It’s time for us to get the lawn mowers ready for the coming grass cutting season and you homeowners might want to do the same too. Having a properly maintained lawn mower is the first step to having a beautiful lawn. There are a few things you need to do every year to your lawn mower.
Start by making sure the blades are sharp and in good condition, if there are any large notches, bends, or any cracks you need to replace the blades, a blade that is badly damaged can be dangerous to you and to the mower. A cracked blade could break off and a notched or bent blade is out of balance and cause damaging vibrations to the mower.
Then preform the needed maintenance on the engine including changing the oil, replacing the air and fuel filters, and grease any bearings as well as the crankcase if it has one. This is just as important for a lawn mower as it is for a car, and neglecting doing it can shorten the life of the mower the same as it would your car.
Maintaining a mower properly can help it last for many years and give you an excellent quality cut for your lawn.
Well it’s been a while since I posted anything so I figured I’d just pop in and post a quick update.
After a long and fairly dry winter we are just starting to gear up for spring. We are getting all the lawn mowing equipment ready to go as well as our landscaping equipment.
The snowplows and salters are still on the trucks and they won’t be coming off till early April. You never know if winter has on last blast in store till at least April and while I wouldn’t mind on last snow storm I’m sure everyone else is looking forward to an early spring.
On final fun little note, Google street view just came online for Windsor and I am on it (check it out here). Yes I’m talking on my cell phone but don’t worry it’s before the ban went into effect. I actually saw the Google car a few times I just can’t remember where I was when I saw it other than this time.
Well that’s all for now and I’m going to try to remember to update this more often from now on.
Well the season has been really busy so far so I haven’t had a lot of time to post new entries however it’s getting to the time of year when the usual Windsor drought season will start to become an issue so I figured I should post some tips on watering.
When it comes to lawn watering to much can be just as bad as not enough. A mistake some people make is watering too frequently and not deeply enough. Most of the common varieties grass that grow around here need 2 inches of water per week. This should be delivered in three separate waterings, Monday Wednesday and Friday for instance. Watering for 20 minutes per area each time you water will usually add up to 2 inches. To find out if your getting enough water take an empty plastic container (like a Sour Cream container) and put it out while you water, measure what’s in the container with a ruler and multiply by three.
The reason to water infrequently but deeply is to promote deeper root growth of the plants, this allows them to better resist stress. Also keeping the thatch layer consistently damp can result in an outbreak of disease so watering less frequently allows the thatch layer to dry out preventing disease.
Well the grass cutting season is getting into full swing so I figured I should offer up a couple of professional tips on how to properly care for a lawn.
The first and most important tip has to do with mowing height. The ideal height for mowing most lawns is between 3-4 inches the reason for this is that most residential and commercial lawns in Windsor are typically composed of a mix of Kentucky Bluegrass, Creeping Fescue, and Perennial Rye Grass. These particular types of grasses need to be fairly long before they can produce leaves, so if the lawn is cut to short the stems will be cut before the area where the leaves emerge, this makes it very hard for the lawn to photosynthesize and grow. this is why Precedence Landscaping keeps all of our mowers set to 3 inches.
The other tip is to make sure that the lawn mower being used to cut the grass has sharp blades, if the blades are not sharp they will tear the grass instead of cutting it cleanly. This can be seen a couple of days after the lawn has been cut as a fraying at the ends of the leaf blades. For the best results the blades of a typical homeowners lawn mower should be sharpened three times a year; once before the first mowing, again on Canada Day, and one more time on Labour Day. As for Precedence Landscaping, with our lawn mowers being used as much as they are, we sharpen the blades at least once a month as sometimes more in the spring and fall peak growing seasons in Windsor.
That’s all for now, as the season continues I’ll offer up some more tips.
Today we did our first job, it was just a simple cleanup but it’s still nice to get back into the outdoor work. I was hoping for a little more snow before the end of winter but oh well. I’m sure everyone else is glad the snow is done for this winter.
So now is the time to cleanup your yard before all your perennials start to emerge. Lightly rake your beds to remove the dead leaves and whatever other debris has built up over the winter. Also cut down any of your ornamental grasses to ground level and any other perennial plants that have died back.
This is also a good time to rake your grass with a good stiff leaf rake to remove any excess thatch that has built up. It will also help to make the lawn recover faster from the winter.
Lawn Care | admin | 
March 30, 2010 12:22 am | 
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