With spring in the air and the grass beginning to turn green, this is the best time to begin your lawn care or gardening care if you have a green thumb. And there is no better person to get advice from than AJ Petitti, one of the family owners of the Petitti Garden Center, located in and around Northeast Ohio.
With ten locations, Petitti’s has something for everyone. Whether you live in an apartment or home, condo or townhouse, you can take your gardening to the next level after visiting one of the Petitti local stores.
“We grow about 98 percent of all the plants that we sell at our very own greenhouse,” AJ Petitti said. “We will start shipping those plants to our locations, so people have the options they want as they begin to garden.”
AJ Petitti is the son of Italian immigrants. His father, Angelo Petitti, started the business in 1971 while attending Kent State University. His landscaping business has grown into what it is today.
“My father discovered very early that people came to our first location and wanted to buy plants from him, so he started the store, and that is how we became a garden center,” Petitti said.
The experience of walking into the store is like Christmas in April for those who covet the chance to play in dirt and grow things. And with spring in the air, this is the perfect time to get going and get ahead of what is needed for your own lawn or garden.
ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS
Here are some of the suggestions Petitti recommends if you would like to get the best out of your lawn this season:
• Rake the lawn to remove dead grass/leaves/debris and fluff it up to increase air circulation at the soil level and prevent disease. This year, many lawns have snow mold from long snow covers, especially if they weren’t mowed low enough in late fall.
• Test your soil for pH level, but it’s most likely that with NE Ohio’s clay soil conditions, your lawn soil is acidic and needs to be raised after winter.
*Apply Lightning Lime™ annually in the spring to quickly raise the pH level of the soil, which allows any fertilizer you apply to be more effective throughout the season.
• Apply your Scotts® STEP® 1 fertilizer, which includes lawn food and crabgrass control to cut down on weed problems later (choose Step 1 for seeding, if planning to overseed your lawn).
*How DIY 4-step lawn food programs work: https://www.petittigardencenter.com/four-steps-to-a-great-lawn/
• Patch any bare spots in the lawn with EZ Seed® and generally overseed the lawn to thicken it, using your grass seed mix of choice.
*The proper process for patching, over-seeding, or re-seeding a lawn from scratch: https://www.petittigardencenter.com/seeding-the-lawn-2/
• Moss can be a problem in damp, shaded NE Ohio lawns (it grows where other plants/grasses won’t). Apply MossEX™ to kill and control it.
• For weed issues – If weeds cover less than 25% of your lawn, use a selective, lawn-safe herbicide like WeedBeater® Ultra, which works great in cool, early spring temperatures on a range of annual & perennial weeds. Tenacity® is another option, and it works well on grassy, hard-to-kill weeds like Bermuda grass, Nimblewill, and crabgrass buildup. If a large portion of the area has weeds, apply a general herbicide like Killzall, or Captain Jack’s™ DeadWeed Brew, wait a couple of weeks, then follow the steps above for re-seeding that section of the lawn.
TIPS FOR THOSE WHO GROW FOOD
With grocery prices rising, many people are starting to grow their own food. For the people who live in colder climates, Petitte offers several suggestions on how and when to plant the right seeds for the best results.
“Vegetable gardening is huge.” Petitti continued, “People are really getting out in their gardens. It’s a great way to save money, especially with the way grocery prices have gone. It’s work, it takes a little bit of effort, but it’s a great activity to do with your kids. And it’s great, healthy, natural produce that you know what’s going into it, as opposed to sometimes what you get at the grocery store, you’re not sure.”
Petitti recommends planting cold crops for anyone who might live in climates that are colder.
“ You can start putting cold crop vegetables out right now. So, your broccoli, any of your greens, lettuce, beans, peas, all that stuff can go in right now. You can get a head start on gardening, and you can do a lot of that stuff in containers,” Petitti said.
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Vegetable gardening can be fun for those who want to develop gardening as a hobby and grow their own food.
“Cold-tolerant crops do better in cooler weather. And so, you plant them now. For example, lettuce, you plant that now or beans or any of your greens, broccoli, they’ll perform great until really the heat of the summer turns up. And then you can either replant them, but it’s hard to keep them going as it gets super hot. Same thing, even flowers. There are plants called flowers called pansies,” Petitti said.
If you do not have a green thumb, but have a love for animals, Pettit’s offers a wide choice of feeders as well. They offer a variety of different bird feeders and foods for any animal that you might want to support from your very own yard.
And don’t forget the accessories for the yard. You can get anything from lights to yard decorations to enhance your spring yard experience.
Spring is a special time for getting outdoors and spending quality time in the yard. Whether you are getting the yard ready for the family gathering or just would like to create your own backyard oasis, this is the time to begin that process.
To learn more, view the Petitti Spring Lawn Care Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyg8kgXd4RQ
