As anyone who regularly reads their treatment history log knows, I’m a little obsessed with mower damage. Unfortunately, after extensive research on the matter I can report the average lawn crew is not swayed by exaggerated sighs and scowls, eye rolling or even that Crazygrass lady who works on lawns woefully shaking her head in their direction in a disapproving Mary Poppins manner. I can’t really blame them. So instead of continuing to be passive-aggressive to innocent lawn crews I’m going to empower you, yes YOU! (Think Uncle Sam pointing his finger, what’s more American than an immaculate expanse of green lawn?! Your country needs YOU!) to take back control of your lawn with my list of Ten things you can do now to help turn this receding-grass-and-excess-doveweed ship (they almost called the Mayflower that I’m sure ) around!
1) Ban weed eaters: The grass is growing much, much slower now and rarely needs edging. Just avoiding the use of a weed eater immediately resolves a huge amount of the stress and weed spread. Alternatively, you could request they use an edger only, cutting along edges and never below 3″, though that can be a more complicated request especially if it’s not always the same tech who shows up.
2) Request small push mowers only: not even on the firmest ground are sit on or stand on mowers appropriate for the average residential lawn, always using a smaller mower also minimizes the risk of them causing muddy tracks if they decide to mow after rain.
3) (speaking of mowing after rain) Don’t mow when wet: if we’ve just had a heavy rain call the crew off, the grass no longer needs cutting every week, better for it to get a little uneven than have ruts through the lawn.
4) Raise mowing height: this applies to most but not all of the crews our customers use, the mower should be set at pretty much the highest cutting height, St. Augustine should be at least 3″ after cutting, cutting short will weaken and stress the grass and often leads the lawn to look dull and thin. It also makes it much more susceptible to other stressors.
5) Clean equipment: this is a bigger ask but preferably you want to crew to wash off their equipment (just a quick spray down with a hose) between lawns, alternatively you can ask to be the first lawn of the day.
6) Sharp blades: around August is when the grass will start to really suffer from the use of blunt blades, ask your crew about sharp blades, learn to spot the tearing and ragged edges that demonstrates this problem so you can point it out to the crew.
7) Bag clippings: for people using lawn crews clippings should always be bagged no exception, especially as unfortunately most crews are unlikely to follow through in a request to wash off their mowers.
8) Provide the equipment: if you’re really attached to your lawn crew but the damage is significant and no amount of polite requests is improving the situation, consider providing the equipment. I know this seems extreme but then so is using a lawn crew who damage the grass every time they cut it. Providing the equipment immediately puts you back in control of blade height, blade sharpness, edging (leave edger out when you want it done and not when you don’t), size and cleanliness of equipment.
9) Consider paying extra. I know I spend a lot of time criticizing crews but I’m actually sympathetic for the pressures they’re under to move fast, it’s not really conducive to a good job. Show the crew your concerns, ask how you would like things to be different and then ask them if/what this would cost extra. This also makes them accountable to actually follow through with the changes. From my experience most crews simply aren’t paid enough to do a good job.
10) Communicate with us. If you don’t think your crew are going to change but you don’t want to change your crew, check in with us as to what damage is being caused specifically by your crew and how you should expect it to impact the lawn year on year. Realistically we can’t offset damage being done weekly with five or even twelve visits but it may be the downsides balance with the benefits of your current arrangement. At the least it will enable you to move forward understanding the risks.
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