Photo by Ecoyards

It’s a sure sign of spring when you can spot the explosion of white and pale pink blossoms on cherry trees throughout the Northwest. There are no shortage of places to view cherry blossoms, which are in their prime from about late March into early April. The University of Washington’s Quad is one of the many places where you can walk under a canopy of pink and white blossoms. The 31 Yoshino cherry trees that line the campus quad start blooming in late March and go for about three weeks. According to the UW, the Washington Park Arboretum bought and planted these Yoshino cherry trees around 1939. In the early 1960s, they were brought to the UW campus when State Route 520 was built.

If you’re looking to plant ornamental cherry trees at your home,  Yoshino cherry is one of the best bets for the Seattle area. Yoshino cherry, or prunus yedeoensis, is a Great Plant Pick, which means it is well-suited for growing in the Seattle area. Once established, the plant is drought tolerant. It’s also disease resistant and loves our cool, wet weather. The tree develops golden yellow and orange colors in the fall. It is originally from Japan and has been widely planted in the U.S., including in Washington, D.C. Great Plant Picks also recommends three other ornamental cherry tree varieties that do well in the Seattle area, including Akebono, Japanese Flowering Cherry and Cornelian Cherry.

The exchange of cherry trees between Japan and Washington, D.C., has a long and interesting history _ with a Seattle connection. In 1909, First Lady Helen Taft backed the idea of planting cherry trees in the nation’s capital, according to this National Park Service timeline. That year, Japan donated 2,000 trees to Washington to be planted along the Potomac River. The trees were shipped from Japan through Seattle on Dec. 10, 1909. When they arrived in D.C., agricultural inspectors discovered that they were infested with insects and nematodes, and President Taft agreed to have them burned to protect American growers. The NPS timeline shows that in 1912, Japan donated another 3,020 trees to D.C.; again they were shipped through Seattle and included about 1,800 Yoshino cherry trees, as well as other varieties. Those 1912 Yoshino cherry and trees propagated from that stock still draw thousands of visitors to D.C. each spring. Over the years, cuttings were taken from those 1912 trees to help preserve the tree’s genetic lineage; some were even sent back to Japan to help maintain the tree’s lineage in that country. Yoshino cherry trees are the predominant cherry blossom tree found in D.C., mainly along the tidal basin.

Spring is here, and that means it’s time to give your lawn a healthy, natural boost by aerating, over-seeding, and top-dressing. This triple-combination lawn practice is a key way to maintain a natural, organic lawn. Doing this once every couple years will help you maintain a green healthy lawn without the use of pesticides.

Some companies may only aerate your lawn, but we feel your lawn benefits most when you also over-seed (spread grass seed) and top-dress (spread a thin layer of compost over your lawn). Here’s how and why we do it:

First, we aerate your lawn. Why aerate? Over time, lawns become compacted from heavy use; each time your pets, kids and others walk across or play on the lawn, all that foot traffic presses down on the soil, making it harder for the grass roots to take up water and other nutrients. That greatly reduces air pockets in your soil. Grass (and other roots) require oxygen to grow and absorb nutrients and water. When we aerate your lawn, we use a mechanical aerator that pulls out small plugs of soil from the lawn about one to two inches in length. This creates little air pockets that allow water, fertilizers and other nutrients to move to the root zone more easily. These air pockets improve the lawn’s ability to absorb rain and prevents fertilizers from running off the lawn surface. The soil plugs are left on the lawn, because they’ll eventually break down and work back into the soil.

Second, we over-seed your lawn, which means we’ll spread a Northwest blend of grass seed over your lawn to help fill in bare patches. Spring is a good time to aerate, over-seed and top-dress because weather is important. Grass seed needs roughly 60F temps to germinate. Put it down too early in the winter and it just rots or gets eaten by birds. Put it down too late in the summer and you’ll have to baby-sit it with a sprinkler to keep it from drying out.

Finally, we top-dress the lawn, which involves spreading a thin layer of compost on top of your lawn. Compost is great for building healthy soil in landscape and garden beds; the same is true for your lawn. Healthy lawns require healthy soil. We’ll rake a thin layer of compost over your lawn (with some filling the aeration holes), where it will gradually move to the soil below the grass. Top-dressing with compost helps soils use fertilizer more efficiently and adds nutrients. It’s a good idea to top-dress your lawn once a year to restore soil humus.

Contact us today to setup a consultation if you’d like help with lawn renovation services.