Ok, so you can spend the gift certificate on more than just lawn care if you win it! — You can spend it on pretty much anything Home Depot has on the shelves! Afterall, it is a gift card!

So here’s the skinny: the good folks at Home Depot sent me this $100 gift card to give away to a lucky reader and all you have to do is sign up for their informative gardening newsletter to be entered in the drawing. What a deal! Here is what they have to say about it:

* Did you know you can get answers to all your outdoor questions within 24 hours at www.homedepotgardenclub.com?
* Get valuable information about your region, gardening advice from pros and updates on local gardening events at www.homedepotgardenclub.com.
* Visit www.homedepotgardenclub.com and join The Home Depot Garden Club to get exclusive coupons and tips, and DIY advice on gardening, lawn care, landscaping and outdoor living projects.

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Ok guys, so here is what you have to do to enter the drawing. Go there, sign up and then come back here and leave a comment in this post letting me know you signed up. We will compare the email addy you used to sign up for the newsletter to the email addy you leave in the comment below to validate. June 30th at 8PM CST I will draw a random winner and notify you by email. It’s that simple.

Now I know some of you are wondering if there is anymore to it, and the answer is “no.” I am not interested in bothering you or spamming you or any of that. I just want you to get the good info that my friends at Home Depot send out in their newsletter as well as award one of you the gift card! That’s it! (USA residents only)

Click Here to sign up

I can see how this approach could be a solid one as there are many of you who are just testing the waters and you lack the experience and confidence to get out and take care of your lawn for a full season. In addition, some of you just don’t have the time and your lawns are in dire straights! I also get the idea that there are some things that are a little tougher, even for the most experienced. With that in mind, here are some recommendations for you:

DIY Lawn Care Treatments and Professional Lawn Treatments Combined

If you are looking to purchase the best lawn treatments from a lawn care service while still adding in your own personal touches, here is what I would recommend.

I would buy 4 regular lawn care applications from the professional lawn spraying company. Each lawn treatment company has their own idea of how many treatments you “should need” per year and what each one entails, etc. But honestly guys, they’re all about the same; trust me.

With that in mind, it doesn’t really matter if you live far south somewhere, or up north like me, you just need to get 4 lawn treatments from the professional lawn spraying service.

The 4 treatments you want are the first 4 of the year. Typically this would mean your first one will come sometime in March and then 3 more about 5 weeks apart. It is very important that you verify that at least one of the treatments contains a crab grass pre-emergent in the mix.

These 4 lawn applications will probably be completed by July or August depending on where you live and what time the weather breaks this year. The reason I recommend these first 4 is because the beginning of the season is typically when the main onslaught of weeds occurs, so you might as well let the pros work them outta there for ya.

A final note before we move on: most professional lawn spraying services will offer you free repeat visits in between regular treatments. Be sure to take advantage of these “free service calls,” especially when the main weed pop hits in the mid-spring.

Now, onto the do-it-yourself portion of this “hybrid” lawn care program:

Ok, so we know that the pros are going to be handling the basic fertilizing (they will probably use mostly crappy nitrogen fert) for the first few months of the year, as well as the weed control and crab grass pre-emergent; so what is left for us? The answer is: the icing.

Yeah, you get to put the icing on the lawn cake here my friend. You get to add in what the lawn really needs to take it to the next level.

Your first order of business is to pick up some Milorganite organic fertilizer and lay that down in the middle of April (follow label directions). It doesn’t matter where you live, April is the time to put it down. If you are concerned about hurting you lawn with too much fert, don’t worry, the Milorganite organic is super slow release and will only aid in what your lawn company is already doing. In addition, Milorganite offers slow release iron for the lawn which is what gives it that dark blue-green color.

Next you need to turn to the lawn fungus treatment and grub worm treatment. These are really simple applications but very important. It is best to apply a lawn fungus control application in mid-May and your grub worm treatment in mid-June. The good news here is that you really can’t screw these up so putting them down will give you a good feel for how to spread lawn products if you are just starting out.

Next, lay down another treatment of Milorganite sometime in the later summer. You should also be prepared to spot-spray any weeds that invade during the hotter months.
Always be sure to follow my lawn watering tips too.

The final piece of this puzzle involves the lawn aeration. There really is no skill needed to aerate your lawn, but the machine is pretty large and you may not have a way to get it to your house if you rent one. In this case, you may want to call the pro back in for the fall time to aerate.

That is really it. If you look back at everything here, you will see that you are hiring the pros for 4 treatments, and you are doing 4. This way, you save time and if you are a beginner, you get a real feel for actually pushing the spreader and laying down treatments. With more confidence, you will be ready to take on more and more of the DIY lawn care in the future.

rose of sharon up close

It’s now later July, and my Asiatic and Oriental lilies are beginning to fade, but my Gladiolas have not yet bloomed, so what is the DIY gardener to do? Enter: Rose-of-Sharon. (pictured here is “Purple Sky Single Lavender” )

If you’ve every been to Florida and noticed the beautiful, tropical Hibiscus flowers, then you’ll love the Rose of Sharon who’s large hibiscus-like blooms are showy in the mid-to-late summer in zone 5 and early summer in southerly zones. So if you live in the Midwest, this is your key to late July and August perennial flower power!

Sharon grows in sun or partial shade and in any soil. If you grow her in Chicago’s nasty gray, clay soil, be sure to amend with some mushroom compost and a little manure to increase the blooms!

With regular, weekly watering, Sharon will grow quickly, requiring regular pruning. If you have her planted in an open area, you can let her go and she’ll grow around 12 feet tall and 10 feet wide. If you have Rose of Sharon in your regular landscape beds like I do, keep her trimmed regularly using hand pruners;… Just keep the “run-away” limbs in check. Fast growth is not bad thing, however, because you can prune Rose of Sharon into the later spring with no flower loss. Keep her shaped so she doesn’t get away from you.

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Rose of Sharon blooms are found in single or double flowers in shades of red, pink, white and purple/lavender, depending on the cultivar. Peak bloom takes place in early August in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana area.

Rose of Sharon have very few problems from insects or fungus, however, in recent years I have found Japanese Beetles feeding on the flowers when no other host plants are near. Other than that, Sharon is low maintenance and does not require dead heading. Some gardeners do panic in early spring as they are unaware that Rose of Sharon is one of the later deciduous shrubs to push out leaves. Trust me, she’s not dead, she’s just sleeping in!

Here are a few names to look for when buying Rose of Sharon:

‘Amplissimus’ – Double, red flowers.

‘Aphrodite’ – Dark pink flowers with a dark red eye.

‘Ardens’ – Double, rose-purple flowers with a maroon blotch.

‘Banner’ – Red and white flowers.

‘Blue Bird’ – Single, sky-blue flowers

‘Blushing Bride’ – Double, rich pink flowers

‘Bulls Eye’ – Large, single, rose-red flowers with a red eye.

‘Candy Stripe’ – Single flowers that are white and pink with red stripes.

‘Coelestris’ – Single, blue flowers.

‘Collie Mullens’ – Double, purple-lavender blooms.

‘Diana’ – Single, pure white flowers

‘Freedom’ – Semi-double, rose pink flowers

‘Hamabo’ – Single pink or pinkish lavender flowers with a crimson eye

‘Helene’ – Large, single white flowers with a dark red eye

‘Jeanne D’Arc’ – Double white flowers

‘Lady Stanley’ – Double, pink flowers.

‘Lucy’ – Double, dark red flowers

‘Minerva’ – Single, lavender flowers are overcast with pink and have a dark red eye

‘Morning Star’ – Double, red and white striped flowers.

‘Paeoniflorus’ – Double, violet-pink flowers

‘Purple Sky’ – Single purple flowers with a red star eye.