Your Lawn is Our Business
Locally & Family Owned for Over 17 years.
Current Conditions Lawn Tips
Summer is Quickly Approaching
Here are some tips to keep your lawn healthy, during the hot summer months.
Highlights
Watering - Your lawn should be watered a minimum of once a week when temps are in the 80's and above. About one hour in each area for a good deep soaking.
Mowing - Keep the lawn at a higher height for summer, preferably above 3" and avoid cutting more than a third of the blade in one cutting. Be sure to keep your mower blades sharpe.
Watering
Your lawn needs 1-3" of rain or watering every week. Closer to 2-3" when temps are mid 80's and higher for long periods.
Water deep & infrequent.
1-3 times a week, for 45 min- 1 hr in each area. About 1" in each area, per watering.
Early morning is the best time.
Avoid watering past 7:30 P.M. Doing so will invite fungus and disease as the grass blades would not have a chance to dry out overnight.
DO NOT water shallow and infrequent. Watering daily for 10-15 min in each area will be worse for your lawn than not watering at all.
Irrigation Systems - Be sure it is set to water deep & infrequent, a lot of irrigation companies will set it up for daily quick waterings. This is NOT the proper watering for our climate and grass types.
Our Summer guard fertilizer is specially formulated to not cause harm or burning if not watered in right away. The granules are encased in a poly coating that inhibits breaking down or releasing of nutrients until it has been water activated.
Does it have to be watered in? NO
Will it help activate and give you better results if you do? Yes
Mowing
Mow High 3.5 to 4" Especially in the Summer months
Keeping the grass taller, helps shade the soil from the sun, keeping it cooler. The taller you keep the grass the deeper the roots will go, helping it cope with the heat and other stresses.
Adjusting your mower height
Don't go by the numbers or letters on your mower. Set the mower on level ground and measure from the ground to the bottom of the mower blade. This will give you an accurate measurement of your actual mowing height.
Mowing Frequency
Try not to mow on a set day every week, mow when the lawn needs it. In the Spring this might be every 4-5 days. In the Summer it could be every 10-14 days.
Avoid cutting off more than 1/3 of the grass blade
Doing so puts added stress on the entire plant, we want to avoid this if at all possible, especially in the Summer.
Avoid leaving clumps
It is better to mulch than bag, however if mulching is going to leave clumps you may need to bag this time or rake out the clumps.
Keep Your Mower Blades Sharp
Dull Mower Blade Damage:
Now that we have gotten through the heavy and wet spring mowing season, you should consider having your blades sharpened again to get you through the rest of the season.
Issues caused by dull mower blades: As you can see in the photo, the grass blades on the right are what they should look like and the ones on the left are from a dull mower blade. This can cause several problems that you want to avoid.
*It gives the lawn almost a brown cast over the whole lawn and will not look as green as it should. You should be able to tell that something is wrong.
*It will lead to water loss and increased disease susceptibility.
*If the condition persists into the hot summer months your lawn will have a much more difficult time coping with heat stress and could lead to severe damage.
Crabgrass vs Tall & Course Fescue
Tall/Course Fescue
Tall or Course Fescue - is not a grassy weed such as crabgrass and others. Fescues are a durable variety of grass but can stick out in a lawn that is mainly blue & ryegrass. Unfortunately, there is no way to eliminate fescue, other than to kill it off with round-up, dig it out, and re-seed the areas. Fescues can come from the original land/soil that was there before your home was built, seeds can be blown in from neighboring lawns and even brought in from birds.
Tall/Course Fescue
Crabgrass
Crabgrass - as you can see in the photo is more “crabby” looking and lighter colored. It won’t normally rear its ugliness until Summer. We apply crabgrass preventative on your early applications to eliminate/reduce any crabgrass population. We are always on the lookout and will use a post control spray to knock it out on our Summer visits if any should appear.
Crabgrass
Just a reminder - Weed Control is a killer, not a preventer.
Weeds need to be actively growing in order to spray and kill them. We spray any and all weeds we see on every visit, aside from the first application. Your first application includes fertilizer and crabgrass preventative, as it is generally too cold for weeds to be actively growing and be able to be killed.
