Fort Smith Lawn Care | When can you trim Azaleas?

With the spring fast approaching, people are getting ready to start their spring cleaning and pruning, and Cutting Edge is getting ready to help them in more ways than one. We’re here to drop a PSA for everyone wanting to trim their Azaleas and wondering if it’s the right time. And if not, when is?

Well it’s very simple to understand and know. You can’t trim them whenever you want, because most azaleas only bloom once a year in the spring, and they reseed in the summer. So this leaves us a short window to trim them in. If you cut them after they’ve reseeded and before they bloom, then you have no pretty flowers that year.

The trick is to watch when they bud, it’s impossible to miss the beautiful flowers, and then a couple months later when the flowers fall off, you have a short opportunity to trim them before they reseed for the next year.

Know before you trim, and don’t cost yourself the beauty of your garden. Cutting Edge can help you with all of your landscaping needs this year. Just give us a call.

Fort Smith Lawn Care | What is the Proper Mowing Height?

We’re only a couple months away from lawn mowing season, and here at Cutting Edge we are already gearing up and signing on new customers. With Spring right around the corner and people looking for Lawn mowing services it’s important to make sure you’re hiring the professional lawn care company who knows what they’re doing, or your lawn could suffer the consequences of inexperience.

One of the most important factors to consider is to make sure your lawn mowing and lawn care service know the proper height to mow your grass. Each type of grass has to be handled and cut differently. Here in the Fort Smith area the three types of grass we see most (aside from yards made of weeds) are Bermuda, Fescue and Zoysia. Zoysia and Fescue are the more picky and fragile types so if you have a yard comprised of one of these, you definitely need to make sure your lawn mowing service is knowledgable.

If you Have Zoysia, here in the very hot weather of Arkansas, we typically need to mow it between around 2-3” but you must make sure that if when you cut it lower, you do it often enough that you’re not cutting off more than 1/3 of the grass height. otherwise you could scalp it and cause unpleasant brown spots.

For Bermuda, the best cutting Height is usually between 1”— if you cut often enough— or as most people do, let it grow to about 3” and cut back to about 2” weekly.

If you have a shady spot in your yard where Bermuda and Zoysia won’t grow, and now you’ve brought in the shade friendly Fescue, you need to mow it around 3.5”-4”.

We hope you find these articles helpful and informative, and don’t forget, the best way to take care of your lawn is to hire a professional. So call Cutting Edge and let us handle your lawn care and landscaping!

Fort Smith Lawn Care | How Often Should Grass be Mowed?

Usually when someone calls Cutting Edge Lawn Care to inquire about lawn mowing quotes, one of the questions they ask is: “how often do you mow?” and the answer is that we will mow the lawn as often or as little as the customer requests, because it’s their yard and we do what the customer wants. But how often is grass actually supposed to be mowed?

When it comes to lawn mowing schedules it depends on the grass, because all grasses grow at different speeds. Bermuda is a very common and popular grass, and it grows very fast and steady as long as it has plenty of water and sunshine. In the summer, usually it needs to be mowed at least every week if not more (we’ll come back to that) Zoysia is also a common grass around here, it is very lush and thick but is slower growing. A good healthy Zoysia yard, with plenty of water and sunlight can be mowed as often as every week, and sometimes as little as once a month. It depends on where you live and how often you treat it, and how much water it gets.

The general rule of thumb for the health of the grass, whatever the grass, is that you mow as often as needed where you’re only cutting off about a third of the height of the grass. For Zoysia, this can be every week or every two weeks, or sometimes once a month. For Bermuda, it technically needs to be mowed twice a week in the summer.

Few people have this much time to contribute to the yard and mow it as often as it needs. But if you call Cutting Edge Lawn Care we can set you up on a lawn mowing schedule that is as often as you need it, or as often as you want it. It’s your choice, and we’re happy to oblige! Call us for all your lawn mowing and lawn care needs, whether in Fort Smith or the surrounding area.

Fort Smith Lawn Care | Why is Spring Cleaning Important?

Here at Cutting Edge, we believe spring cleaning is crucial and a must for well maintained lawn and landscaping. We know as well as anybody how anxiously we await that grass to turn green so we can have a beautifully manicured lawn again. But if before the grass turns green and lawn mowing season starts you have to prep your property with a proper thorough spring cleaning!

First of all, your property will look ugly and messy if you don’t, but it’s also important for the health and vitality of the your shrubs and grasses. There’s usually left over leaves that fell after the leaf season that got neglected, or leaves that were blown or swept up under the bushes and caught up in the monkey grass even during the leaf season. It can be harmful to the shrubs if leaves remain packed in underneath them. Most plants also need a fresh cut and trimming to cut away old dead ends from the previous year, and make way for the new fresh growth. This is why pruning is important, and is the whole concept behind pruning: cut away the unnecessary and unfruitful to free up the wasted resources for the healthy and fruitful growth.

Spring cleaning can be a daunting task with so much mess and so many different plants needing different types of care. It definitely gets procrastinated by most, but there’s no need. We can do it fast and the right way for the right price. We love spring cleaning and would be happy to do yours before lawn mowing season starts and everyone gets too busy. Contact us for your free estimate.

Fort Smith Lawn Care | When Should you Trim Monkey Grass?

While Cutting Edge loves and specializes in Lawn Mowing, we still love and have the know how to care for all your lawn care and landscaping needs, and we’re here to answer your questions! One of the questions we get the most is “when should I trim my monkey grass?”

Most people think you can trim monkey grass whenever you want, because “you can’t kill monkey grass.” While most monkey grass is almost impossible to actually kill, it is possible to mess up how they look and grow for a season. Particularly the really popular ones such as liriope and variegated liriope. You can trim them any time of year and they will continue to grow, but these grasses are supposed to grow to a point on the ends. These ends form when the grass first starts to grow at the beginning of the season, if you cut them out of season, they will continue to get longer, but you’ve cut the tips off, and you will have flat tipped monkey grass; it is a bit bizarre looking.

The proper time to trim these grasses, is in between growth periods. Obviously when the grass is totally brown, it is in between growth periods, however at that point your landscaping looks neglected and messy. When the fall and winter come, and you see the tips of the grass start to turn brown, it is starting to die, and it is safe to trim, without hindering it’s proper shape for the next season.

This may all seem complicated and annoying to keep track of. The good news is, we love it! Call Cutting Edge for all your lawn care and landscaping needs!

Fort Smith Lawn Care | Do you have to bag leaves?

When it comes to the curb appeal of your house, nothing makes your yard look plain messy like leaves, so one way or another leaf removal is a must if you want your yard to look nice and clean. But what is the best way to get rid of them? Is it cleaner to bag leaves? is it better to bag leaves? Well in our experience, no. Our favorite technique, both for ease, and best cleanest results, is to mulch the leaves with a good old fashioned lawn mowing. Granted our lawn mower isn’t your average one to use. When we come to do a leaf removal we bring state of the art mulching mowers that make it look as if the leaves were never there.

But what about the health of the yard? Well it’s still good for the yard to mulch leaves, they are a natural, God given fertilizer and lawn nutrient; but as is the rule in all of life: everything in moderation. so while it is easy and clean and healthy to mulch the leaves right back in to the yard, there can be too many leaves that smother the grass. But this requires a LOT of leaves. Now sometimes if you have zoysia, which is a very picky peculiar grass, it is best to bag, because any sort of gathering debris and thatch can potentially hinder growth.

So you’re faced with a problem, bagging leaves with an old fashioned rake and lawn bags is not thorough, it is exhausting, time consuming, and downright tedious, not to mention it just doesn’t get all the leaves. Well the best and easiest solution is to call us! We can bag and make it look clean and quick, because lucky for you, we have the equipment, the time, and know how to make this happen!