Feb
10

How much water does my lawn need?

Over watering your lawn causes more damage than a lack of water. Most grasses can handle dry spells, but not flooding. Constant wet soil can cause diseases, compaction of soil, and no air for the roots to breathe. Not to mention we have a hard time not tearing up the lawn when it’s wet!

Most grasses require 1″ – 1.5″ of water per week. This is enough water to moisten the soil to 4″ – 6″ below the surface for clay soils and 8 – 10″ for sandy soils. Each lawn is so different you need to keep track of how much water is needed for your lawn to do well. Keeping these notes will help you as you change your schedule according to the weather. Spring and Fall watering is very different from July and Aug. The fun part is guessing how much water the sky put down and how much your sprinkler system or you should water. So either have a rain guage to see how much has fallen and adjust or have us put in a weather sensing controller. These controllers update multiple times in a day and reduce or increase the water according the weather at your house!

Water early in the morning when there is little wind and no sun to evaporate the water. Have your sprinkler system off roughly 24 hours before we come to mow.

If in doubt test your lawn. If it’s green and lush give it less water and see what it does, it may not need all you are giving it.

Feb
10

What height do you cut the grass?

Our mowers are generally set on 2 ½ inch mowing height for most of the season. Exceptions to this rule are made when the hot days of July and August arrive. At that time we will raise the decks to mow at 3 to 3 1/2inches to help the grass handle the hot weather. Exception would also be made if in cutting the lawn to 2 ½ inches we would remove more than one third of the blade length. Removing more than this in a single cutting causes stress on the plant. These situations arise when new sod is cut for the first time or if the lawn had not been maintained. We then try to bring the height down by performing multiple mowing each time cutting the lawn shorter. It is not recommened to cut your lawn shorter than 2 ½ inches.

Our blades are sharpened twice a week or more if needed. This produces clean cuts, and clean cuts promote better grass health. We will also mow in 3 or 4 alternate directions to prevent the grass from laying down. Due to nature of our Montana summer you may find us in your yard mowing when the grass is slightly damp. It is not ideal but must be done at periods in the summer or it would be weeks between mowings!

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