The lawn is widely considered the most important feature in most any landscape. As a result, lawns receives a lot of attention through out the year. The health and vigor of turf grasses relates directly to the methods used for maintaining it. Below you will find our lawn care program as well as some specific information about each service for maintaining your lawn. This lawn care program is general approach to lawn maintenance and the information shown comes from years of experience, industry standards and customer feedback. Many lawns require different needs and this program can be adjusted to meet the needs of the lawn and the customer.
Water is one of our most basic elements and is most important to the turf grasses as they are made up of over 90% water. Without consistent watering practices it would be impossible to grow or maintain grass, as such, have a lawn care program. It can not be stressed enough that cool season grasses need to receive 1"-2" of water per week during the growing season. To maintain grass successfully water must be available to the plant as a delicate balance must be established between amount, frequency and type of application.
Lawn mowing can be considered the most basic of all landscape services. Turf grasses are one of the few plants that we walk, run, play football and even drive on, all in all, still wanting it to be weed and insect free and a show a vigorous green carpet of color. Lawn mowing is the first of many steps to maintaining a successful lawn. Customers often have questions about lawn mowing services, and generally how grass grows. Below is some additional information to help explain many common mowing questions and concerns.
Weekly Service Include:
Lawn Mowing
Edge Trimming
Blowing driveway, walks, patio, decks
Additional weekly services can include garden maintenance on request.
Mowing Frequency:
In most growing seasons, with proper maintenance, water and fertilizing, lawns are mowed every 5-7 days starting in April. This rate is typically dropped back to every 7-10 days in the summer months and then picks back up again in the fall to 5-7 days. Most residential properties average 25 mowings between April and November.
Each time turf grasses are mowed, some injury to the plant occurs. This bruising and tearing of the leaf tissue causes shock to the plant. The best mowing practices are those that minimize the shock to the plant.
Reducing and Minimizing Shock:
Lawns should be mowed so that no more than 1/3 of the leaf blade is removed at any one mowing. As a result, healthy and vigorous lawns should receive more frequent mowings to reduce and minimize shock.
Bluegrass, Ryegrass, and Fescue are the most common varieties of cool season grasses found in New England. These cools season grasses thrive at mowing heights between 2 1/2"-3 1/2" inches.
Mowing grass that is wilted or otherwise in a weakened or stressed condition is not recommended and the lawn should be brought up to a healthy condition before frequent mowing operations commence.
Sharp, clean and balanced lawn mowing equipment is also important to reducing shock and the spread of disease and insect. Mowers blades are cleaned sharpened and balanced weekly during the growing season.
Lawn Clippings
When proper mowing techniques are practices, and under healthy and established lawn conditions. lawn clippings SHOULD NOT be bagged or removed from the turf area.
Lawn clippings will disintegrate quickly, returning to the organic materials and nitrogen to the soil, which is the equivalent of adding one fertilizer application per season.
In an age of environmental awareness this is a small but significant technique that is part of our organic fertilizer program.
Mowing Operations
Weekly mowing can cause ruts to form in the lawn, as a result, when possible, a criss cross pattern in alternating weeks is recommended. This can alleviate soil compaction in one area as well as a more pleasing finished, "athletic field" look.
If there is a specific day you would like to have this service we can be sure to accommodate. Weather condition may move the scheduled day either before or after.
Lawn Care Treatments
Chemicals in the landscape is a very hot topic and is a common topic of discussion when maintaining grass. The reality is, that chemicals, used properly, at the correct rates and the correct timeing are an effecient and safe way to maintain grass. We do consider the use of chemicals as a last resort and try all other methods before the use of checmials is considered.
Proper soils, watering, sun, shape, root competitiion and other factors are all part of an overall plan to keep the lawn healthy. A stressed lawn will require more chemcials.
Even in the best senario chemicals are essential to control many common problems, and while organic fertlizers have come a long way and are now commonplace in most fertlizing situations, weeds and insects take on a different element and the use of chemicals is most offten the best way to control them.
Broadleaf weeds, Crabgrass, and Grubs are three of the most common problems found in lawns. All three of these can be limited by good maintenance proactices, however, that is usssually not enough and chemcials are typically needed to help control these problems. Are most common treatments and when are listed in the Lawn Care Program Schedual.
Spring clean up typical is done either March, April or June. Costs for clean up can vary greatly depending on the winter and how well the property was maintanained the previous year. Generaly Spring Clean up consistst of:
Fall Clean up is done October, November and December, and concsists of removing all the leaves from the beds and lawns. This process may require several visits and a big effort is made to complete this work before the first snow of the season. We try to have everyone done by Thankgiving.
Estimates for all Fall Clean up work is billed time and materials basis, Multiple visits may also be necessary to complete the job and each vistit will be billed according to man hours nessasary to complete the job.
We have all the rakes, blowers and leaf suckers to handle most any leaf removal job.
Under 1"-2" per week and the lawn will become dormant, slow and even stop all growth, loose it's green color, as the roots sit and waits for moisture. Continued lack of water, or "Drought Stress", will result in the death of the plant as the loss of green color is a defense mechanisms for the plants survival.
Over 1"-2" of water per week can be harmful as well. Roots need oxygen to grow and if the roots become submerged in water they will have no oxygen to grow. Also, too much water can cause diseases, and funguses, to spread throughout the lawn as it becomes more and more stressed from over water.
For best results on established turf grasses, watering practices should be geared toward heavy and infrequent watering, as this will promote a deep and fibrous root system
Frequent, light watering promotes a shallow roots system as the roots are not forced deep into the soil in search of water. A shallow root system may also become more susceptible to drought if the water source is no longer available.
Newly seeded areas require short and frequent watering as this will eliminate wash out and keep the seed wet for better germination. Once established, seeded areas should receive heavy infrequent watering 1"-2" per week.
