Dry mowing?

[BRIMOW525]

What is everyone doing with mowing when there hasn't been rain for weeks? My lawns look like they are in the middle of july or Aug.! One guy has irrigation but refuses to turn it on untill may 30. If you ket them go for 2 weeks they turn to seed. If you cut them every week they burn up even worse. I want to skip them but they turn to seed and then the customer gets ticked. But I'm too full with landscape and grass cutting to cut on a 10 day rotation. Plus I would loose track of what got done. Just wondering what everyone else was doin'. Thank god for irrigated lawns!

[Vintage]

I am not really familar with your area, but just a suggestion, how about raising your cutting height and cutting every week until the rain starts.

[awm]

just bare clip the top.

[joshua]

not sure what kinda of grass you have in your area, but since the less rain fall this year i have already raised my mowers to our summer height to shade the lawn better. but were still cutting at every 5 days on all of our accounts, have been getting some late night rains that have been helping and tons of dew that keep them going strong, just the hot sunny days that i'm afaid of burning the grass up. hopes this helps sorry for rambling

[lawnboy82]

this rain deal is really starting to piss me off here. :mad: saturday we were gonna cut grass but it looked as though it was gonna rain so we did sides. i went and got some top soil, dark as holy heck. then it started to really lightly rain. you could feel it really lightly. then today i was going to look at a job and on the way over there i get into an area and it was raining nicely. i get about not even a mile down the road and nothing. then i get to the job and it may have been drizzling. i talk with the guy. we go into his garage and it lightly poured for about 2 minutes 5 tops. go back outside and nothing. and for the rest of the day no water. it hasnt rained here besides this stuff now in i think 3 or 4 weeks. we need some rain. even my crazy people's lawns have slowed down. and they usually have to be done 2x a week. now i am lucky if they get done every 2. one i think gets done every week still. but he is on irrigation. my problem here is not the grass, i could deal with not cutting grass for a while. however! i put down chemicals last weekend. my customers, even my father has said to me that we have the worst looking lawn on the block now. that is because the rain has not come to water them in. one lady will pay me, but she moans non stop about how i didnt put anything down for them. the others just pay and dont say anything. but my father and this woman say stuff. need rain!:alien:

[HOMER]

OOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKkkkkkkkkk:blob3:

[lawnman_scott]

Lawnboy, you did sides????? what does that mean?

[John DiMartino]

Lawnboy 82-you said you put down chemicals-where did you take your tets for pesticides?I took my recertification in Yonkers,at the 4H, couldnt have been to far from you.I guess you took the 30 hr course since your age keeps you from legaly having the required years of working under a certified applicator,in order to take the test.

[KirbysLawn]

Here in NC we have not had rain in over a month, most lawns are now showing heat stress. I normally I mow my fescue at 4", I mowed last week at 4.5" and will mow on a 10 day schedule for non-irrigated lawns starting this week. I also started planning aerations this week to help open the soil to assist with water absorption.

Last year we had 40 days with no rain which broke the record set back in 1918. If this trend continues I may need to start another business, maybe I could be a scrub in the pool maintenance service. :)

[dhicks]

And if we don't get some much needed rain, I'll be opening up a house/office cleaning company. However, I reserve the right to refuse doning a maids uniform. :p

[HOMER]

Wanna borrow Homers dress..................you get used to the jokes!

[smburgess]

Homer...

LOL! I got a kick out of both your posts! (the first one was great!)

[Charles]

Kirby, we have about the same situation here as you do. Things are quickly grinding to a halt. I and the mower are gettng covered up with dust and dirt and still no rain in site. It would have to rain a few days to bring the now dormant grass back.
I read an article where we are in a warming trend in the north atlantic ocean that started in 1990. They say this means less rain for most of the country. This trend can last for 20 to 30 years and come from a long term study of the weather patterns. The cooling pattern lasted from 1960 to 1990. But I remember a severe drought in the 70s too but not a 3 or 4 year drought like we having now.
All you can do is cut what grass there is higher and stretch the weeks out.
Its strange that we have low humidity and breezy days this time of year. Good drying weather. i even had to take on another trailor park(yuck) to have something to do.

[TJLC]

We are in the same dry situation here! Unfortunately it's like death and taxes, there is nothing you can do about it. Hang in there.

[Atlantic Lawn]

On the coast of NC it is really dry .Only .30 inches of rain in the past 40+ days. We are cuttin most lawns on a 10-14 day sch. We cut mainly Bermuda here at this time of year. Nearly every commercial cut is crispy . Not a pretty sight .......

[PrimeGreen Lawn]

The thing that sucks is all the dust that's been blowing around this past few weeks. It's been very windy here in Maryland, and to cut dry, dusty grass is really straining my eyes.....I've had to stop the mowers 10 times on an acre of round to rub em'. I went to a surf shop and bought a pair of goggles that have 4.5" mirrored lenses. I look like a bug, but hey, it beats flushing out your eyes every 10 minutes!

H&H

[thelawnguy]

Here it is Wed my busiest day of the week and Im home at 3. Ive had to clean the prefilters twice a day the past week-the engine starts misfiring, pull the air filter cover and the prefilters all choked with pollen and dust.

Oh well. This too shall pass...

[SMB]

Thank goodness for prefilters, I can imagine how dirty the cartrigdes would be without them. We've got our first good rain in a while last night and today (on and off). There's still some grass here that hasn't come back from being dormant in the winter. :cry: We should be pretty busy for the rest of the month. :D :D :D