Your lawn is the foundation of your landscape. Treat it right.

Do you know the optimal mowing height for your breed of grass? What should you be doing in a drought to keep your lawn healthy? We’ve compiled a list of helpful lawn and garden tips that answers questions like these. It’s just another way that we can help you maintain your landscape and keep it beautiful. As always, you can give us a call or write us if you have any other questions. Be sure to check out Adam’s Almanac for more tips and info. These tips, in addition to our custom treatments, are everything you need to make your grass really thrive.

Mowing tips
proper mowing is arguably the most important part of turf care. Frequent mowing keeps grass healthy by avoiding the stress of cutting off too much grass at one time. The general rule is not to remove more than one - thrid of the grass blade during the cutting. This means if you mow your grass at a 2 inch cutting height you would need to mow when the grass reaches 3 inches thus removing only 1 inch of grass.
Keeping a sharp blade is another important tip. Most people start the season with a sharp mower blade but forget to sharpen the blade throughout the growing season. A dull blade does not cut the grass, but rather rips the grass causing a dull brown look after mowing.
Catch clippings or mulch back into lawn?  Bagging clippings is recommended for the first mowing of the year on Bermuda and Zoysia lawns. For all other mowing it is recommended that you leave the clippings. This recycles nutrients back into the soil for a healthier plant. Fescue lawns do not need to be bagged during the year. All grass types should be bagged if the grass has not been mowed for an extended period to avoid putting excessive clippings on the lawn.
Important tip: Do not scalp or mow short Bermuda and Zoysia grass at the end of the growing season. These grasses should be left on the high side to better handle the winter freezes. Scalping or short mowing should be done in early March prior to the grass greening up in the spring.  

Change mowing directions every time you mow. This will ensure an even cut and will avoid leaving wheel ruts from repeated wheel impressions going over the same lines. We recommend mowing in four directions, one specific direction each time you mow. Envisioning a watch, mow from the 12-6, and then the next mowing would be from the 1:30-7:30, then the 3-9, then the 4:30-10:30, and then back to the 12-6. This means that if you mow once a week you would not be mowing in the same direction until 5 weeks from the first mowing in that direction.



Mowing Hights

Watering tips
Just as important as proper fertilization and proper mowing; proper irrigation is key to a healthy plant. All plants need supplemental watering during the year at certain times. Being able to identify when and how much to water will keep your plants looking their best.

Water requirements are different for different times of the year. Irrigation is usually not required from October to March. These months are relatively cool and the plants demand for water is reduced. The months from April to September are where the temperatures increase and the demand for water increases, while July and August are the most demanding months. Water requirements during these months are generally 1 inch per week. 

The amount of water needs directly relates to the evapotranspiration rate or ET. This is a gauge of how much water is evaporated from the air/soil and how much the plant is transpiring. It involves factors such as temperature, wind and humidity. This rating is expressed in inches. This means if the ET rate is 1 inch for a week then the grass and/or plants would need 1 inch of water to stay hydrated. This is a useful tool in the summer months where we can have extremely high ET rates requiring more water than what is generally required or low ET rates requiring less water. This rate can be found at this website  www.griffin.uga.edu At this page set the date range to the previous week or two weeks to see what the current ET rates are and how much rain we have received thus telling you how much supplemental watering is required expressed as a negative water balance.     

Supplemental irrigation is done either through an automatic irrigation system or a garden hose with a fixed sprinkler head or hand nozzle.
Automatic sprinkler systems have watering zones made up of irrigation heads. There are two types of sprinkler heads. The first is a rotating head. These deliver a stream of water that rotates back and forth watering a large area. The second is a fixed head also called a mist head. These heads do not rotate and deliver water to a set area. Rotor heads require more time to deliver the same amount of water as a mist head. All irrigation systems can be different, but based on a properly functioning system the following are watering times to achieve 1 inch of water per week.
Rotor zones – 40 minutes per zone 3 times per week.
Mist zones – 15 minutes per zone 3 times per week.

If you do not have an irrigation system then watering must be done with a garden hose set up. You can use a rotating lawn sprinkler that attaches to your garden hose. This can be purchased at any home improvement store. This type of watering requires moving the head periodically in order to water the entire yard. Generally for this type of irrigation 1 hour per spot 1-2 times per week is sufficient.

The best time to water is in the early morning hours between 4:00-8:00 am. This allows the water to be effectively absorbed into the soil before the sun rises.

Never water during the heat of the day as this will result in much of the water evaporating and not reaching the soil.