Rampart Landscape and Arbor Service

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© Copyright 2007 - 2009
Rampart Landscape
and Arbor Service
P.O. Box 343
Castle Rock, CO 80104
Phone: 1.303.681.2085
info@rampartlandscape.com

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Looking for a professional lawn service? We currently maintain approximately 120 lawns in Castle Pines Village. Our two full-time mowing crews will set up a schedule to fit your needs, whether that is a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly mowing service. We also offer lawn aerating, power raking, and fertilizing. We use a premium, organic-based lawn fertilizer to keep your lawn healthy and green all summer long. If weeds are a problem we offer the services of a licensed sub-contractor to eliminate them safely and effectively. Our mowing crews are experienced, careful, and courteous.

Joshua O´Connell is our lawn care manager . Joshua was born and raised in Iowa. He moved to Colorado in 1999 and shortly thereafter began working on a lawn mowing crew with Rampart. Joshua is now in his 11th season with Rampart and has been managing the mow crews for the last six seasons. If you have some questions or concerns about your lawn care, please give us a call and Josh would be happy to meet with you personally. Outside of work Josh loves spending time with his wife Angela and their new baby son, Cash.

Some thoughts on lawns and lawn care in Colorado

The Front Range of Colorado is considered a semi-arid environment. We don´t get a lot of rain, and we can have brutally hot summer days followed by weeks of bone drying weather in the winter. As such it is a very hostile natural environment for lawns. Although the original prairie here was covered in grasses, very few of those are suitable for lawn use. It is just a tough place for turf grasses to grow. The problem is compounded when you add in the poor soil around many homes and until recently a lack of grass varieties better suited for this environment.

The sad fact is most new homes are surrounded by compacted fill dirt with very little in the way of anything remotely considered soil. You therefor have an environment resembling something like trying to grow grass on concrete. It can be done, but at great expense of water, fertilizer, and eventually your wallet.

What you want is a nice, deep, loose, heavily amended soil bed under your lawn. I would estimate 95% of the lawns in Castle Rock are deficient in this category. This allows the roots to grow deep, which is want you want. Deep healthy roots equals a nice, full, drought resistant lawn on top. It is like potting a house plant in potting soil or dirt from out back. Same with turf. Spreading on a little compost and rototilling it into the top couple inches won't really help, either. You really want deeply prepped soil, at least a foot if possible.

Just as important as prepping your soil is growing the right type of grass. There has been a lot of developing going on in this area. The days of putting down 100% bluegrass sod is, thankfully, ending. More and more types of grasses are being incorporated into turf, including several different strains of rye and fescues. What we want is a mix that will grow strong and healthy with minimal water.

As Douglas County continues to grow water use will continue to become a bigger issue. Costs will likely keep going up. Here at Rampart we are committed to promoting water-wise use for a healthy, attractive landscape. It is possible to have a beautiful lawn while remaining water use conscious. We would like to help you with yours.

Aerating

Aerating is the process of mechanically pulling verical "plugs" from the turf at regularly spaced intervals (usually about every 4"- 6"). The benefits of aerating include opening up the turf to allow air, water, and ferilizer to more easily reach the root system. Aerating also helps break down the thatch layer, which is the layer of dead, matted turf found between the root crown and the grass blades. Regular aerating has been found to be very beneficial to a healthy lawn.

When to aerate

Spring and fall are the best times to aerate. This is when the grass is most actively growing. Aerating should be avoided during the heat of the summer, when most turf grasses are close to dormant. We like to aerate in May and late September in this climate.

Power-raking

Power-raking is the process of mechanically removing thatch from turf with a device that resemble a verticle slicer. It normally is used on heavily thatched lawns, where the turf is suffering from a lack of nutrients due to the heavy thatch. Power-raking can give very dramatic results, often producing a beautiful turf where aerating alone was not sufficient. We do believe that power-raking should only be used on established lawns showing signs of heavy thatch, and not be repeated more than every other season.

When to power-rake

Springtime, just as the turf is beginning to grow, is the ideal time to power-rake. Too early and the lawn will not recover quickly, inviting weeds to get established. Too late and the turf gets too thick with new growth, making the results less than optimal. As with aerating, lawns should never be power-raked during the hot summer months.

Other ways to a healthy lawn

Use an organic based fertilizer. Organics help encourage the development of beneficial micro-organisms in the soil and thatch layers.
Water in the early morning hours. Watering before sunrise allows the water to soak in before the sun causes too rapid evaporation, without allowing the grass to stay wet long enough for pathogens to develop.
Don´t cut too short! Remember, root length (and depth) will be related to how long the grass is on top. 2 1/2" - 3" is an optimal height. We have found that shortening the height slightly in the fall will help reduce the amount of vole damge during the winter.

"Revive and your Lawn"

Revive is a natural organic soil treatment used as a supplement to regular fertilizing. We have been using and recommending Revive as a great product to help in the health and drought recovery of our clients´ lawns and trees. We have seen definite improvements in the color, health and fullness of turf after combining Revive with our organic-based fetilizers. We have also noticed an increased drought tolerance in the turf, which translates into less water required for a healthy, green lawn, which means a lower water bill. We feel Revive is a very cost efficient, valuable, proven product. For more information check out their web-site at http://revive.com. We are happy to apply Revive for you upon request.