All lawns must have regular mowing to be thick and beautiful. Once per week during the growing season is best. St Augustine type grasses need to be mowed at 3.5″ to 5″ in height. Some of our customers have lawns that we mow at the top of our mower deck settings. The reason for the high cut is to shade the roots and help with drought tolerance. Regular mowing also helps the grass to spread. If the grass is healthy and can’t grow up it will grow out, creating a lush thick lawn.

All landscapes need watering in regular intervals. This means the same day and same amount of time every week. Hand watering is very inconsistent, but helpful if your landscape needs assistance in a problem area. If you can only water one day per week due to restrictions that is enough to keep your lawn alive until we get regular rain. The funny thing about plants and turf is that the sprinklers will keep it alive, but rainfall is necessary for it to thrive. The best practice for watering your lawn is to water two to three days per week instead of every day. If you water longer time per zone and less days per week your landscape will become more drought tolerant. The water will go further down into the soil the longer you water and this encourages the roots of the plants and turf to go deeper into the soil to look for water. The water that is deeper in the soil takes longer to evaporate so the plants are drawing from a better source of moisture. If you have reclaimed water and the restrictions are more relaxed please do not water just because you can. We have some customers that cause pooling of water between houses from over watering. Please conserve our natural resources we will need them in the future. Over watering can cause disease leading to plant and turf death. Over watering also causes the need for pesticide treatment. If we can change our cultural practices we can help keep pesticide use to a minimum.

All plants and turf need regular fertilizer to thrive. However, we recommend that you partner with a pesticide company that uses the minimum amount of these products necessary to keep your landscape looking its best. Established plants need only minimum amounts of fertilizer to keep their healthy appearance. Established turf should only be fertilized when necessary also. When over-applied, fertilizers can increase insect and disease problems. Rapidly growing plants are weak and without an adequate root system. The excess also increases run-off from yards and can contaminate waterways. The trick to a beautiful landscape is to monitor it. Watch for insect damage and control them when necessary. Turf weeds are a problem too. A professional pesticide company should be able to control most weeds in your turf. Many turf weed problems need to be treated in the cooler months.

If you want a beautiful landscape you need professionals that will monitor the mowing, irrigation, and fertilization of your landscape. We can help you with that. If you want to establish a beautiful landscape on a budget we can help you with that too. We have programs for patient customers that cannot afford to immediately change their landscape. With the three above processes in place your landscape can be successfully improved in only one growing season.  Call us for a FREE consultation at 813-919-5060.