The most common lawn watering mistake that most homeowners make is they over water the lawn. It is much more damaging to over water a lawn versus under water a lawn. Over watering a lawn causes the soil to become anaerobic or absent of oxygen. Water replaces air in the soil and anaerobic soils become compacted, prevent deep digging grass roots, and will kill beneficial microbial activity.
Daily lawn watering is extremely damaging for a lawn. Daily lawn watering prevents the roots of the grass from growing deep into the soil. These shallow grass roots will make the lawn unable to stay green during the heat of the summer.
The best way to promote the grass’ roots to start digging deep into the soil is to water deeply and infrequently. After changing the lawn watering to the recommendations below, your lawn might look worse before it starts to look better. The lawn will start to look healthier as soon as the grass’ roots start digging deep into the soil.
The ideal time to water a lawn is early in the morning before sunrise. Our recommendation is to finish watering no later than 6:00 AM. If this is not possible then the next best time to water is late evening.When daytime high temperatures are hot and average above 85°F: Water no more than 3 days per week. This is typically between mid or late June through mid or late August. (e.g. Water every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).
This lawn watering technique is a very deep watering, but it also allows the soil to completely dry out before the sprinkler system waters again. Organo-Lawn invented this lawn watering technique and it is universal worldwide.
Symptoms of an Over Watered Lawn
Some clear signs of over watering a lawn include: severely compacted soils, the presence of Necrotic Ring Spot lawn fungus, the abundance of insect pressure, mold, root rot, and a shallow root system. Over watering a lawn is much worse for the grass and trees than under watering a lawn because a lawn that is watered too much will starve the soil of oxygen. Air is extremely important to the health of the soil and to promote deep digging grass roots. Most of the time when we see a lawn watering problem in a Boulder or Fort Collins area lawn, we advise the customer that we need to adjust the lawn watering schedule in their lawn, they often assume we want to increase the amount of water. This might be true some of the time, but the majority of the time we end up reducing the frequency of days the lawn is being watered and increase the duration.
First Response Lawn Care can perform a sprinkler auditand set up the system to water according to our suggestions. The lawn is usually being watered deeper and less frequent. Most of the time, after we make our adjustments, the total water use is reduced which goes a long way towards water conservation. It’s a good thing for your lawn, for resources and for your pocketbook.
Call First Response Lawn Care (214) 701-7622 if you would like a sprinkler audit, sprinkler repair or need a new irrigation system in Rockwall, Fate, Royse City and surrounding areas!
According to the National Association of Landscape Professionals, studies show that most Americans value a well-kept lawn and landscape. Plus, they believe it’s also important to spend time enjoying their yards.
Yet, it’s hard to maintain a well-kept lawn when you’re on the go all week long and your weekend schedule is maxed out. If that describes you, it may be time to hire a professional lawn mowing service to help you keep your yard looking great—even while you’re away. Here are 8 reasons why you need to hire a professional lawn mowing company to mow your yard:
Itsaves you time: Let’s face it. You’re busy. You spend the majority of your week at your job, and your weekends are filled with activity. When do you have time to mow your lawn? You can still enjoy your yard even with a pro mowing it for you.
It doesn’t need to involve a long-term contract: Don’t feel that you need to sign on the dotted line for a long-term relationship with a lawn mowing company. Instead, opt for a month to month services like First Response Lawn Care offers.
A residential lawn mowing company will use only professional-grade equipment: Your lawn may actually look better after it’s mowed by a pro because of the type of equipment used. Since professional lawn service companies only operate the best mowers on the market and keep them serviced so your lawn will look great.
A professional lawn care company will only use the sharpest blades: One of the keys to good lawn maintenance includes mowing only with sharp blades. You get a cleaner cut with no injuries—thus, protecting your lawn grass from disease and insect infestation.
A lawn service company will only mow at the right height throughout the growing season: Another smart lawn care technique includes only taking 1/3 of the grass blade off with each mow. You want your grass to be a bit longer to naturally crowd out weeds.
A pro may also be available for additional lawn and landscape maintenance: You may be so busy with your life that you may opt for additional lawn and landscape maintenance services. Look for a brochure or a business card left by your mowing company to see if they provide additional services.
A professional lawn mowing service is available for you when you’re traveling for work or you’re on vacation: With First Response Lawn Care you can schedule your yard to be mowed while you’re on vacation or on a business trip.
A landscaping company will help you when you’re busy with other projects and want help for only one mow: Say you’re the person who loves to work on his lawn. Yet, you get busy with work projects or something else might come up where you only need help with mowing “just this time. First Response Lawn Care has no mandated contracts or follows up needed.
If you’re ready to take a break from your mowing chores, let us help you. With one call to (214) 701-7622, you’ll be able to schedule your next mowing job.
Now that the rainy season is
pretty much behind us, and the temperatures are soaring into triple digit
threats, it is imperative that we protect our lawn. Follow these summer lawn care tips to ensure that your lawn
stays healthy even in most brutal Texas sun.
1) Water deeply, but infrequently. Always in the
morning.
Watering your lawn is very
important, and make sure your watering schedule is in keeping with the
current watering restrictions.
The City of Rockwall has guidelines set for watering:
Watering permitted up to 2 times per week, as needed
There are no assigned watering days
Do not water between 10 am – 6 pm
What exactly
does watering deeply mean? Well, you need to water enough that the water
penetrates deeply into the soil. If your lawn hasn’t been aerated in a
while, this might be a problem. Be sure to water early in the morning to
avoid evaporation. Also, be sure not to over-water, as that will result
in fungi growing in shady areas, and your roots could potentially drown.
It’s
possible to give your lawn ample water for survival and still follow the
recommended guidelines to conserve water.
2) Mow at the
highest height possible, but don’t avoid the 1/3 rule.
Each grass type has a
different range of heights the blades can be mowed at. During periods of
drought, be sure to mow on the higher end of that spectrum. Most of the
common Dallas grass types should be mowed to around 4 inches, about 1/2 inch
higher than normal.
Additionally, be sure to mow
frequently enough that you are never cutting off more than 1/3 of the grass
blade length. In fact, it’s much better to only cut off 1/4 of an inch at
a time. Chances are that biweekly lawn mowing should do the trick.
3) Be sure to keep those mower
blades sharp.
Sharp mower blades are always
important, but during the summer heat, they are more important than ever.
The grass is already stressed; cutting it with a dull lawn mower blade
will stress it even more
4) Leave all chemical applications to the professionals
Most grass types do not require fertilization during the summertime. If for some reason you are inclined to treat your lawn with fertilizer or chemicals, be sure to call a professional, licensed service provider. Risk of Nitrogen burn is super high in the summer, so it’s best to leave any lawn treatments to a professional.
Hopefully, these tips help you, and for those of you who don’t feel like doing your own lawn, check out First Response Lawn Care’s professional lawn services in Rockwall, Fate, Royse City, Caddo Mills, and surrounding areas.
Get a FREE Estimate! Call Now – (214) 701-7622! We will gladly help you with your lawncare needs!
Does your grass look dead? What are the differences between a dead and a dormant lawn? A brown lawn does not always mean that your lawn is dead, it could just be dormant! Dormancy is essentially the lawn going to sleep.
Summer dormancy occurs when the grass is stressed out by intense heat and drought. It can stay in this dormant state safely for 3-4 weeks without dying, although intense drought will kill it over time. Dormant turf is not very pleasant to look at with its unsightly brown tinge. Fortunately, the grass will green up once conditions improve.
How to Revive Dormant Grass
It can be tough to determine whether or not your lawn is dormant or if it is actually dead. A good way to determine if it is dormant is by watering in the early morning. Water it regularly and heavily for a couple of days. This should bring your lawn out of dormancy. Also try to minimize the foot traffic on your lawn, as foot traffic can damage the root systems on dormant grass. Hold back on mowing your lawn, as longer blades of grass will provide shade for the roots. The longer blades keep the moisture from evaporating in the heat as quickly.
Keep an Eye on Daily Progress
After watering there may be some patches or areas that stay brown. If there are many areas that need to be replaced or the areas are quite large, sodding is your best bet. If the areas are small and few in number, reseeding may be the way to go. Call us at First Response Lawncare. We can help you determine how your yard is coming along and calibrate your irrigation system to be optimized to bring your lawn back to life.
Checking your lawn before deciding it is dead could potentially save you time as well as money. Be sure you give it proper attention for a few days before writing it off! Re-sodding or reseeding certain areas is more cost effective than replacing your entire lawn!
Get a FREE Estimate! Call Now – (214) 701-7622! We will gladly help you with your lawncare needs!
Before you dive into summer, have a look at our summer irrigation tips for North Texas. These will ensure that your lawn stays green and nourished throughout the season. We understand that it can be easy to forget about your irrigation system, or just expect it to “do its thing” in the background. But you can’t afford to forget about irrigation.
These 3 summer irrigation tips will get you through the summer with a lush lawn for all those relaxing days spent by the pool.
Timing is Everything
It is best to have your irrigation on to water your lawn in the early morning or late afternoon. If you water the hot soil in the midday sun, the water will quickly evaporate, leaving your plants dry and deprived. We recommend that you use your irrigation system between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.
Quantity Control
Be careful of how much your home irrigation system is operating. Those of us in North Texas usually find that we need to water our lawns less when we experience those rainy summer days. Overwatering can be as harmful, if not worse, as underwatering. Be Waterwise!
Your watering schedule needs to change throughout the year according to the different amounts of rainfall. An automatic irrigation system can monitor soil moisture to determine whether the system needs to be automatically switched on. You want to make sure that your irrigation system is watering the right amount across your lawn. As a rule of thumb, we suggest irrigating twice a week. If it has been a very rainy week, you might be able to cut this down to one.
Get Professional Advice
The change of season necessitates the change of your irrigation system schedule. First Response Lawn Care can advise you with the planning and operation of your irrigation to ensure that it is suited to the climate and your lawn. If you neglect to modify the schedule, you risk watering too much, or not enough. Either way, you could cause extensive damage to your lawn by skipping this simple step.
As well as guiding you with the schedule and frequency of your irrigation system, we can assist you with its positioning and setup. Sometimes a sprinkler head needs to be adjusted to evenly water the lawn. Or perhaps your shaded patch of the lawn does not need as much water as the other patch that sits under the sun all day.
Get a FREE Estimate! Call Now – (214) 701-7622! We will gladly help you with your irrigation needs!
