Looking for something unique and different for your planters? We’re loving the subtle color and textures of heather, cabbage and false holly. Add a pop of color with celosia and gaultheria for a fun contrast and a mini pumpkin for extra whimsy! Potted up in a classic terra cotta planter, this look will take you straight through the fall season. Stop in to shop our collection of specialty fall plants unlike anything else!
Stop in to see beautiful perennial color to take you into fall! Echinacea, nepeta, coreopsis and more!
When you think lawn seeding, spring may be the first thing that comes to mind. But the warm soil temperatures and cool nights of late summer and early fall actually mean now’s the best time to seed your lawn! Planting now without the stress of summer heat means your lawn seed has enough time to establish before the winter’s first frost. Here’s a checklist of our favorite products to help you renovate the lawn with seed
So, how much soil do you need? Well that depends on your conditions. Keep in mind here that your turf success is really just a result of your soil quality. The stronger your root system is in deep, healthy soil- the better your new seed will perform. I put down up to 10 inches of compost and loam when I redid my back yard and it shows in times of summer drought. This summer, my lawn stayed green while others dried out. It is deeply rooted and healthy enough to withstand stressful conditions. Use a quality top soil or compost to amend your existing conditions. If your soil is of good quality, just till and loosen the top couple inches and rake out a good grade.
One other great product that I always recommend is Jonathan Green’s, Love Your Soil. It’s a cool organic product that stimulates microbes in the soil and helps to loosen heavy, hard packed soils, to release trapped nutrients. It’s a good preparation amendment so your soil can better stimulate root growth for your new seeding.
If there’s ever a time to test your soil- it’s now. Even if you are only testing the pH. You can get an extensive test through our own lawn-care service, Safe Lawns, or the UMass Extension (for a fee). Or you can do a basic, at-home test yourself.The soil test will tell you your lawns pH, nutrients and soil structure. I find the most important right now is to test pH levels. You see, if your soil has a low pH– your fertilizers won’t work as well. The best way to explain this is if your soil is too acidic you can’t derive the iron and magnesium naturally occurring in your soil so your lawn will never get to that dark green color everyone wants. To adjust your pH into the desired neutral area, add Jonathan Green’s MAGI-I-CAL or lime.
Your grass seed is more important than most people think. Cheap grass seed is just that, cheap and we can’t in good faith carry it. You see, varieties of grass seed get old and are replaced as better seeds become available. This makes the older seed cheaper than the newer, better performing ones. Another way to get cheap seed is to add annual blue grass to the mix. Annual blue grass is an inexpensive filler, but it doesn’t come back the next year making it a turf that comes up well initially, but then your lawn comes in very thin next spring. Cheap grass seed is like a cheap beer only that headache you get is going to last for years.
It’s also important to pick the right seed for your sun requirements. You don’t want to take a full sun blend and put it in the heavy shade areas. Use the right seed for the right sun. Jonathan Greens dense shade will do great under those trees down to about 3 hours of sun. Don’t forget grass seed does need about 3 hrs of sun to grow or it will just slowly fade away. Sometimes shrubs and perennials do better for those heavy shade areas.
es fertilizer. It makes a huge difference and it seems like everyone wants to either skip this step or add it later. Whether organic or synthetic, add fertilizer when you seed.Fertilizers are meant to release phosphorus into the soil at time of germination and then add nitrogen in a slow release fashion thereafter to continue feeding. Don’t mix seed and fertilizer. It doesn’t matter which one goes first or second but add one and then put the other down and water.
The rest is up to you! Be sure to keep your new seed evenly moist in the beginning because if you let grass seed dry out too much, it may prolong the germination or even worse– kill the seed during germination. This first week is very important, after that you can back down to a deep water every 2- 4 days depending on the weather forecast.
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It’s time to update the window boxes with cold-tolerant annuals for fall! See how Julia updated our Winchester store window boxes with seasonal color! ????
The colors of summer are in bloom! Fresh perennials, shrubs, annuals and houseplants are arriving weekly. Browse our fantastic pottery selection, and find outdoor furniture in Winchester & Falmouth!
Around here, Mother’s Day means a few things. Every year it’s the unofficial beginning of gardening season, when warmer days and nights are (hopefully) on the horizon. With fresh plants arriving daily, you’ll find the best plant selection of the year– many of which make excellent gifts for Mom!
In recent weeks we have seen unprecedented requests for curbside orders via phone or email. We are humbled by the response and truly appreciate your business. Due to increased traffic in-store, we are unable to offer curbside ordering services via email or phone for the month of May. We encourage customers to shop weekday mornings and late afternoons for lower customer volumes and easier social distancing.
We are excited to offer online ordering on select products through our Winchester store. There you can shop florist arrangements, bulk mulches and bagged goods, lawn care, soils and grass seed. We are actively working to roll this platform out to other Mahoney’s locations with an increased product offering:
SHOP ONLINE HERE
Thank you for your understanding. Happy Spring!
Your Friends at Mahoney’s
With this chilly weather, we know many of you might feel you’ve missed the crabgrass preventer application window. The age old adage of ‘apply when the forsythia blooms’, makes many worry they have missed the boat on an application! Fear not! Jonathan Green’s Step 1 contains an ingredient that allows you to apply after your weeds have begun to germinate!
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To prevent crabgrass this summer, it’s important to treat early in the Spring season. Typically the first step, or ‘Step 1‘ of a lawn program consists of a crabgrass preventer that must be applied before the crabgrass has germinated. Even though the crabgrass has already germinated this season, you can still prevent the problem. While it’s too late to apply many of the national brand’s crabgrass preventers, we carry a really unique product with a wider application window.
Jonathan Green’s Crabgrass Preventer plus Greenup contains the newest technology with Dimension® Crabgrass Control Herbicide. Despite a late start, you can still apply this for another couple weeks as it prevents crabgrass both BEFORE and AFTER it germinates. We recommend applying as soon as possible! It will also control many other grassy and broadleaf weeds and provides a slow-release nitrogen for a lush, green lawn.
Neptune’s Harvest (a division of Ocean Crest Seafoods, Inc., established in Gloucester in 1965), was started in 1986 an as endeavor to utilize fresh fish scraps left behind after the filleting process. When a fish is filleted, the process of removing the edible portion of the fish leaves behind 70% of the actual fish! Years ago, the scraps left behind were brought out to sea and dumped back into the ocean.
Ocean Crest Seafoods, Inc. and Neptune’s Harvest, along with the state of Massachusetts and local universities, developed a process in which they changed an environmental hazard into an environmental benefit. After years of trial and error, and refining their products, Neptune’s Harvest produces the finest organic liquid fish fertilizers available today. They are derived from the mineral rich Atlantic Ocean–nature’s perfect source for the nutrients plants and soil need.
A few reasons why Neptune’s Harvest is a favorite local product of ours:
Laura from Garden Answer shows us the different types of hydrangeas and what makes each so special! Learn bloom time, pruning habits and some great varieties!