When most people think about landscape maintenance, what they think about is mowing their lawns. That’s why lots of folks, in and out of HOAs, don’t want to invest in a quality landscaping partner.
And hey, common wisdom being what it is, we don’t blame them in the slightest! But the truth is that quality landscape maintenance in Kansas City is far more involved than just revving up a mower and pacing your property for an hour every other Saturday.
That’s why—since so many homeowners have been asking about steps they can take to keep their lawns looking just right—we thought it was a great opportunity to deep dive into the subject of landscape maintenance.
So, the Lifestyle Outdoor team whipped out this guide. It provides expert tips and tricks for how you can best go about maintaining the health and appearance of your property—with or without the support of a landscaping company in the area.
Mission-Critical Tips for Landscape Maintenance in Kansas City
You can do a lot to set your properties up for success through regular landscape maintenance in Kansas City. While that’s true of HOAs, these tips are also great for individual homeowners!
Many of the people we work with come to us looking for a “surefire, bullet-point strategy for perfect lawns year round.” First, you need to know that a healthy, well-cared-for lawn won’t look perfect year-round. And you should take it with a grain of salt if anyone says they can help you achieve that.
The reality is that lawn care will vary from property to property and requires a deft hand and a detail-oriented approach. That’s because all the early-care steps we normally recommend are beneficial in slightly different ways. That’s why it’s important to collaborate with a team that can give you the customized care you deserve.
But no matter whether you’re a DIY Dynamo or scratching your head when you hear the word aeration, we’ve got guidance to support your property. Here are all our best tips on how to care for your lawn and how to get the most out of your landscaping.
Mow Regularly
Mowing grass accomplishes more than just keeping your lawn neat: it also keeps it healthy. You won’t have to cut your grass as often during the dormant season as you do during the active growing season, but this timing varies by the type of grass in your lawn. Keeping your grass at an optimal height and ensuring you don’t remove too much at once are the keys to maintaining a healthy, green lawn.
Here are a few lawn mowing tips for anyone looking to improve their lawn maintenance routine:
When to Mow
Grass needs mowing most during the growing season. For warm-season grasses, this is the summer; cool-season grasses grow in the spring and fall instead. Leave the grass clippings on the lawn—as long as they’re not wet and heavy—to fertilize your lawn.
Frequency of Mowing
The best (but least appealing) answer is that the grass growth rate and desired lawn height will determine how often you need to mow. Mowing once a week during the growing season should suffice to keep your lawn healthy. The rest of the time, you can reduce the cutting frequency to every other week, as necessary.
One-Third Rule
If you’ve not mowed your lawn in a little while and it becomes overgrown, it can be tempting to hack away at an overgrown lawn. However, removing most of the length of grass blades in one session not can but will stress the grass.
That’s why, when you mow your lawn, make sure to only remove one-third of the grass blades’ height at a time. If you need to cut more than this, mow your lawn more regularly until it is at the height you’re looking for. As much as possible, we encourage you not to cut more than that.
Why is that? Well, when blades of grass are cut down by more than one-third of their height, it can fundamentally impact the process of grass getting the proper nutrients it needs to stay lush and attractive looking. Cutting too much grass at once steals the grass’s food-producing parts, which starves the lawn and turns it brown. Small-dose mowing keeps grass healthy and your yard looking its best.
Invest in Pre-Emergent Treatments
If you’re looking to prevent weed growth and keep your HOA properties looking uniform and healthy but not overgrown, pre-emergent herbicides can be a great way to nip your weed problem in the bud. They work by interrupting germinated seeds’ growth process, preventing the plant from sprouting as usual.
It’s important to apply pre-emergent early, as they’re ineffective at dealing with weeds that have already sprouted, set roots, and begun to grow. However, it’s important to plan where and when you will pre-emergent, as it doesn’t discriminate between plants you want to grow and plants you don’t.
So, taking steps to spray pre-emergent in strategic locations is a fantastic idea. Especially if you’re looking for lawn maintenance “near me” but would rather take a DIY approach. That way, you can target where weeds are likely to grow on your properties but avoid the beds and landscaping features you want to bloom.
Start Watering & Install Irrigation
As the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers. Those showers, however, can frequently impact yard growth in ways you don’t expect (and then need to pay to fix). That’s why early spring is an ideal time to start irrigation maintenance.
It’s not just a matter of turning sprinklers on or off. It means setting your property up for success all year long. Though if you’re an HOA or a conscientious homeowner, it can include winterization services, sure, it’s also about lawn care and water management.
You should consider installing drainage systems, monitoring for leaks, clearing pathways for water flow, preventing pipe buildup, caring for potted plants, and taking steps to do these things budget-consciously.
At Lifestyle Outdoor, we’ll help you turn sprinklers back on, of course, but we also focus on the little details for you. We situate any property drainage system to ensure a negative slope away from buildings. This prevents water damage and foundation cracking.
Likewise, we monitor the earth quality of your property so you can minimize damage from swampy topsoil after heavy rainfall.
Click here to learn more about Irrigation Maintenance in Kansas City→
This can go a long way to save you money, optimize your landscaping features and HOA common spaces, and keep your homeowners’ yards looking the best they can.
Check for the Quality of Light
Different types of turf grass need different amounts of sunlight for optimal growth, but all require a minimum amount of light to grow. The goal should be to get your lawns at least six hours of sunlight each day, with most landscaping tolerating about 20% filter from trees.
Your property’s sunlight-to-shade ratio will differ from anyone else’s, with the discrepancy based on your home’s environment and landscaping. Some front yards are heavily shaded even though their backyards are in full sunlight. As long as your species of planted grass is adaptable to shade and receives enough sunlight, growing a healthy lawn in the shade shouldn’t present a major problem.
But for lawns that don’t get enough sunlight, the results can be rough: long, thin leaf blades with spindly stems bending toward the sunlight and depleting their carb reserves. That’s a one-way ticket to your lawn’s strength giving out and its health declining.
Sometimes, shade conditions can change over the years as trees grow and create more and more shade. This increase in shade is often so gradual that it goes unnoticed. But eventually, your turf grass will lose its luster as it receives less and less sun.
A quick fix for this is shade-loving ground covers and perennial plants with a high tolerance for heavy shade conditions. If you live in a climate that can support both varieties of grasses, renovation is possible in certain areas, as cool-season grasses are much more tolerant of shade than warm-season turf grasses.
Get Fertilizing
Though its benefits aren’t instantly obvious, fertilizer is an excellent investment in your yard’s long-term health and appearance. That’s why landscape maintenance with fertilizer is the best way to see benefits all year long.
So, what does fertilizer do for you? Well, that’s a long list. First and foremost, it helps with plant growth. Fertilizer promotes vibrant plant growth by providing additional nutrients and minerals necessary for healthy, stunning plans. Additionally, it prevents uneven growth. Every property manager knows the frustration of walking past certain lawns; some spots are green and vibrant, while others are sparse and uneven. Fertilizer spreads nutrients around, making robust growth even and lush across the laid area.
We recognize a lot of this isn’t new information to most property managers. However, what you may not know is that fertilizer is also excellent for the overall health of your yard. It’s an incredible tool for preventing disease in your landscape features and grass, protecting soil from erosion and nutrient depletion, and minimizing weed growth.
So, if you’re looking for lasting lawn care improvements, start laying fertilizer ASAP!
Quality Lawn Care with Lifestyle Outdoor
For many folks in the KC area, that’s a bunch of work they either don’t have time for or simply don’t want to do. And trust us; we understand both. But that’s where we can give you the help you need!
Lifestyle Outdoor brings decades of experience in HOA-focused landscaping and lawn care to the Kansas City community. We have been around long enough to know how to do HOAs and maintenance-provided communities correctly.
At Lifestyle Outdoor, we don’t disappear just because it’s getting colder. We understand taking care of your yards is a year-long effort. Without proper winter care, you simply can’t protect the value and beauty of your property.
There are several things we do to prepare your HOA community for winter. From knowing the right fertilizers to spread before winter to monitoring your lawns and protecting your valuable landscaping features from the cold, Lifestyle Outdoor is an expert in all things landscape maintenance in Kansas City.
Our Landscape Maintenance Bonafides
As Johnson County’s premier HOA landscaping service, we are prepared to meet any community or household’s lawn care and maintenance needs. Though we specialize in HOAs, our expertise is property agnostic—we’ve serviced everyone from individual homeowners and HOAs to businesses and commercial complexes. In short, if you need landscape maintenance in Kansas City, we’re the team to do it.
If you need support with landscape maintenance in Kansas City, we’re the team for the job. And that’s why we have so much experience educating homeowners on ways to enhance their lawn care strategies.
We perform the following services for properties across Johnson County:
- Lawn maintenance
- Pruning
- Aeration and seeding
- Mulching
- Seasonal cleanup
- Turf maintenance
- Arborcare
- & More!
Early Spring Landscape Maintenance Near you
A sizable part of that “and more” is support for seasonal landscape maintenance. In Kansas City, we experience lots of season extremes. This makes taking the smaller steps to get all your care done quickly and correctly critical to your property’s health and appearance.
We work with clients during & before springtime to find possible areas for care and attention. These services include:
- Irrigation Maintenance
- Leaf Removal
- Pest Pre-Treatments
- Fertilizer application
- Repotting Plants for warmer weather
We ensure your HOA receives comprehensive service, with no details forgotten and no boxes left unchecked.
If you want to learn more about annual care for your KC property, check out resources like Johnson County’s Lawn Care Seasonal Guide. We also have our guide to early spring lawn care in Kansas City. We also provide support to DIY-minded homeowners!
DIY Done Right: Lawn Maintenance Near Me
Lifestyle Outdoor Can Help
If you’re in the market for landscape maintenance in Kansas City, there is no better team. Lifestyle Outdoor offers complete landscaping maintenance services for your property’s needs year-round. We have decades of experience serving HOAs and private properties and a track record of complete client satisfaction.
Lifestyle Outdoor provides all Johnson County HOAs with unbeatable service through our HOA-focused landscaping and lawn care solutions. Our years of experience, commitment to building relationships, and dependable quality are why we’re the number one partner in all things HOA property maintenance.
Reach out to learn more about the early spring lawn care services we provide or get a quote with our online quote tool. Discover the difference that THE white-glove service with a green thumb can make for your property today!