Fort Smith Lawn Care | Is Weed Killer Bad For Pets?

Most people and lawn companies use weed killer and herbicides liberally, spraying weeds growing in the cracks of driveways, walkways, and parking lots, and preventing weeds in flower beds and landscaping. Sometimes people will also spray around trees and buildings and other obstacles to eliminate the need for weedeating. One question we get asked from time to time is whether or not these chemicals will hurt their pets. Usually these furry friends are like part of the family, so it would be a shame to unwittingly harm one with spraying chemicals unaware. Because we have pets of our own, we can definitely relate to the concern and want to provide some clarity to this worrisome topic.

These chemicals certainly could be harmful if you use them irresponsibly. If for some reason you were to spray any of these herbicides and weed killers directly on or around your pet and give them direct exposure, it would definitely not be healthy. Your pet could experience sickness, vomiting, and perhaps more longterm effects.

However for the most part, most of these brands of chemicals are considered safe to use around your pets as long as you can keep the pets from the area until it dries. We would recommend taking your pet inside or keeping them in a different part of the your yard while you are applying these chemicals. Once they dry your pet should be safe.

There are some products though that are altogether unsafe for use around your pets. Products like snail and slug bait using metaldehyde, as well as any pesticides that include disulfoton, this is a chemical that has mostly been pulled off the market, but is still found in some stores. It is found sometimes in rose care products. Avoid these chemicals absolutely to protect your pet. Especially because these products attract pets and dogs will eat as much as they can get a hold of. Sometimes they are mixed with fertilizers like bone meal and blood meal, making it even more appealing to canines.

So please take care to know what product you’re using and what is in it before you spray around animals. We hope this has helped give some enlightenment to keeping man’s best friend and other furry companions safe from harmful use of chemicals. You may also consider some natural home remedies for weed killers if you’re worried about any chemical exposure to your pets.

Herbicides can be tricky to use; it’s not always easy to know the right mixture, and the right amount to apply to kill what you want and not hurt other plants around it. You can always save yourself some risk and trouble, and hire the professionals here at Cutting Edge Lawn Care to take care of all things lawn care and landscaping.

Fort Smith Lawn Care | What are the Dangers of Over Mowing?

Have you ever heard of a burnt lawn? We’re not talking about a burn from a fire, or a carpet burn from when you put in hardwood floors and drug the old carpet to the street; we’re talking about lawn burn from mowing too often and/or too short. Most people burn their lawn without actually knowing it’s happening. That’s why we think this is crucial information for the community to know.

There are a multiple ways burning can happen to your lawn. One of the most common causes is when people continuously mow their lawn too short and scalp it. Now this is distinguishing from the spring scalping we’ve talked about in a previous article. A beginning of the season scalping is great to rid your yard of dead grass that’s blocking the sun from the new growth early on. However once the grass is green and growing, it is not good and healthy to scalp it, because you’re hindering the photosynthesis. Grass soaks in the sun through the blades, so the more blade there is, the more sun it absorbs. If you scalp a good healthy yard, you’ve taken it’s ability to take in the vital sunlight. That’s why you can’t cut it too short, or too often. Though lawns need to be mowed, if you mow it too often—even if it’s not scalped—it can still keep it from taking in enough sunlight.

Another cause that comes from some even slight inexperience is mowing with dull lawn mower blades. As we have also talked about in a previous article, the dangers of mowing with dull blades is more than you would think. Not only does it damage the blades by tearing them instead of cutting them cleanly, but the damage it causes can also impede the blades ability to soak in the sun, causing yard burn yet again.

There’s so many things to keep in mind when taking care of your lawn and landscaping. It’s time to skip the headache and time wasted on faulty technique and just hire the professionals at Cutting Edge Lawn Care.

Fort Smith Lawn Care | Does Mulch Color Matter?

When it comes time to put down new fresh mulch, whether it’s for your spring cleaning, sprucing up in the fall, or any time of year, you’ll be faced with many mulch types and color. We’ll tackle what type of mulch is best to use another time, but today, lets talk about color. Here at Cutting Edge, we’re big believers in not just knowing “what” but knowing “why”. So lets start with why colored mulch exists and what it’s actual use is.

Obviously, this offers options if you’re bored with regular natural brown mulch. It’s also about longer lasting color, it doesn’t just add color, it locks in the color longer. Any color mulch, once under the influence of the elements for so long, will eventually fade to a dull greyish color. Which isn’t bad, if you prefer a natural look. But mulch isn’t cheap, so you want it to last as long as possible, and get the most for your money.

Now as far as what color to choose, it depends on what your goal is. if you want to be subtle, then you’d want to go for a natural or brown color mulch, then it’s not as much of a pop or statement. But if you want to make a statement, and add color to your landscaping, and if you’re proud of your landscaping and house, then you may want to draw attention to it; which means you would absolutely want a pop of color to draw the eye. At this point, we would suggest going off the color of your house. If you have a darker house, with brown colors, then we would discourage using a dark brown, and sometimes black; it would be a good time to go with a pop of red, or maybe even the natural color, to give some light to the landscape.

On the flip side, if you have a red brick house, it may not be best choice to go with red mulch. if your house is bright and colorful, maybe it would be best to give it a darker contrast, and go with dark brown or black. On a side note, there’s also a myth that roaches hate red mulch. So if you’re having roach troubles, you may try red, and see if you notice a difference.

In the end, it comes down to what you want. However you want your house landscaping to look, we can help you out with it. We have access to all the best deals, and varieties. So give us a call when you’re interested in some color, and we’ll give you a free consultation and estimate. Call the experts at Cutting Edge!

Fort Smith Lawn Care | When is the Right Time for Fresh Mulch?

When it comes to landscaping, one of the biggest difference makers that can set your curb appeal apart from the others around you is fresh mulch. It can make it look like spring has sprung after the messy and bleak fall and winter, or it can make your landscaping look like it still has life throughout the dead of winter. So how often and when exactly should you refresh your mulch?

Well truthfully, there’s not a bad time to put mulch down, that is, there’s no time you “can’t” put mulch down. But there are better times to put mulch down that better utilize it for your lawn and landscaping. Nobody wants to spend the money putting down mulch several times a year, and if you put it down at the wrong time it can be rendered ugly quickly if you’re not careful. This is why it’s important to know the right time to put it down.

Aside from color, the chief purpose of mulch is to make your landscaping look uniform and clean. So the last thing you’d want to do, is put mulch down right before it’s about to get messy again; mainly right before you trim your hedges. If you spread mulch before you trim all your bushes and do some pruning then all the clippings will mix in with the mulch, or you will blow or rake some of the mulch out while trying to clean up the mess.

This is why you want to be strategic, you can save yourself some extra trouble if you coordinate a mulch application with a big pruning, especially your spring cleaning. Then you don’t have to be completely thorough when cleaning up the clippings. You can just pick up the big pieces, and cover up the small clippings with your fresh mulch; then your bushes are trimmed, your bed is fresh with new color, and you can let the natural clippings break down into the soil for compost. It’s a win all the way around

These reasons are why we say, if you have a regularly kept landscape, the best time for mulch is right after a pruning in the spring and/or fall. However if your landscaping has been neglected and needs a big cleanup, then it should definitely be followed up with mulch no matter what time of year; otherwise it will never look truly transformed.

As always, you don’t have to do it on your own, mulch can be a back breaker and a messy pain. So reach out to the professionals at Cutting Edge Lawn Care today, and we can help you with mulch or any other lawn care and landscaping needs.

Fort Smith Lawn Care | When Should You Plant Flowers?

When it comes to beautiful landscaping, it’s really important to have a little bit of color. Some people choose to achieve this by planting flowers. More often than not, the average person doesn’t know too much about planting and maintaining a bed of flowers, and one of the most common queries is just when you should plant these pops of color.

Truth be told, there’s not too many times you absolutely can’t plant flowers, except maybe in the dead of winter. Not much is going to grow then. There are also better times, and not as good times to plant. We also wouldn’t recommend planting in the middle of summer, but you could, if you had plenty of water and shade that the flowers you’re planting require.

For us, there are two typical ideal times of the year to plant beautiful flowers that grow and last. It’s really common and beneficial to plant flowers right after your spring cleaning, around the end of April. By this time there’s not much risk of freezes and frosts killing your flowers with a cold snap, and the spring showers are definitely helpful for keeping them alive.

Then the beginning of fall is usually the best and last chance you have to plant some flowers and let them get a chance to take root and last through the winter. Around October, and certainly no later than November if you can help it. At this time the spring flowers are dying, but there’s still enough heat and sunlight for the late season flowers to thrive and prepare to hold up against winter weather.

Of course you can’t just plant any flowers in these times, there are flowers made to stand the heat and there are flowers made to stand the cold. It’s very important to research the flower you want to plant to know what it needs, and if it’s the right flower for the spot you’re wanting to put it. We will talk more about what flowers to plant in another article, but for now, be sure to plan ahead so you get the right flowers and plant them at the right time and don’t risk wasting your money.

As always, you can skip the hassle and hire a professional who has already put in the research! Call Cutting Edge Lawn Care to bring some color back to your landscaping!

Fort Smith Lawn Care | Is it ok to Mow Right After the Rain?

We get it, sometimes the rain is relentless and there’s nothing you can do about it. Especially in Arkansas, in May. Sometimes you don’t have a choice, cause it’s been raining for two weeks straight and the grass has been growing non stop, and it’s not gonna dry out before the next two weeks of rain, so you gotta do what you gotta do. But if you can help it at all, should you mow right after it rains and before the ground dries?

No. Not if you care about your yard and your lawn mower. If you have a choice, here are the reasons you should abstain from lawn mowing right after the rain:

1. Ruts. When it rains and the ground is soft and muddy, when you drive a lawn mower across it, you’re going get make ruts, or maybe even get stuck and create a huge mess, and it’s going to take a while for your yard to recover from that.

2. Clumps. Maybe the ground is firm enough to not get stuck, or maybe you break out your push mower. It’s still a bad idea, because the grass is soaked, and when the lawn mower spits out the grass clippings, it’s going to be spewing hideous clumps of grass all over your yard. We haven’t run across a customer who likes this yet.

3. You’re going to hurt your lawn mower. You may think, that you’ll just put your mulch plate on so it’s not spitting out all the grass clumps. Well this can be very harmful for your lawn mower, because all those clumps are staying in the deck, and turning into a giant clump that’s dulling your blades enormously, not to mention bogging your engine down, and sometimes, will break your belt because of the strain. We’ve done it all, none of it is good or fun.

4. Stains. When these clumps are laying all over the ground and you’re running over them with your lawn mower, the tread in your wheels and tires are filling with this wet grass. When you drive or roll across your driveways, sidewalks and streets, you’re going to smear grass and stains all over them, and it’s not easy to clean up.

These are the main reasons we found to avoid lawn mowing directly after the rain. We hope this helps you avoid messing up your own lawn and equipment, as well as provide some understanding why Lawn care services want to wait till the yard dries before providing service. We have your lawn and interests in mind.

If you’re lawn care company is not mindful of your lawn and messing it up, call the professionals here at Cutting Edge Lawn Care to get your best lawn now!