Why did you mow… I now have ruts!

This season has been one of the most challenging seasons we have seen.  During May we only saw 5 days without rain!  It was the 6th wettest May on record!!! With the rain there has not been a perfect day to mow or a way to make everyone happy.

On a normal week Brummel Lawn will run 5 mowing crews with most crews having 3 per crew, and some days 4 per crew.  The crews routes are set up to run Monday though Friday.  The beginning of the week is loaded with more commercial properties and residential properties are generally scheduled later in the week if its possible. In the Spring with having to double cut and sometimes triple cut, these crews are working hard to be able to keep up and stay current without Mother Nature throwing them a curve ball like this season.

In most cases we try not to mow while it is raining or if we get over a 1/2″ of rain.  Also in most cases a 1/2″ of rain should drain and can still be mowed.  However it will still be wet. Anything over that we call it a day, pull off the yard, or do a delayed start.

The following day we pick up where we left off and try to play catch up.

This season we have had to go down different avenues to ensure that your lawns were mowed each week.  For instance, we had to add an additional 3 crews for a couple of weeks to try and keep up or even complete the weeks mowing before we moved on to the next week.  This season, for the first time, we have also had to have all mowing crews work entire weekends to stay caught up. So, unfortunately we have had to mow grass that was still a little bit wet.

The crews were instructed to be as careful as they could and skip any areas that were really wet and we would cut them the following week,.  Unfortunately there were times when the following week came and we had to skip those areas again due to more rain.

In a couple areas there were some mud tracking.  Mud tracking is when the tires lift the muddy water to the surface and it attaches to the blades of grass.  Therefore it gives the appearance of a painted muddy line. Yes it looks awful BUT there is good news, in most cases, yes I said most cases it didn’t rut or harm the grass, it just looks bad

The tires we use are wide to help with compaction and rutting.  Did you know that our big mowers put less pressure per square inch than the wheels on a standard 21″ push mower! Another fun fact that a golf course would rather an elephant walk across a golf green than a lady in high heels, as the same applies that the elephants step is softer on the grass then the lady’s heel!

Ok now that we have armed you with some knowledge on how we operate and why we do what we do, hopefully you will continue to be understanding as we fight the battle with Mother Nature, and do the best we can to keep your turf looking better than the rest!