Common Lawn and Grass Cutting Problems
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- Grass cutting is a very frequent process especially in the summer months
- How to’ guide to help you look after a lawn
In the world of real estate, it is essential to maintain properties of external grounds and lawns, or it could seriously impact the value of the property. Thankfully, every problem has its solution and there are specific remedies for individual insects. However, due to time constraints, the best overall solution is to spray aerosol and pressure wash before performing a conventional grass cut.
There is no doubting that a well cared for lawn is a beautiful thing, but there is also no denying that it can be hard work getting and keeping it that way and there is a surprising amount that can go wrong.
After all, lawns take a hammering every day as they get walked all over, literally, and through the seasons they have to survive the various weather and temperature changes.
Grass cutting is a very frequent process especially in the summer months and it needs to be performed carefully or else many things can go wrong.
So, we’ve put together our ‘how to’ guide to help you remember all you need to look after a lawn:
- Insects: any lawn is full of many different species of insect life and thankfully many are harmless. In fact, it is estimated that less than 1% of all insect species are harmful.
The various species that can cause problems for your grass cutting inspector are blister beetle, chinch bug, aphid, sawfly, and thrips for example and if any harmful insect bites them this would lead to a safety hazard. - Weeds: for many a weed is a flower in the wrong place, but weeds in the grass is always a no-no. Weeds are prolific, can be small and large and depending upon the size and characteristics of the weed problem the grass cutting inspector can perform various methods such as derooting, mulching, using a weed eater and applying herbicide.Applying herbicide is not easy as it looks with the main challenge being it can be harmful to the grass cutting inspector. Therefore, the only solution is to wear full safety clothing before and during grass cutting.
- Mowing: below are tips to remember when grass cutting:
- any mower needs to be properly adjusted to ensure the leveled shape of grass can be obtained.
- all mowers must be fitted with an engine safety cut-off switch.
- cutting blades must be removed completely from the mower.
- brakes on a mower must be in a good condition and it must be operating on at least 2 wheels.
- non-stock mowers must only be used with an automatic throttle closing device.
- pump gas must be the only fuel used.
- Thatching: Thatch is a layer of living and dead shoots, roots and stems that develops between the zone of green vegetation in a lawn and the soil surface. Thatch starts developing when turf begins producing organic debris faster than it can be broken down and the following methods can be carefully adopted to tackle the problem:
- Vertimowing: Vertimowing is a methodology of getting rid of nearly all of the surface vegetation of a lawn all at once with the use of specialized machines.
- One-time lawn mowing:used as a method of de-thatching by forcefully lowering the mowing height and getting rid of most of the surface vegetation in a single mow.
- Slowly reducing mowing heights: reducing mowing heights slowly over several mowing sessions is likely the safest technique to control it.
- Always follow the following guidelines when removing thatch:
- More frequent lawn mowing leads to better results.
- After thatch treatments do not mow again until the lawn is showing good signs of health and repair from the previous mowing.
- Never de-thatch during the hottest summer months as this will stress the lawn. The best time to start the process is at the start of spring or autumn.
- Do not fertilize the lawn during the repair process.
While all of these issues are common among lawns, you will find that every lawn is different. While some lawns may experience all of these problems, others might experience none. So, it is best to spend a little time evaluating the lawn, making it easier to identify any issues.