New Years Resolution 2016

“I started using the Possum’s recipe for my lawn 3 years ago and I have never had a better lawn in the 35 years that I have been trying to grow the perfect lawn. Possum’s is awesome! I have the best lawn in the neighborhood.”  Greg Lienert.

“Through Possum’s soil analysis program our yard has improved immensely.  We were one of three “Yard of the Quarter” winners in Dunes West. ” David and Deborah Oyster

“With fertilizer, pest and disease control program everything worked great and we won “Yard of the Month” in Dunes West.  The 15-00-15 with its secret ingredients, lawn insect control, Cleary’s 3336 fungicide and Deer Stopper worked great for us!” 

Merrill Craven

“Helped rid yard of fungus damage, chinch bug damage.  Deep green, healthy, lush look and texture.  A lawn program is far better than random purchases at discount store.  Cotton Burr compost is noticeably effective within 1-2 weeks.  Worth the price.”  Eugene V. Babich

“Possum’s soil test and monthly program has turned a weak sickly lawn into lush dark green lawn – winning a Letter of Award from Park West for Landscape Appearance.”  Pat Piglia

“The Best!  Cookbook program very user friendly—plus the support!!”

Bernard Arnold, O.D.

“Great, explaining what to do in my yard at the proper time of year”.  Bess Knight

“Possum’s Fertilizers with their secret ingredients are far better than Scott’s fertilizer-no doubt about it and I used Scott’s for a long time.” Jim Bayne

“Great products for my lawn.  15-00-15 Lawn Food!  My lawn never looked better!  Better than Scotts!  Great Products!”  George Bryant

“I had mostly depended on Home Depot for yard treatment, before finding out about Possum’s. I went to Possum’s and explained my yard issues. They got me on a regular schedule with treatments. Now my yard is the greenest and prettiest in the neighborhood.  Possum’s is the only place I’ll go.” Julia Jacobs

Resolution one – get on a Possum’s Custom Program.  Resolution two see resolution one.

Happy New Year!

Always read, understand and follow product label. The product label is a Federal Law.

Gifts for the Gardener

Does it seem like your free time is spent doing maintenance yard work around the house?  You work long hours all week, and then on the weekend instead of spending time with your family, shopping, on the boat, on the golf course, hunting, etc., you are spending it pushing a lawn mower inhaling that blue smoke?  Give yourself a lawn care company for a year and enjoy your time off doing what you like to do.  You can still spend time in the yard doing specialty things; just get rid of the mowing, edging, control product applying and blowing.  Also consider hiring professionals to do other house maintenance (power washing, painting….). 

Plan a trip to a local public garden (for example Magnolia Plantation, Middleton, Boone Hall, Drayton Hall, Charles Towne Landing, the many county parks or Hampton Park) and get ideas for your own landscape.  This also makes for a wonderful day with the family.  You can take a picnic lunch and make it a full day enjoying the beauty of the Lowcountry. Many of these parks you can buy a yearly pass for just a little more than a onetime visit and enjoy the park throughout the year.

If you would like to take a road trip, travel to Brookgreen Gardens by Myrtle Beach, or Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. You can also give a gardener a trip out of the area for a long distance gardening adventure.  Calloway Gardens in Atlanta, Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, The National Arboretum outside of Washington, D.C., The Redwoods in California or any other garden throughout the United States…..or anywhere in the world!

Give a gardener a gift certificate for a future House and Garden Tour event.  There are great tour events throughout the year in areas all over the Lowcountry.  Kiawah, Seabrook, Daniel Island, City of Charleston, Summerville, Mount Pleasant all have different garden tours.  If you want to go on a road trip, Savannah and Beaufort also have garden tours.  

Give your gardener a membership to one of the many clubs or societies in the Charleston area. The Rose Society,  The Charleston Horticultural Society, The Native Plant Society, The Camellia Society, The Koi Fish Club and Daylily Society just to name a few.  I have attended many of these club lectures.  They are all very informative and are passionate about their interests, willing to help newcomers, and provide different community projects to improve the Lowcountry.  I have run into many old friends and have made many new friends at these meetings.

Books (different Universities sell very informative books at very good prices), quality hand tools (especially pruners and pruning saws), cuttings from your garden, a plant, tree, or bulbs, or something you have canned from your garden.

A gift certificate to any of the local garden centers or nurseries makes an excellent choice for the garden enthusiast.   They are bound to find something they like!

Make Life Easy - Measure your Yard

Knowing the square footage of your grass areas and bed areas are key to applying any fertilizer or control product correctly. With the nice weather we are having, now is a great time to get out there and measure the yard.

An old bathroom scale and bucket also aid in the proper application of products. If your yard is 8,000 square feet and you want to apply a product at 4 pounds per thousand square feet, then 8 times 4 is equal to 32 pounds of product. Get a bathroom scale and a five gallon bucket. Pour 32 pounds into the bucket and apply it equally across the yard.

Make notes about spreader settings used and particle size of product, so you know what setting you should use the next time you use this product.

I can remember several times hearing different variations of this same answer to my question while at the counter at Possum’s. “How many square feet is your yard?” Rough answer,” well, last year I put out that bag that covers 5000 square feet and it was perfect for my yard, so I must have 5000 square feet.”  Sorry, wrong answer.

Based on a pound of nitrogen, we sell 50 pound bags that cover as much as 23,000 square feet and as little as 1000 square feet. Unfortunately, the bag does not know the size of our yards or how fast you walk.

In the old days, yards were mostly square or rectangular, and they were easy to measure. Now most yards have curvy bed lines that sweep across the landscape, making them more difficult to measure. If you can break the yard up into little squares or rectangles, and measure the length and the width then you can get your square footage. Length multiplied by width will give you your square footage. Add up all the squares and rectangles that you measured the square feet of, and you will come up with the square footage of your yard.

If this sounds like total “Greek or Geek” to you, ask a landscaper, a realtor,  a landscape architect, someone that works with floors or carpets, an engineer, a construction worker, someone who pours driveways, or anyone else that regularly needs to measure the square footage of something to help you. Your plat map from when you purchased your house might help as well.

Now, there are even websites that you can log onto and they will tell you the square footage of your yard. Of course, I like to do it the old fashion way – length times width.

I know this measuring seems like a pain, but most of us stay in a house for several years or decades. A little pain spread over several years of having very useful information is worth it.

Once you measure the yard, put the measurements in about 5 to 10 locations throughout your house, your car (so you have it with you when you go to buy product) and the garage, so you do not lose them. I have learned over the years that I put information like that in one “special place” so I do not lose the information. I then forget where that “special place” is!