When you're dealing with pre-emergent herbicides, it's all about getting the timing and application just right. North Carolina State University has some solid advice on this: Mix your chosen product into the soil through either rainfall or manual irrigation. This approach ensures that the herbicide spreads evenly across your lawn, setting up a formidable defense against those pesky weed seeds. But here's the catch: These herbicides are only effective before the seeds start their growth journey. So, your window for action is right before germination kicks in. After applying, you need to monitor the effectiveness of the herbicide. Try to reapply the product before its strength dwindles below the level required to keep the weeds at bay.

When applying pre-emergent herbicides, there are several key considerations. First and foremost, adhere strictly to the manufacturer's instructions. This guidance is not just regulatory it's your blueprint for effective application. Choose a product that targets the specific weeds you're combating. You've got some noteworthy options. The university rates oryzalin as a top choice, especially for woody plants. Prodiamine is another heavy hitter, but it might be too strong on herbaceous plants. If crabgrass is your nemesis, dithiopyr offers both pre-emergent control and early post-emergent action.

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Here's How Long You Can Expect Your Lawn's Weed-Killer Treatment To Last - House Digest

When we say that ServSuite just missed the top spot, we mean it. ServSuite offers many of the same features as Housecall Pro, plus has slightly better customer support and training than Housecall, proving 24/6 coverage, which is the best we've found across any industry.

ServSuite also offer the ServSuite university, which provides 8 hours of live, interactive training to get you confident with every feature and setting.

The biggest hit against ServSuite, that took it out of the top spot, is its mobile app. With exceedingly low scores on the App Store and Play Store, reviewers complain of extremely slow speeds and malfunctioning features. Suffice it to say, we'd recommend sticking to other options if mobile functionality is important to you. It also doesn't offer offline functionality.

Since being acquired by ServiceTitan in 2021, and merged with FieldRoutes in 2022, ServSuite no longer publicly details the prices of its plans. However, it previously offered three different pricing plans, Starter, Plus, and Pro, which were a bit more expensive than Housecall Pro.

The Starter plan was $126 per month, the Plus plan was $186 per month, and the Pro plan was a whopping $339 per month. It's unclear how these prices may have increased or decreased, more recently, and prices likely depend on you getting a custom quote for your exact needs. There is no free plan nor a free trial, but you can get a free demo to see what the platform can do before you buy.

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Best Lawn Care Software 2023: Pros, Cons, Prices and More - Tech.co

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Bidens first Democratic challenger is a retired Jewish philosophy professor angry at the presidents treatment of Palestinians

If Jerome Segal comes knocking at your door, its because he wants to introduce himself. Hell chat and then hell ask you to put one of his lawn signs in your front yard. The Bronx native will tell you hes running to become the next president of the United States. The 2024 race has begun.

Mideast map: Segal has spent decades trying to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1987, according to his website, he was part of the first Jewish-American delegation to go to Tunis to open dialogue with Arafat and the PLO. He is the founder of a group called the Jewish Peace Lobby, and has written extensively about the Middle East. During a visit to the region in July, President Biden said the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, a statement Segal calls shameful.

Not new to politics: The 2024 presidential race is Segals fourth bid for public office. This summer he came in ninth in the 10-candidate Democratic primary for Maryland governor, with .67% of the vote. He challenged Maryland Sen. Benjamin Cardin in the 2018 Democratic primary, and ran in the 2020 U.S. presidential election as the candidate of the Bread and Roses Party, which he founded.

Senior moment: In a recent poll, one-third of Americans said they believe President Biden is too old to run for reelection. Segal is 78, just one year younger than Biden. When they speak of age, he said, it is not a question of chronological age, but creative capacity and whether or not someone has new responses that new challenges call for.

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Then and now: Paula Goldstein as a USO hostess during WWII and now, nearing 100. (Courtesy)

A century of memories, starting with the old Forward building: It was like the North Star of the Lower East Side, recalls Paula Goldstein, 99, who grew up buying our newspaper each day at the candy store on Market Street. Goldstein spent a recent afternoon recalling the highlights of the 20th century to her niece. They covered presidents (JFK was so impossibly handsome) and comedians (apparently, Don Rickles reminds her of Nikita Khrushchev), adventurers (Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh) and so much more (democracy, spies and famous relatives). Goldstein shows no sign of slowing down. Literally. On the day of our visit, she was wearing new sneakers. Yes, I wore my Pumas out. Read the story

She studies Torah and table tennis | Meet the 20-year-old Orthodox phenom angling for a spot at the Olympics: Estee Ackerman, a Yeshiva University senior, beat Rafael Nadal at pingpong as a preteen and is nationally ranked in her sport. But shes been making headlines recently off the court. Last month, the mother of her doubles partner yelled at her for being disgusting and unprofessional over her modest dress. The words stung, but Ackerman is focused on the future. Its my passion to inspire others, she said. Read the story

But wait, theres more

Forwarding the News is now also available on our website. Share it on social media or with a friend simply by clicking on the blue button below.

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

The graphic novel version of The Diary of Anne Frank, by writer Ari Folman and illustrator David Polonsky. (Getty)

The superintendent of the Texas school district that this week ordered the removal of Anne Franks Diary: The Graphic Adaptation from its schools shelves said Thursday that he expected the book, along with the Bible and other books that were removed following parental challenges, will be on shelves very soon. No timeframe was given. (JTA)

A Russian court on Friday postponed its verdict in the countrys case against the Jewish Agency for a month in a move Israel hopes will give it more time to reach an agreement with Moscow and prevent the shuttering of the agencys offices in Russia. (Times of Israel)

On Gab, Truth Social and other platforms, antisemitic threats are continuing in the wake of the FBIs Mar-a-Lago search, with users going after the attorney general and the judge who ordered the search, both of whom are Jewish. I just think were in a particular dangerous time in this country, said the ADLs Oren Segal. (JTA)

Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert, the president of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, will have to unblock his atheist constituents from his social media accounts as part of a settlement the organization American Atheists said it reached with the state. (Religion News Service)

Jesse Eisenbergs newest film directing project follows two estranged cousins who travel to Poland and learn about their grandmothers Holocaust story. Im trying to ask the question: Is modern pain valid against the backdrop of real historical trauma, said Eisenberg, who traces his Jewish family roots back to Poland and Ukraine. (JTA)

More than 4,000 people gathered at the Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn for the first annual Chosen Comedy Festival, featuring Jewish comedians and musical acts. The event served as a benefit for the Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund. (Jewish Journal)

What were watching this weekend Rising Hate: Antisemitism in America, a special report on CNN, airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. In the hour-long show, anchor Dana Bash visits Jewish communities still reeling from recent violence, including Poway, California, and Colleyville, Texas. Bash also gets a first look at a command center dedicated to tracking threats against Jews by monitoring the deepest corners of the dark web.

Long weekend reads Meet the Gandalf-like archivist of the frum world American Jews have not been spared the devastating fallout of opioid abuse Is David Langer the Jewish king of surfing?

Was this newsletter forwarded to you or are you reading it on our website?

Receive it in your inbox each morning by clicking the blue button below.

Slow down this weekend and enjoy the end of summer. Print out our end-of-the-week magazine in which youll find stories about: a Russian rabbi who is caught between a rock and a hard place, a tour of the Jewish Museums not-so-Jewish new exhibit, an explainer on why Hashem and Yiddish are trending on Twitter and, finally, an interview with God. Get your copy now

The Forward made this video in 2011, on the 20th anniversary of the Crown Heights riots.

On this day in history (1991): Riots broke out in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, after a Black child was struck and killed by a car in the entourage of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. A rabbinical student was fatally stabbed in the melee that followed. The riots went on for three days. More than 200 people were injured, police cars and stores were damaged, and bottles were thrown at Mayor David Dinkins when he visited the area. Although efforts have since been made to repair the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities in Crown Heights, Molly Boigon wrote in the Forward in 2020 that these feelings of bitterness and trauma run so deep that they persist to this day. Read our account of insiders recalling the tense three days between the mayor and the Jewish community

In honor of National Soft Ice Cream Day (yes, its a thing), check out our recipe for no-dairy no-churn peach pie ice cream. Youre welcome.

On the eve of World War II, David Kurtz took his 16 mm camera and shot three minutes of home video of a vibrant Jewish community in a Polish town old men in yarmulkes, boys and girls playing, people pouring into a synagogue. The ephemeral footage ends abruptly and was lost for decades. Now its part of a 70-minute documentary being released today in theaters called Three Minutes: A Lengthening. Watch the trailer above.

Play todays Vertl puzzle, the Yiddish Wordle

Thanks to Samuel Breslow, Jordan Greene, Beth Harpaz, Lauren Markoe, Chana Pollack, and Talya Zax for contributing to todays newsletter. You can reach the Forwarding team at editorial@forward.com.

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Bidens first Democratic challenger is a Jewish philosopher angry at the presidents treatment of Palestinians - Forward

Martha Chavis of Camden AHEC talks about the dangers of fentanyl

Fentanyl is potentially deadly to casual and habitual drug users alike. Martha Chavis, a Camden health care provider, discusses harm reduction strategies.

Phaedra Trethan, Cherry Hill Courier-Post

SOMERVILLE Jackson Rannells knew the opioid epidemic in every American community, no matter whether it was rich or pool or in New Jersey or Wyoming, could not be swept under the rug and ignored.

The former Somerville High School student who lived in Branchburg had his own struggles with addiction. He made poor choices that propelled him on the path to addiction in his teen years and worsened in his 20s after being prescribed an opioid medication for an injury. He had too many friends and classmates who lost their battles.

In 2018, with the help of his father, Jack created a nonprofit organization, Not An Easy Fix, to honor the victims, heal the pain in communities and increase awareness of the epidemic that lies in waiting in every town. He also wanted to erase the stigma that too many attach to addiction, which would make it less difficult to seek and accept the resources necessary for recovery.

Jack planned to have the first community event on Division Street in Somerville in the summer of 2019, but his continuing struggle with addiction intervened.

He sought treatment and when the opportunity returned to hold the event, the country was struck with another epidemic, COVID-19, that just increased the loneliness and boredom that addiction feeds on.

Then, on Feb. 18, 2021, while the country was still struggling with COVID-19, Jackson had a relapse and fentanyl poisoning took his life at the age of 30.

Now his parents, Ellen and Jack Rannells, are continuing their son's mission to make a difference in the lives of others and communities.

Not An Easy Fix, billed as "A Night of Community, Honoring and Healing," will be held 6 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday on the lawn of the Historic Courthouse on East Main Street.

Also see:Is alcohol considered a drug? Explaining its addictiveness and its effect on your body.

"We want to bring people together," Jack Rannells said, "not only to make them aware of the problem, but also aware of the resources available to them."

Ellen Rannells said her son believed in the adage that "it takes a village," and that was especially essential in the response to the opioid epidemic.

"We want to bring the community together," she emphasized, "because it's about the community."

The event will begin with a dozen area organizations presenting their resources at tables on the courthouse lawn. There will also be demonstrations how to administer Narcan, the medication that can revive an overdose victim.

At 7 p.m., the program will begin will an opening prayer by Father Ron Pollock of St. John's Episcopal Church in Somerville and welcoming remarks by Somerset County Commission Director Shanel Robinson. Jack Rannells will give opening remarks.

Speakers will include former state Sen. Kip Bateman; Maiysha Ware of Somerset Treatment Services; Meg Isbitski, Somerset County's mental administrator; and Detective Stacey Kelly of the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, who will speak on Operation Helping Hand where law enforcement officers, accompanied by recovery support specialists, engage residents in need by providing on-the-spot referrals to treatment and other resources.

There will also be a performance of "How Far We've Come," a special song written for the event. Rappers Craft Monroe and Loon will perform.

The evening will end with four speakers, two talking about their recovery and two talking about the loss of their loved ones to addiction.

Jack and Ellen Rannells thanked Somerset County and the Borough of Somerville for making the event possible. "They've been very helpful," Jack said.

Ellen said she hopes the rally will deliver the message that her son wanted to give about the insight he gained through his recovery efforts and spiritual journey. He wanted others to know about the transformational power of Jesus Christ and to help others resist the temptation of experimenting with dangerous substances and, she said, "surrounding yourself with the right people."

But Jack and Ellen say they hope the event will help people realize the prevalence of the problem and while there is no easy fix, recovery is possible.

"People have to deal with the issue," she said.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account

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Somerville event to heighten addiction awareness, share resources - My Central Jersey

Solo said her experience in treatment was "both awful and great," adding that the day before she entered the facility, she experienced her first panic attack. She said that the morning she left to begin her rehab stay, her twins "wavedgoodbye with Grandma on our front lawn."

She added, "Watching my kids wave, knowing they had no idea how long I would be gone, not understanding that I won't be returning that evening or the next day, broke my heart. I smiled and waved out the window, then bawled when I could no longer see them around the bend."

She and her husband made up a story for her children to explain their mother's absence."We had decided to tell the kids that Mama was going fishing," the athlete said. She added that she spoke to her family remotely while in treatment.

Solo said thatshe was one of eight women treatedatthe facility. As she checked in, shewas drug testedand her luggage was shifted through and thrown into a dryer. She said she broke down in tears at her first communal meal.

"Today," she said on her podcast, "I am grateful for my 30 days away to read, think, pray, mediate and learn."

Solo continued, "There is no shame if we struggle with alcohol or addiction. Thank you to the beautiful men and women who taught me this."

Read more:
Hope Solo Reflects on the "Biggest Mistake" of Her Life 4 Months After DWI Arrest - E! NEWS

Dont be in too big a rush to get out in your gardens this month. Wet clay soil is easily compacted at this time of year and the damage may not be easily fixable.

Stay off your lawn if possible and let the grass grow to suck up some of the extra soil moisture. As wet as it is now, by May we may be experiencing drought conditions. This is a good time to install some rain barrels to collect water, using 55-gallon drums or even watering troughs designed for livestock. A 10-foot- long gutter and downspout attached to a shed or garage roof will collect lots of rainwater this spring that you may need later on. My barrels fill up completely with only a half-inch of rain, using a 10-foot-long gutter.

Of course, any standing water provides mosquito-breeding habitat so you need to take precautions. There is a product called Mosquito Dunks that releases a type of bacteria that kills mosquito larvae, (Bacillus thurigensis) but is pretty harmless to most other living things. The dunks last about 30 days in the barrels unless the water overflows and washes them out. Of course, you need to empty any container that holds water for more than a couple of days, now that these blood drinkers are active once more.

Old tires are particularly common mosquito breeding grounds, but bird baths, clogged gutters and even persistent puddles can be troublesome. Ponds with fish rarely are a problem since mosquito larvae are a favorite fish food.

Black bears have emerged from hibernation now, so make sure you either remove your winter bird feeders or bring them in at night, every night. Once a bear discovers a free snack from a bird feeder it is very likely to return. Likewise, make sure your garbage is well-secured outside. Bears can open unlocked dumpsters and will go in a shed for a free meal.

Resist the urge to apply lawn fertilizer to green up your spring lawn. If your lawn does not green up on its own, it is most likely dead. This is NOT a good time to apply fertilizers, in general, since they may be washed away and can pollute other water bodies downhill or downstream from you. Likewise, avoid applying herbicides, but be on the lookout for early emerging insect pests such as tent caterpillars in fruit trees. Early treatment is preferable to waiting until the pests are fully grown and doing damage.

Deer ticks are already becoming active, sadly, so be diligent after walking, hiking or doing any outside activity. Perform frequent tick checks of your clothes while outside and before you go to bed at night. It takes at least 24 hours of ticks feeding on you to get Lyme disease or most other tick-borne diseases. Deer ticks do not hatch carrying the Lyme disease bacteria, they acquire it from another host, usually a small mammal, like a mouse, after feeding on the hostsblood. This usually occurs when the ticks are in their initial larval stage and are almost impossible to see because they are so tiny. Spraying cotton balls with permethrin repellant and placing them in cardboard tubes, such as toilet paper or paper towel tubes, will attract mice to gather the cotton for nesting and these will kill any ticks they acquire. One reader told me that since he started doing this, he has noticed a dramatic decrease in the tick population around his property.

There is a commercially available product, called Daminex (I think thats the name) that is specifically designed for this purpose. I dont even try to control the mouse populations that inhabit my sheds and even my house while I am here in Florida, but I do use the tubes when I return. We still know very little about the ecology of tick-borne diseases or why, for that matter. Some people seem to be much more inclined to attract them. I can spend hours working outside with no ticks seen, but oftentimes a visitor walking with me seems to get two or three of them in 20 minutes.

I suppose some people are tick magnets as some people are also mosquito magnets while others are rarely attacked. Some say that eating lots of garlic will repel them as you emit the fragrance from your pores. Eating lots of garlic may also repel people, however. I had planned to write this column on ramps, also known as wild leeks, which is a garlic relative that also lingers in your body for days, but that will have to wait until next week. For me, perhaps it is my blood alcohol content that deters them!

Bob Beyfuss lives and gardens in Schoharie County. Send him an e-mail to rlb14@cornell.edu.

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Bob Beyfuss: Some timely tips on rain barrels, bears and ticks - The Daily Freeman

Mowing your lawn less helps create a habitat for bees to thrive. No Mow May, a conservation initiative popularized by an organization based in the U.K., is now growing traction across North America.

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A well-kept lawn has historically been a staple of American landscaping.

Psychology Today published an article in February 2020 called The Strange Psychology of the American Lawn in which author Austin Perlmutter M.D. writes about how a well-manicured lawn is tethered to ideas like success and stability. Many equate an overgrown lawn to neglect, incompetence, and laziness or so our culture would have you believe.

Lawns account for 2%, or 40 million acres, of land in the United States, making them the single largest irrigated crop in America. They require frequent mowing, raking, fertilizing, weeding, watering, and chemical treatment.

Not only is lawn care burdensome, expensive, and time-consuming, but it can be harmful to the surrounding wildlife.

When we think of habitat loss, we tend to imagine forests being cut down and bulldozers flattening fields to create parking lots. However, lawn maintenance is a major contributor to ecological homogenization (biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse) in the U.S.

No Mow May, a conservation initiative first popularized in the U.K., has gained traction across North America. The goal of No Mow May is to allow grass to grow unmown for the month of May, creating habitat and forage for pollinators and other wildlife.

In 2020, researchers at Lawrence University studied the effects of No Mow May when residents of Appleton, Wisconsin took part in the initiative. The findings showed that the abundance of bees in lawns unkempt for a month was five times higher than in manicured lawns.

Since nearly 90% of the worlds plant species rely on pollinators to reproduce, an abundance of bees is critical to a healthy environment. (Fun Fact: New Jerseys state bug is the honeybee!)

In addition to benefiting pollinators, No Mow May will save water, help your lawn become more resilient to drought, reduce emissions from gas-powered lawn equipment, and save you time and money.

Most cities and municipalities have some form of weed and lawn care ordinance that dictates the height and sometimes the types of plants homeowners are allowed to grow.

So to keep your neighbors happy while participating in No Mow May, here are some tips from Bee City USA:

Will you take part in No Mow May? Let us know how you feel about this initiative in the comments.

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Save the Bees with No Mow May | Morristown Minute - NewsBreak Original

Lambert enlisted assistance from Javad Torabinejad, who helps people design, set up, and maintain edible landscapes and gardens through his company, Future Foodscapes (futurefoodscapes.com). Torabinejad was raised in Iran by a widowed mother, who gave each of her five sons a fruit tree to nurture in their small yard. Through this experience, he learned about grafting and pollination, developing a lifelong love of gardening. So strong is his zeal, Torabinejad has traveled to other growing zones with potted fruit trees in need of timely cross pollination.

Torabinejad, who has two degrees in agriculture and a Ph.D. in ecology, is scheduling pruning and thinning for Lamberts permaculture area. Hes also selected some disease-resistant apples to graft to her dwarf trees and moved her asparagus to a sunny location with appropriate soil. Hes also helped her with pest problems, including deer.

We specialize in helping people incorporate food and medicinal crops into their landscapes, Torabinejad said. What we do includes fruit tree care, garden designs, disease diagnosis and treatment, pest ID and control, and more.

Torabinejad advises starting small and leaving space between trees to avoid removals later. He often recommends beginning with a fruit tree, one that is relatively trouble-free and resistant to most diseases.

A hardy fig is good in a south-facing spot, he says, and mulberries, service berries, blackberries, and native persimmons work also.

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Edible landscaping: Farming the yard (copy) - Roanoke Times

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Do you hear little rustlings in your hayfield? It's probably the fall armyworm - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

Allison Watkins| Special to the San Angelo Standard-Times

Caterpillars of all kinds have been out in abundance this year, starting with early populations of webworms, other leaf-eating caterpillars like sophora worm (feeding on Texas Mountain Laurel) and walnut caterpillars (feeding on pecans). The major nuisance right now is the fall armyworm. They have emerged early and strong, which is unfortunate for some home lawns and pastureland.

Armyworm outbreaks are usually short-lived, but memorable when they happen. They are generally kept under control by insect and animal predators, weather conditions and other factors. But when the conditions are just right, they can devour a lawn quickly.

Watch out for armyworms in the lawn, and apply an insecticide as soon as possible if they appear in large numbers or significant plant damage is observed. Insecticides with low toxicity and limited impact to beneficial insects include Bt, spinosad and halofenozide. Conventional pesticide options include bifenthrin, carbaryl, permethrin and esfenvalerate. Apply in the early morning or late evening for best results. For more info on armyworm control, visit https://tomgreen.agrilife.org/horticulture.

Fire ants are also out in high quantity, which is normal this time of year. Not only are fire ants painful to people when we accidentally come across them in the yard, they can also find their way into the home or electrical equipment, and can even damage plants such as turfgrass and vegetable gardens.

The Texas Two-Step method recommended by Texas A&M includes both mound treatments and baits. Visit https://fireant.tamu.edu/controlmethods/twostep/ for details. An insect growth regulator such as methoprene (trade name Extinguish) is a good way to control fire ants without damaging other insects, but there are many effective product options to choose from. More important than which particular product to useis proper application. Apply a bait formulation lightly and evenly through the entire landscape. Then use a contact/mound treatment formulation directly on visible mounds.

It seems like summer has just begun, but fall will be here before you know it, and we have many upcoming events to offer home gardeners in the Concho Valley. Join us on Friday, July 30,for a workshop on peaches planting, growing, canning and preserving. The program will be held at the Tom Green 4-H Center from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. and costs $30 to attend. Pre-registration required. For info and to sign up, visit https://tomgreen.agrilife.org/ or call the Extension Office at 325-659-6522.

Other upcoming events include the Fall Landscaping Symposium hosted by the Concho Valley Master Gardeners (see txmg.org/conchovalley to register), an Earth-Kind Landscape School series from Sept.15 to Oct. 13, and a first-ever Fall Vegetable Plant Sale held by the Master Gardeners on Sept.25. For updates and info on all educational opportunities, sign up for the monthly horticulture e-newsletter by calling the Extension Office at 325-659-6522 or visiting https://tomgreen.agrilife.org/horticulture.

Allison Watkins is the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent for horticulture in Tom Green County. Contact her at aewatkins@ag.tamu.edu.

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Tips for controlling fall armyworms and fire ants in your lawn - Standard-Times