Down To Earth has a few more openings for lawn care here in Maine for the 2010 mowing season. If you would be interested in a free lawn care estimate, give us a call today at (207) 739-9022.

Also check out our services page to see a complete list of our services.

Its a great time of the year here in Maine to start planning your lawn renovation project, whether your looking to do a complete lawn renovation or would like to patch an area due to heavy traffic, moss growing in or your having other with your lawn, we would like to help.

We can provide you with a detailed estimate that is customized for your lawn and go over every detail in full and do our best to work within your budget, from observing your lawn, providing you with a soil test to see what is going on with your soil, core aeration, fertilizing, overseeding, compost/ loam covering, as well as a watering program.

Once your lawn is growing and ready for mowing, we can also help with keeping it growing naturally with natural/ organic applications, as well  providing you an estimate for lawn care for your home.

Down To Earth would like to be your lawn care provider here in Maine and with spring just around the corner we are offering an Early Bird Special for all NEW customers that sign up for lawn care services with Down To Earth for the 2010 season.

Whether residential or commercial, if you mention that you see this ad here on our web-site and sign up before April 15th, 2010 we will give you a 10% discount on your first month of lawn care service with us our way to say Thank You for choosing Down To Earth to be your lawn care provider.

We would also like to extend this offer to those who need a reliable lawn care business to preform a spring cleanup on there property, call or email today to schedule a FREE estimate and sign up before April 15th to receive 10% off your total cleanup bill. Remember to mention that you saw our ad here on our web-site

Down To Earth is currently scheduling for NEW clients for lawn care in Maine as well as spring cleanups, landscape maintenance, weeding, gutter cleaning, pressure washing (houses, decks, driveways) and more. Whether residential or commercial, we can meet your needs. Give us a call today to set-up an appointment for a FREE estimate via our contacts page or you can give Brian a call at (207)-739-9022.

Down To Earth is anxiously awaiting the start of the 2010 lawn care and landscape maintenance season. Although we still have a ways to go before spring hits here in Maine, we only have about 29 more days before bidding starts on commercial lawn care and landscape maintenance properties.

Down To Earth is also accepting new residential lawn care customers as well for the upcoming 2010 season, we proudly serve the following areas:

Norway, Paris, Oxford, Auburn, Windham , Westbrook, Portland and surrounding areas.

If your looking for a new lawn care provider to take care of your lawn care needs, you can give us call at (207)-739-9022 or you can email me: brian@dtelawncare.com to set up an appointment for a FREE estimate.

We offer a wide range of lawn care services and we look ford to serving you in the future.

Here at Down To Earth we are gearing up for the upcoming spring season, although its a few months away here in Maine, we are going over the equipment so when the time comes we won’t have mess around with it. We have been sharpening the mower blades, changing out the oils and spark plugs, as well as the air and oil filters.
I have been working on finishing up the year end paperwork as well as preparing next seasons documents, updating clients information and setting up the lawn and landscape maintenance marketing programs with the emphasis on Organic Lawn Care. I have been out talking to other contractors, realtors and other property maintenance providers, setting up a circle of networking partners in my local area.
While doing all this, I still have the snow plowing season just getting underway here as well, these customers will be my priority during the storm days and in between I will be working on my commercial property bids for property maintenance for the 2010 season. I have started on some of these already. I will be submitting 300 plus bids within a 30 mile radius, the outcome will determine my route for the season.
I am still receiving call and emails from asset companies for doing foreclosure properties, but I am holding back a little as I just had a big ad go out in the local paper mainly for snow plowing and snow removal, but will be doing some light carpentry, so I will see where it all leads and go from there.

Proper Mowing Part 1

Knowing your grass

Mowing a lawn is simple enough, but so is getting it wrong and a bad job of mowing a lawn can be worse than not, so lets take some time to break things down and go over some lawn care essentials for attaining a better lawn.
If your like most folks you run your lawn mower or garden tractor over the lawn once a week, but during the long, dry days of summer, when your lawn gets to looking ragged and worn, you may cut the grass a little shorter. Maybe your going on vacation for a week or two and you cut the grass as short as you can, hoping that the grass won’t grow all that tall before you return from your trip.

We need to look at our lawn differently and mow the grass because it is long and not because we have a day set aside or we are going off for a couple weeks. When we cut the grass, we should not cut anymore than one-quarter to one-third of the leaves.

Knowing what type of grass you have will go along way in getting the cut height right, there are both Low-cut and High-cut grasses and I will post a chart for the common grasses as well as there mowing heights.

Low-cut grasses do not have enough leaf mass to thrive, so when we cut more than a third of the blade off, we remove the tissues the grass uses in order to produce food to fuel its root growth. When root growth suffers, so does the plant, you see the grass is left without enough water and nutrients to thrive and can become vulnerable to drought and disease.

High-cut grasses on the other hand will have more leaves and a deeper root system. With a deeper root system, it can draw in more water and nutrients from the soil – nutrients that will make the plant vigorous, as well as helping it out-compete when the weeds try to sneak into the lawn. So during the dry season the deeper roots (up to 8” deep) will be vital to getting the nutrients and water that the plant needs to survive, resulting in a stronger plant the is resistant to both drought and disease.

Taller grass creates its own shade, but it also works the other way as well, you see to much shade can stunt or even kill the grass plant, the shade that the plant produces is important to the grass plants survival.
Cutting the grass at the proper height allows the plant to provide enough shade to protect the plants crown and roots from overheating from the sun; protecting the roots helps the plant conserve water. Shorter cut grass will have no protection, resulting in a sunburned lawn, killing the grass, especially in hot weather.

Grass Height: How tall is to tall?

In Theory, each variety grows best when cut at the proper mowing height, so setting your lawn mower should be based on the type of grass in your lawn.
In Practice, the grass in your lawn was planted years ago by someone else and few people have little idea what they are cutting. A general rule of thumb, although its not perfect, it does come close to what one should do: cut warm weather grasses (suited for the South) 2-2 ½ inches tall, this is the height at which they grow best.
Cool season grasses (suited for the North) will grow better when cut a little longer, keeping them at 3-3 ½ inches tall.

Again once you know the type and proper height for your grass, always remember to cut no more than one-quarter to one-third of its height. Cutting more than this stresses the grass and will leave a thick coating of clippings, which can and will smother your lawn.
Properly mowing your lawn following this simple guideline (one-quarter to one-third) and you can let the clippings compost back into the soil, acting as a natural fertilizer.

Please Note: If you live in an area that is prone to grass disease, bagging the clippings can help prevent problems.

Mowing height for different grasses

Grass                                                Optimum Height                           Mowing Height
Bluegrass                                                  2 inches                                         3 inches
Perennial Ryegrass                                   2 inches                                         3 inches
Tall Fescue                                               2 inches                                         3 inches
Fine Fescue                                              2 inches                                         3 inches
St. Augustinegrass                                   2 inches                                         3 inches
Buffalograss                                            2 inches                                          3 inches
Bermudagrass                                         1 ¼ inches                                       2 ¼ inches
Zoysiagrass                                             1 ¼ inches                                       2 ¼ inches

Down To Earth is offering a new service, Security Inspections (Interior/ Exterior) for the area snowbirds, those on vacation and those living out of state.

This service will consist of a visual inspection of either or both the exterior/ interior of the clients property. We will check windows, doors, locks, oil tanks, pumps, furnaces and drains.

A report will be sent out on a monthly basis and if any damage is discovered, pictures will be sent out at no additional cost.

We will be working with the area Police Department to better serve our customers so they won’t have to worry.

This service can be combined with our lawn care and snow removal services.

In my last post I touched on some basic things that you could do on how you can get started with a basic organic lawn care program.
In this post I will talk a little more in depth about step #1 in starting an organic lawn care program that you can could do or hire a lawn care provider to do for you.
If choose to take on the task yourself, there are many programs and products out there and I would suggest that you do some research before diving right in to it. There are a lot of great books at your local library and loads of good information on the web regarding the subject of organic lawn care.
Where to start? If your lawn has a lot of weeds and such or simply won’t do much of anything else, but grow these types of things, I would suggest on having your soil tested first and foremost. Depending on the results on your soil test, you may or may not have to adjust the ph levels in your soil.
You can get a soil testing kit online or from a store that sells fertilizers. There are various types of testers such as paper test strips, liquid test kits and digital meters.
The recommended ph level should be around ph6.5-7 for good plant growth, the condition of your soil is key for your organic lawn care programs success.
The soil should be alive with a variety of microorganisms and bugs, your lawn will benefit from these microbes, as they will both feed and protect the plants from disease causing microbes.
This will be covered in step #2 of organic lawn care, Preparing the Soil.