Tips for Choosing a Lawn Maintenance Company

Choosing a lawn maintenance company can initially seem like quite a challenge. With the many choices for lawn care companies now available, how do you decide which company will give you the best service and results? Here is a checklist to help you select the best lawn care service provider for your needs.

• Ask for a lawn inspection and a free estimate for service. Companies that quote a price without seeing your lawn or advertise a certain per-time price are only guessing what your lawn might need. Quality companies will only offer estimates after seeing exactly what they are going to be working with.
• If you have time, try to meet with a company representative face-to-face to discuss your lawn so you can determine their knowledge and experience.
• Remember that when you're looking at different lawn care companies, you shouldn't look at the price alone. Cheaper is not necessarily better. For example, frequency of service is an important factor to consider (some companies skip weeks in the fall and winter, while other companies continue the same service throughout the year). Dependability and level of quality are other key factors to consider.
• Find out how long the company has been in business under the present ownership.
• Be sure that the lawn care service is licensed and insured. Do not be afraid to ask for proof.
• Check on the company throughout the entire time service is provided. Let them know of any compliments as well as complaints.

Letting your lawn be in the hands of professionals doesn't mean that you're abandoning it. As long as you take the right precautions and measures, your lawn will be in the hands of people who care about your lawn as much as you do. If you're interested in a free consultation and estimate, as always, feel free to contact us, Sunrise Landscaping & Lawn Maintenance.

Watering Your Lawn

Quick fact for you, the human body is composed of over 70% water... healthy grass contains even more water - from 75% to 85% of its weight. Interesting, huh? Water is extremely important for you lawn. Sunlight, temperature, wind, and humidity can all rob your grass of most of the water it needs. And that's obviously bad. Water helps cool the grass, helps seeds germinate, and helps the grass absorb the nutrients it requires. Without water, the grass will wilt, brown, become susceptible to disease, allow weeds to take over, and eventually die of thirst. Since watering is so important to maintaining a healthy lawn, here are some tips to help guarantee its health and beauty.

When is the best time of day to water your lawn?
Other than the fact that watering between 10am and 4pm isn't allowed in Jacksonville, it's a bad time of day to water the lawn anyway. Not because it will 'burn' the grass (that's a misconception), but because you want to avoid water loss due to evaporation from the sun. Also, for most of the year, you want to avoid watering at night, because then you leave your grass open for disease. The best time to water your yard is early in the morning. This prevents evaporation and allows the lawn to soak up the most water. The exception to this rule is during extremely hot temperatures (when the nighttime temp doesn't drop below 70 degrees). Then it's fine to water late in the afternoon or early evening.

How much water does your lawn need?
Your lawn usually needs 1 to 1.5 inches of water each week - including rainfall. Water your lawn deeply and infrequently. This encourages deep root systems for strong and healthy grass. Frequent, short bursts of water do not soak into the root zone; they evaporate before the grass can use them. So once a week, water early in the morning, and water well. Set a small cup within reach of the sprinkler and water until that cup has one inch of water in it (you can also use a tuna can and water until can is full or buy a rain gauge). If you do this weekly, your grass will be better able to withstand the heat and stress of the summer. While you don't want to under-water your yard, also be sure not to over-water your lawn, it invites weeds, crab grass and insects.

Some additional watering tips:

• Aerate your grass to loosen compacted soil and allow water to get to the roots.
• For a newly sodded or seeded lawn, water more frequently for the first month until your lawn is well-established.
• Make sure that your watering equipment is working properly. Broken sprinklers and hoses waste a lot of water. Think about installing an automatic irrigation system, since these require less water. If you're using sprinklers, set it to water only your lawn and not the pavement, driveway, or sidewalks.

And keep in mind the new watering restrictions.
Odd numbered addresses - water on Wednesday and Saturday.
Even numbered addresses - water on Thursday and Sunday.

As always, feel free to call us if you're interested in lawn care and maintenance. Happy Watering!

Lawn Mowing Tips

It's about to be that time of year again here in Jacksonville. The days are gonna be getting longer, warmer, and sunnier... and, of course, the grass will start getting taller.

When it comes to lawn care and making sure that your grass looks picture perfect, there are several different things that you, as the homeowner, can do. Taking a lawnmower over your grass every couple of weeks is simply not enough if you want your grass to look lush, green, and healthy.

For those of you who want a beautiful yard, but just don't have the time to put into it, please feel free to give us a call here at Sunrise Landscaping & Lawn Maintenance. For all you "lawn do-it-yourselfers" out there, just a few quick tips when you pull out the lawn mower…

1. Keep your lawn mower blade sharp. The best thing to do is have it sharpened several times a year (especially during summer). This will ensure a clean cut when you mow. When you don't have a sharpened blade, you tear away the top part of the grass blade as opposed to giving it an even cut which dries out the tip of the blade. It's the equivalent of your grass developing split ends and will make your grass look brown and sickly as opposed to the beautiful green you want. Professionals often sharpen their blades after only around eight hours of usage.
2. Make sure that your grass is dry when you start mowing. This keeps wet clippings from clumping on your lawn surface, and protects your mower blade from rust.
3. During seasons when your grass is growing rapidly (most of the year for us here in Florida), you should mow every week. During the cooler months of the year when the grass grows slower, every other week is good. Although, we don't recommend letting it go for longer than a couple weeks even in winter, otherwise, weeds will start to pop up more frequently.
4. Clean your lawn mower's blade before and after mowing your lawn. This ensures a cleaner cut and prevents disease and rust from spreading on your lawn.
5. To avoid the appearance of a messy lawn, don't forget to pull out your edger and trim the edges once a week.
6. One of the more painful facets of mowing is bagging the clippings. You can avoid this by simply letting your mower mulch the grass (provided you're not cutting off too much). In general, up to three-quarters of an inch is acceptably small enough to mulch. Nature will kick in and decompose the dead grass, sending beneficial nutrients into the soil and helping your lawn's health.. Be careful though, mulch clippings that are too long can suffocate your grass from the sunlight it needs.
7. The last tip, on not cutting your lawn too short, I'll save for a future blog post. It can depend on multiple factors, including the type of grass you have. Just keep in mind to never cut more than about 35% off the top (during the summer here in Jacksonville, it's probably best to keep your mower blade height at the highest setting).

Best of luck to you in the new season. I’m sure your yard will be the pride of the neighborhood.