Hello,

We happily can report today that the drought, as far as our landscapes are concerned, is over and our properties are on their way back to their norms. Ground temperatures have already dropped, however, so the return to green has been very slow, particularly in lawns with lots of established trees. As we predicted, full recovery will not happen until spring.

This is a great time of year to think again about mowing height. As we have said before, mowing height is as important as hiring us to do your fertilization. This is so important that I am tempted to repeat that sentence again, but instead, let's talk about the exceptions.

Late in the fall and early in the spring, because the grass is growing at a slower rate, it’s ok to break that rule. Last month’s newsletter talked about mulching your leaves into your lawn. If we expect our lawns to compost those leaves, it helps to have the grass clippings also added for nitrogen. (One day we will address composting, but not today.) Since the lawn may only have grown a little bit over a week or two and there are leaves on the ground, just drop the height of your mower one notch and cut. We may do this a couple of times as fall moves into winter, but never less than 2.75 inches.

We can repeat that next spring, raising the height back to normal after a couple of early cuts. If we are cutting your lawn, this is what you will see us do. Looks like the last cuts this year will be in December, but the distance between the cuts could approach three weeks.