people standing in their driveway. Short, free, and true every year on this ground.
Written for Greencastle, Waynesboro, Chambersburg and the ground within 15 miles of us.
September to November · Now
One clearing in October is usually one too early: the oaks around here hold on into November. Water that overflows a blocked gutter lands at the foundation, which is where most wet-basement problems actually start.
Where water goes wrong →Stakes along the edge of a gravel or unkerbed drive, put in while you can still see it, are what keeps a plough on the drive and out of the lawn. Twenty minutes in November saves a repair in April.
Snow and ice →Cool nights, warm soil and less weed pressure make late summer into early fall the strongest window for seeding a cool-season lawn in this part of Pennsylvania. Spring seeding competes with crabgrass and then walks straight into a dry July.
Lawn care →March to May
A mulch volcano holds moisture against the bark and rots it. Two to three inches, pulled back far enough to see the flare where the trunk meets the roots, is the whole technique.
Beds and mulch →Two minutes standing in it tells you more than a week of looking at the aftermath: which way the water actually runs, where it sheets off the roof, and which corner it is heading for. Take a video on your phone while you are out there.
Drainage and grading →June to August
Taller grass shades its own roots and holds moisture through a dry spell. Cutting short in high summer is the fastest route to a brown lawn and a crop of crabgrass in the thin patches it leaves behind.
Weekly mowing →A long soak once or twice a week sends roots down. A short daily sprinkle keeps them at the surface, where they dry out first. An empty tin on the lawn tells you when you have put down an inch.
December to February
A patch that clears before everything else is telling you something is warm underneath. A patch that stays frozen and then ponds is telling you the ground falls the wrong way. Both are far easier to see in February than in July.
Deciding where the piles go before the first storm matters more than it sounds. Snow stacked uphill of the drive melts back across it and refreezes, and a pile across a drain outlet turns into a pond in the thaw.
Snow and ice →Keep finding this
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