Why do we service 39 times per year?
Our 39 visit schedule is based on the growing season and the best maintenance practices for the most common turfgrass in the greater New Orleans area, St. Augustine. For the most vigorous and healthy lawn, St. Augustine should be maintained at a height of 3″-4″, and if the lawn is shady or frequently soggy, a higher cut is better. Our mowers cut on a range from 1 ⅛” to 4″. Based on experience, our standard is 3 ½” inches, but depending on client preference we can also cut at 3″ or 4″. Because of grass’s quick growth in the spring and summertime (April through October), we service lawns weekly. In March, November, and December, we’ll visit biweekly as the grass is growing more slowly, and in January and February when St. Augustine is dormant, crews service every four weeks. In the wintertime we cut grass at the same height as usual. We only offer service on this schedule. Decreasing the frequency of cuts means that we would need to cut a greater percentage of the sod’s foliage at a time. Cutting more than ⅓ of the sod’s growth at one time can lead to decreased vigor and lessen the sod’s pest resistance. It can also lead to patches of brown, “burned” or “scorched” grass.
Maintaining grass at a greater height increases durability. We don’t cut St. Augustine at heights less than 3″. Mowing at lower heights requires more frequent fertilization to keep grass healthy, and overall it reduces the chances that the grass will be strong, happy, and pretty.
Cutting at 3 ½” and on our 39 visit schedule allows our crews to mulch the grass. Mulching rather than bagging the grass returns nutrients to the soil, and in turn reduces the need for chemical fertilization. Our mowers have four blades to better mulch clippings. But if the grass is maintained less frequently, it may not be possible to mulch since heavier layers of grass clippings can lead to the accumulation of thatch. We can always bag the grass if that’s preferable. When leaves are falling, our crews will need to bag the grass to collect the leaves. There is a minimum $5 fee for bagging grass.
Our garden bed maintenance schedule is also 39 visits per year. Prices are based on the average time it will take to service the property across those 39 visits at our hourly rate. Visits might be shorter than your quoted time in the winter when there’s not much new growth and not many weeds. In the spring when everything is growing like crazy, they may be longer than the quoted time. Our goal is to make garden beds perfect, and sometimes this means there won’t be much to do in the beds on a visit, but it all averages out in the end.
We’re also happy to provide any extra services needed during our regular maintenance visits. In some cases, as in lawn weed-and-feed treatments, we might send you an estimate for services during the proper time of year. More frequently, these services are performed by client request. There’s a list of our services on our website, but our office is open for questions from 8 AM to 5 PM. If something needs done, let us know. If it’s within our range of work, we’ll send out an estimate. Clients can also request pesticide treatments for trees or shrubs, lawn pest treatments, special fertilizers, and gutter cleanings. We’re happy to accommodate. These services will incur an additional fee as they fall outside the scope of our routine maintenance, and any work that can’t be completed by a maintenance crew, such as tree trimming, will require a minimum charge of one labor hour.
As a maintenance company our goal is to keep lawns in the best shape they can be. We’ve honed our 39 visit schedule with this in mind. The condition of our clients’ grass and garden beds reflects the quality of our work. This schedule helps ensure that our clients, their neighbors and our company are all proud of their grass and garden beds.
