Fall Lawn Renovation in Johnson County and Surrounding Areas

It is best if the lawn is mowed short and bagged before the crew arrives.

If you are a regular mowing customer, we will take care of this for you with an additional charge of 1.5 times your normal mowing price. The additional cost helps cover the extra time spent to bag the lawn. We will skip mowing the week after the lawn renovation, therefore providing an overall cost savings for two weeks of mowing.
If you mow yourself, please mow the lawn 2 notches shorter than usual and bag the clippings. Please mow 1-2 days before your renovation is scheduled.

The shorter the lawn is at the time of the fall lawn renovation, the higher the percentage of seed to soil contact, which is crucial for the best results. Additionally, mowing short prior to seeding, allows us to refrain from mowing for a longer period of time, giving the seed more time to germinate.

If you have an irrigation system or underground pet fence, they will need to be marked with flags.

If you have an irrigation system, a Mears irrigation technician will mark the heads before the fall lawn renovation team’s arrival and adjust your controller in preparation for watering for seed (if applicable). We will reach out to coordinate a time to gain access to your sprinkler controller.

It is the responsibility of the homeowner to mark pet fences or other underground wiring.

We will arrive on the scheduled day of the renovation and perform the work outlined in the approved estimate.
This step may include aerating, verticutting/power raking, seeding and a starter fertilizer. Your most important responsibility that day is to begin to water the new seed!

If you do not have an irrigation system, we recommend setting up watering timers. This really helps take the burden off of you needing to water multiple times a day and increases seed success by providing consistent watering. Small, frequent amounts of water to keep the seed “moist” should be the goal.

Here is one we recommend: The Orbit 5891 or Orbit 62061Z from Amazon.

It is hard to achieve 100% coverage with these “Hose Spigot Timers,” but anything is better than nothing.

The lawn should not be mowed for 10 to 14 days (or longer) to allow the seed to germinate. The longer you can wait to mow, the better the results.

If you are a Mears mowing customer we will automatically skip the following week’s mowing. As outlined in the estimate, the first mow after the renovation is charged at 1.5 times your regular mowing cost. This covers the additional time it takes to mow the lawn short & bag before the renovation, as well as mowing after the skipped week.

Aerating: Have you ever walked by a lawn and seen little “plugs” of soil scattered across the grass? Those plugs are the result of aerating.

• Aeration is the process of removing plugs of soil in order to break up soil compaction, allowing oxygen and water to get down to the root zone.
  Aerating a lawn is key to stimulating root growth and encourages the penetration of air, water, and nutrients into the soil.

Verticutting: Imagine a mower blade that is turned on its side. It makes grooves in the ground.

• Verticutting is the process of removing and preventing thatch buildup in the lawn, allowing the turf to breathe better.
• It allows the grass to absorb nutrients and moisture more efficiently. It does this by ensuring all the moisture is absorbed by the fresh, young blades of grass instead of the thatch.

For customers who follow the above instructions, we see excellent results for the lawns and seed germination. Since there are so many factors we cannot control associated with seed germination (weather, water, etc.), we cannot replace seed that does not germinate for free. We will do everything we possibly can to ensure the success of your seed!

Be sure to water! If the lawn was seeded, it is crucial to water the seed for the next few weeks while it gets established. If the lawn was not seeded, there is no further action required.

• We recommend the new seed is watered so it stays moist. If there is an irrigation system, we will be happy to help you set it up properly for watering the new seed.
• We typically set the timer to water 3 to 5 minutes in each zone, 3 times a day, every day, we recommend 8:00am, 12:00pm & 3:00pm. The exception to this would be for your set mowing day and the day before. This will allow the lawn time to dry before the mowing crew arrives. We recommend following this schedule for 4 weeks. Please refer to the below image for an example.
• This example would be if your mowing day was on Monday:
  • Sunday – no water
  • Monday – Mowing day/no water
  • Tuesday – Water 3x’s day
  • Wednesday – Water 3x’s day
  • Thursday – Water 3x’s day
  • Friday – Water 3x’s day
  • Saturday – Water 3x’s day
• Watering times can differ from system to system depending on the water pressure and coverage, as well as the type of heads you have.
• We suggest Spray Heads run about 3 minutes per zone. We suggest Rotor Heads run about 5 minutes per zone
• If you have MP Rotators (or other High Efficiency heads), then we suggest 7 minutes per zone, as they put out less water per minute.
  If you do not have an irrigation system, we suggest you water to the best of your ability. Anything is better than nothing!
  After you have followed the watering guidelines for 4 weeks, the irrigation can be cut back to once a day 3 or 4 days a week. We will send you a reminder email on how to do this when the time comes. Visit our Youtube channel for instructions on changing your irrigation clock back to normal watering.

Here’s a video overview of the process:
Fall Renovation with Mears Lawn & Landscape