Jeryl Beachy heads up the lawn care side of Okaw Prairie Landscapes in Atwood, Illinois. His programs have delivered great results to customers, but he ran into a persistent issue a couple of years ago that most lawn care operators have encountered through no fault of their own: bad soil.
There were some yards that weren’t performing very well, so Beachy and Rick Grant, his ATS rep, thought that there may be an opportunity to build the soil in those areas. That led them to start incorporating organic products into Okaw Prairie’s program.
“We started looking at doing more than just throwing down N, P, and K,” said Beachy. “We looked into soil health and putting beneficial bacteria down, and that’s when Rick put me on to Foliar-Pak.”
Beachy started at Okaw Prairie Landscapes back in 2020, and the company started using 22-0-4 granular fertilizer with Armament that fall. By the next week, they had already seen good results. From there, they expanded their use of Foliar-Pak products.
“I don’t think you can go wrong with Armament Concentrate or Microsync,” said Beachy. “Those are the two we started out with, and we really saw great results in the plant, specifically how healthy it stayed and how green it was. I just can’t speak well enough about them.”
“As we’ve gone on, we added Grow-In and Foundation Forty,” said Beachy. “We did some testing with Colonise Bio last year on a few yards, and I’ve added that to our rotation on our higher-end programs,” said Beachy. “So, over the last several years, we’ve been dialing it in to the point we’re at now.”
That point is excellent turf and excellent customer satisfaction.
“We’ve seen really good results with them, and our customers are really happy with everything,” said Beachy. “And they’ll get the, ‘Why is your yard so much greener than the neighbor’s yard?’ question, and it’s because we focus on the plant and soil health, versus just throwing down some nitrogen to get your quick green-up.”
It’s not just Foliar-Pak products that are improving soil health, though.
“I reached out to Rick, and he recommended a NatureSafe product with Armament in it,” said Beachy. “I don’t know what all is in Armament, but you’ve got me sold on it because it works really well.”
When Beachy was first introduced to that product, he did some test plots on his own lawn first. In the fall of 2024, the company treated one of its longtime customers’ lawns with it and saw very good results, especially given the dry spell Illinois experienced that year.
Grow-In and RTF
Of all the products Beachy uses, two that pair well together are Grow-In and our Advanced RTF seed.
“Grow-In worked really well for us this fall,” said Beachy. “We were able to time some aerations and overseedings right before rain events on some really hard-hit yards that had a bunch of fungus issues. We did two applications of Grow-In, and it really kick-started the germination. Once the grass started germinating, we sprayed it again, and it really took off, and those yards are looking really, really good right now.”
When Advanced RTF is brought into the mix, the results get even more impressive.
“Two years ago, we did a soccer field,” said Beachy. “We did three applications of Grow-In on it, and that field took off like a rocket. I’ve never seen grass come up so quickly! It’s so good.”
That field has RTF, and Beachy says it’s holding up very well on the field and the yards it’s been put down on.
“The yards that we use [RTF] on are thicker and have a nicer, darker green,” said Beachy. “They will repair themselves to the point that my parents actually have it in their yard. They have a wireless dog fence, and the dog always runs in the same spot.” Beachy added, “This is the second season we’ve put RTF down and overseeded, and it actually started filling in that dog run, and it’s not going down to dirt in the middle of the summer now. So, I think the durability of it, the fact that it seems to germinate quicker, and the green color make it pretty amazing.”
The Big Picture
Specific products aside, everything comes together to create greener, healthier lawns, and the results are surprising to a lot of customers (in a good way).
“I had a customer, probably a year or two ago, come to the office after Christmas,” said Beachy. “He goes, ‘I don’t know what you guys are doing, but my yard is still dark green, and it’s the first week of January!’” Beachy continued, “The biggest thing people mention is how green their yard looks through Christmas. I think that really shocks a lot of people.”
Some customers have also mentioned that during dry spells, yards will start to brown up a little bit, but as soon as rain rolls in, they bounce back faster than they’ve ever seen before.
Beachy and the crew at Okaw Prairie are always busy, so having the right relationships means everything when it comes to delivering excellent results to their customers. Beachy had this to say about working with ATS:
“Rick is always great to work with, and everybody there at Advanced Turf that I’ve worked with has been great. Rick will field my ideas and try to come up with a program.” Beachy continued, “I can’t speak highly enough of a lot of the products. [They] seemed to take our program from decent, you know, to good, to really set apart from the rest of the competition. I mean, we’ve got several yards that are next to our competitors’, and there’s just a drastic difference. They look greener, they look healthier. Just amazing products.”
To get connected with an ATS rep like Rick, click here and enter your ZIP code to find one near you.
