Drought conditions are hurting lawns and lawn maintenance/landscaping businesses

The color waves on lawns lately have been a mix of brown and green, and that mix has come from drought conditions.

“When there’s no water, things don’t grow, so it’s severely killing off a lot of this grass in people’s lawns. It will come back over time, especially if they start to water now,” said CEO of CHS Superior Landscaping Cole Sicheneder.

The conditions have caused some toughness on the lawns and with some businesses like CHS Superior Landscaping. “It’s really tough, it slows down business a lot as far as the maintenance portion. It’s a good thing we have the installation stuff because the maintenance portion slows down. A lot of our clients switch to bi-weekly service instead of weekly service because the grass growth is not there.”

Sicheneder shared with WDIO that the installation aspect of their business is also being impacted due to these conditions. “It affects our installation too because we do a bunch of sod which is new grass installation, and it’s all really tough to establish right now. Like these very big jobs are at risk of completely dying off because it’s so hot, and a lot of people don’t understand just how much you need to water your lawn.”

There are two key things to keep in mind when it comes to lawn maintenance and that is water and timing.

“The time that you water is huge. You should be watering earlier in the morning or late at night because it’s less evaporation if the sun is out beating on your sprinkler. A lot more of that water is going to evaporate, and you are going to spend more money on the water you need. “We always recommend our clients, either general twice a week for 45 mins a day because a lawn is supposed to get about an inch and a half of water a week at least in the Minnesota area,” Sicheneder explained.

It’s all about water, water, and more water for those lawns to get all the nourishment they need to grow and bloom beautifully.