COLD WET WEATHER COMPLICATES MOWING

Spring is near but we have had more winterlike weather the past 2 weeks. We have spent the past week on winter storm watch and snow has been in the air several days. Despite the current El Nino pattern, this late winter has been colder and wetter than normal. January had 183% of normal precipitation and February had 132% of normal.   Not good for mowing as cold wet soil is soft making avoiding mower wheel ruts difficult. Lawns are getting shaggy but mowing has been almost impossible. We are monitoring and will work around weather to mow when we can but this is sizing up to be a very difficult start to the mowing season as it was last year.  

And the forecast for the coming weeks look to continue cold to start and wet to finish making the ease of mowing difficult. We will work to be strategic, mowing on dry days and avoiding on wet ones. We will likely start with smaller lawns where we mow with hand mowers and avoid large lawns where larger equipment might cause damage. Mowing during rain is not necessarily a problem, it is the wet soil that continued rain and cold weather creates. We need several dry days to dry out and firm up the soil below.  Unfortunately, it’s quite cold this week making it complicated and as it starts to dry out, it looks like heavy rain begins at the end of the week. We will mow when we can safely without causing damage.