Starting A Lawn Care Business

As with all other gardening services, you need to be careful to specify what services are included for the cost quoted. For instance, you may quote to mow a lawn, intending to provide trimming around trees once a month, whilst the homeowner may expect that service weekly. A lawn mowing service does not have to include garden maintenance, and again any additional services such as that should be specified in your original agreement.

In areas where continual lawn mowing is a seasonal need, a lawn mowing service might make a great combination with another cool season service, such as pruning.

Cutting Grass
A lawn mower is usually the first piece of garden machinery a person buys. There are many different types of grass cutting machines - man-powered or machine-powered, ones you ride on and others you walk behind.

Mowers cut grass one of four different ways:

Scissor Cut cuts by the action of two blades moving across each other like a pair of scissors. It is sometimes used by councils for slashing very long grass but rarely used in the home garden.

Rotary Cut cuts with a sharpened blade rotating horizontally and hitting the grass at a 90-degree angle. This can damage grass, isn't as good on quality lawns, and doesn't cut well in the wet.

Cylinder Mounted Blades cuts by a rotating cylinder containing blades which hit the grass at a 45-degree angle. This provides a much better-quality cut, doesn't tear the grass and will cut better when the grass is wet.

Gangs several mowers (usually rotary or cylinder) mounted side by side to give a wider cut.

When purchasing a mower consider the size of the land, the slope and undulations of the land, quality of the land (stones, clay soil), quality of cut, will mowing be carried out while wet, etc. Not all mowers will do the same job, so it is important that you purchase the right one for your situation.

Power Source
The power source is worth noting as it can indicate the amount of human energy needed to work the mower. Mowers can be powered by:

Manpower (push type)

Electricity

2-stroke motor

4-stroke motor

Power take-off (PTO) from a tractor or similar machine an advantage is that the PTO can be used to power other things also (e.g. rotary hoe).

The cheapest mowers available are push-type cylinder mowers. For a small lawn they can give an excellent cut if you don't mind exercising a bit of muscle occasionally.

Electric mowers are also cheaper than petrol mowers, but it can be dangerous if you run over the power lead. Also, repairs are not usually so straightforward if you develop problems with the engine. Two-stroke petrol mowers are generally cheaper than four-stroke mowers.

Grass Collection
Grass can be either left to lie on the ground or picked up after cutting. The advantages of collecting lawn clippings are:

Grass is not walked inside the house.

It does not blow about and make a mess.

Can be taken away and composted.

It is important to note that the removal process removes nutrients from the turf. These need to be replaced periodically with extra feeding or topdressing.

Leaving the clippings on the lawn has the advantages of:

Will compost back into the soil.

More beneficial on very poor soils (sandy or heavy clay and low in organic content).

Unfortunately, if clippings are always left an oversupply of 'thatch' may occur which can lead to the deterioration and possible death of the lawn.

Width and Speed of Cut
These determine how much ground can be covered. This is important if you have large areas of grass. For ride-on mowers which have a wider cutting area and are fast, you will need to consider the turning circle and manoeuvrability around trees, posts etc. If the ground is uneven, a wide cutting mower's blades may shave the grass resulting in an unsightly lawn. For gang or wide-cutting mowers, a series of 'floating' cylinders are better than one wide slasher.

Every Turf Cultivar is Different 
Every different turf cultivar has a different level of tolerance to adverse environmental effects:

There are certain environmental conditions which are preferred. Many warm climate turf plants, for example, prefer a temperature between 20 and 28 degrees Celsius, a soil which is neither waterlogged nor bone dry, and plenty of light but not so much that it burns the foliage. These plants generally grow best within such a range.

There are however a broader range of environmental conditions which most turf cultivars will tolerate.

Wind, frost, pollution and all other environmental conditions affect all plants in the same way as the examples above. In other words, each species has its preferred, tolerated and intolerable environmental conditions for growth.

This is why good plant selection plays an important role in sports turf management. By choosing varieties that tolerate or prefer the growing conditions that are present, you will greatly reduce the likelihood of plant problems occurring. Alternatively, if you wish to grow other turf species that may not grow as readily in your area for some reason, then you need to modify the growing conditions in some way to better suit those plants.

A key part of being a good turf manager is knowing your environmental conditions, soils, and variations throughout the year; and being able to match the best cultivars with the situation you are in. This "plant knowledge" underpins much of the other work a turf manager does.

There is certainly more to being a good turf manager than just this underpinning plant knowledge though.

You do need to know how to care for the turf, manage resources (staff, equipment, materials, money), and communicate with employers and the people who use the turf. 

Overuse Can Be a Problem Everywhere
Even the best constructed and cared for sports turf can have serious problems if the turf is overused. Turf is a living thing, and too much traffic damages the health, and eventually kills the living plants that make up the turf. Keeping it well fertilised, watered, aerated and free of disease can help counteract overuse; but there will always come a point at which even the best care, will not save turf from deterioration.

Most sports turf areas are used on a seasonal basis, often placing stress on the playing surface during periods of extreme weather. Managers must allocate the use of the playing surface to distribute wear as much as possible. In the case of a racing track, this is a straightforward procedure. After each period of use, the rail is moved to a different area of the track. In the case of bowling greens, the direction of play can be alternated regularly. For specialised playing areas such as cricket wickets and golf tees, where user demand cannot be easily redirected, the turf must be managed more closely.

Wherever possible, rotate demand for playing areas between different areas. Regularly check the playing area and alternate mowing and rolling patterns to spread the wear. If possible, encourage users to avoid damaged areas. For example, where a golfing green has become worn around a particular hole, reposition the hole into an undamaged part of the green. Barriers can also be used to direct pedestrian traffic around areas that are under repair.

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