Irrigating your Northwest Arkansas lawn plays a critical role in its care and growth. Not enough moisture, the property suffers, too much water, it drowns. That’s where a customized irrigation system designed for your landscape from our A Clean Cut Lawn Care team will help keep your property looking beautiful. To discover your options, here are four irrigation systems for a healthy lawn.

Drip Irrigation System

A drip irrigation system sends moisture in drip intervals to your lawn, plants, or both. That process is highly effective because water gets directed right into the plant or turf’s roots. As your landscaper, we are careful to balance the water amounts per drip. Doing this allows us to ensure deep root growth is taking place. 

Sprinkler Irrigation System

A sprinkler irrigation system drops moisture above your plants and lawn. Water gets sent in large droplet form intervals from a timer set to each zone. With this type of watering system, our landscaping team monitors where the water lands. We make adjustments and check each sprinkler head for alignment, leaks, or device and water pipe damage.

Adjustable Irrigation System

An adjustable irrigation system allows for controlling water volume per landscape area. For instance, open-air sections of the lawn need more water due to exposure to the sun. But the covered areas need less moisture from overhead shade coverage. Our team can control what property sections require the most or least amounts of water with this adjustable system.

Smart Irrigation System

A smart irrigation system design is for adjusting landscape watering based on the lawn’s current conditions. The SIS monitors previous rainfall to the yard, evaporation levels, and existing soil conditions of your landscape. The information it receives determines the exact amount of water needed to distribute per landscape section.

Irrigation Services A Clean Cut Lawn Care Provides

A properly installed and monitored irrigation system produces a beautiful landscape. That system will water your landscape and provide the right amount of moisture your property needs. To ensure you’re home or office keeps that curb appeal, consider using our irrigation services. We offer irrigation installation, maintenance, and repairs. You can also expect us to open and inspect your irrigation system in April and when we close it in October.

Need Irrigation System Help?

We can quickly assist you if you’re a homeowner or property manager in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Springdale, and SW Rogers. The Lawn Care & Landscape professionals at “A Clean Cut Lawn Care” can help you select the irrigation system that’s right for your property. Call us today – (479) 856-9800​ or Contact us here.

Did you know that back on November 3, 2015, Fayetteville City Council banned invasive plants with Ordinance #5820, and is still in effect today? In total, there are seventeen species you might have growing on your property that must be removed.

That will include different species of trees, shrubs, and ground cover. According to the City of Fayetteville, they encourage all property owners to identify, remove and replace any invasive plants found around their homes and businesses with native plant alternatives.

What Is An Invasive Plant?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, an invasive species is “a non-native or alien species to the ecosystem. Under consideration and whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.”

Source: Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Here’s An Example Of An Invasive Plant in Fayetteville

In this article, we’re going to use the Bradford Pear as our example. It is an invasive tree with showy white foul-smelling flowers blooming in early Spring. Oval, glossy, dark green alternate leaves with pointed tips turning purplish-red in the Fall and sheds them annually.

Competing for natural resources invades urban and forested areas, shading other native species and inhibiting forest regeneration. Seeds get widely dispersed by birds. To remove it, cut the tree down to the stump and apply appropriate herbicide.

What Is The Native Plant Alternative?

Yellowwood is the Fayetteville-approved native plant alternative to the Bradford Pear. With its open, graceful spreading crown, it flourishes from Spring until the end of Fall. In the Springtime, its hanging panicles of flowers become yellow-brown fruits. In the Fall, the leaf color is yellow-orange.

Yellowwood makes an excellent shade tree. The root system is deep, making transplanting difficult. Still, it allows shade-loving plants to grow underneath it—Showy, fragrant flowers in Spring with beautiful fall color. The smooth gray bark adds winter interest.

What Are The Invasive and Native Plant Alternatives?

The invasive plants listed are the:

• Asian Wisteria / Bamboo / Periwinkle / Bradford Pear / Burning Bush
• Bush Honeysuckle / Chinese Privet / Creeping Euonymus / English Ivy
• Heavenly Bamboo / Japanese Honeysuckle / Kudzu / Mimosa
• Multiflora Rose / Sericea Lespedeza / Shrubby Lespedeza / Tree of Heaven

The native plant alternatives listed are the:

• Asian Wisteria / River Cane / Wild Ginger / Yellowwood / Fragrant Sumac
• Carolina Buckhorn / Blackhaw Viburnum / Carolina Jessamine / Virginia Creeper
• Virginia Sweetspire / Coral Honeysuckle / Fringetree /  Summersweet
• Spider Milkweed / Blue Wild Indigo / Kentucky Coffeetree

Source: Fayetteville Invasive Plants and Native Alternatives Educational Packet

Need Our Help Finding and Removing Invasive Plants?

If you’re a homeowner or property manager in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Springdale, and SW Rogers, we can quickly assist you. The Lawn Care & Landscape professionals at “A Clean Cut Lawn Care” can help you find and remove invasive plants from your property.

Are you ready for your property to be compliant and invasive plant-free? If so, call us at 479-262-0253 or Contact us here.

Thanks to Henry French, a judge, and farmer, he wrote and promoted French Drain systems in his 1859 book about farm drainage. Since then, homeowners and property managers have found this proven water build-up and blockage prevention secret a lifesaver. Here at A Clean Cut Lawn Care, we continue spreading the news about how to keep your home and commercial properties dry and protected from unexpected water damage.

What Is A French Drain System?

A French Drain system is an underground perforated piping system that manages water at the ground level. First, a trench gets dug, and the piping gets laid in the channel. Next, a layer of gravel lines the trench and covers the pipes. Depending on the installation, the gravel can remain exposed, covered with topsoil or sod laid across the rocks.

Any water landing on that section, which would regularly pool up, is now directed away from the area permanently. The moisture begins to seep past the gravel flowing down into the perforated pipe. The drainage system will directly reroute the water away from the home or the build-up area.

What Are The Benefits Of A French Drain System?

Along with diverting water away from a low area on your property, a French Drain system has proven to solve additional foundation problems homeowners face. After installing a deep footing drainage system around your home or commercial building, it captures the moisture and moves it away from the structure’s slab or foundation.

With the drainage system in place, you get flood protection, mold prevention, pest control, and hydrostatic pressure relief. Your building’s walls are no longer subject to bowing, cracking, or creating leak spots. In addition, any potential for moisture seeping into the structure’s concrete slab gets eliminated.

Does Your French Drain System Need Inspecting?

Over time, a French Drain system may shift and become clogged. It could happen when a perforated pipe collapses; existing plumbing is too narrow to handle increasing water demand, overdue maintenance, improper installation requiring repairs, wrong slope calculations, or complete excavation to replace the existing system.

Before moving forward, our A Clean Cut Lawn Care team recommends having your system inspected first and the surrounding grounds surveyed. Whatever the circumstances might be, a thorough drainage system inspection will provide you with its current conditions. Not doing so could become costly without knowing all the details.

Need Our Help Installing A French Drain System?

Do you have standing water in low areas of your property? Our lawn care & landscape professionals at “A Clean Cut Lawn Care” can help you solve your drainage issues. If you’re a homeowner or property manager in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Springdale, and SW Rogers, we can quickly assist you.

Are you ready to permanently remove standing water at your Northwest Arkansas property or landscape? If so, call us at 479-262-0253 or Contact us here.

It’s that time of year again. Tick season! Though it starts in April and ends in October, we need to take extra precautions during the hot summer months. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, those tiny bloodsuckers are highly active and responsible for tick borne diseases. Here are a few lawn care tips when battling that pest.

Professionally Maintained Lawn

It goes without saying when your lawn is professionally maintained and treated; it’s hard for ticks to get into your turf. But, once spring begins, and then our rising summer temperatures peak, the tick population explodes. That means if bitten, we risk getting one of these diseases.

• Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
• Ehrlichiosis
• Tularemia
• Anaplasmosis
• Lyme Disease

We here at A Clean Cut Lawn Care don’t want that to happen to anyone. That’s why we recommend only the most effective ways to keep ticks out of your yard, and that begins with lawn maintenance.

Always Mow and Water

Ticks search for and thrive in long grasses. When your blades are too long, that is an invitation for these unwanted pests to settle in. But as you mow and water your lawn regularly, it naturally becomes less appealing to these invasive insects. When you use an expert lawn care service, our team keeps your yard and landscape on a tight maintenance schedule. Through that process, your grass stays at the proper height and moisture level, making it difficult for ticks.

Natural Tick Controls

What does a tick-free yard look like? It’s a well-groomed and well-maintained landscape. Part of that process is attracting natural tick predators, like birds. To do that, we recommend these highly effective tick controls.

• Natural fertilization
• Soil amendments
• Adequate irrigation

Ticks search for shade and stay away from direct sunlight. Another tick control is to have your trees and shrubs pruned and remove any leaf litter from your yard. If you have woodpiles, stack them neatly and in a dry location because you don’t want tick-carrying rodents on your property.

Using Insecticides

Besides natural tick controls, our lawn care team will recommend the appropriate insecticides that help control ticks. Many Arkansas homeowners and property managers are unaware that using the correct spray can suppress growth at specific points in a tick’s lifecycle. That growth interruption prevents the tick from reaching the disease-transmitting maturity stage.

As always, timing is crucial when our A Clean Cut Lawn Care team applies lawn chemicals. Ideally, it’s best to start spraying as the weather warms up. Then no later than early summer, and finally by fall.

Need Our Help With Tick Control?

Do you have a tick control problem and need professional help? Our lawn care & landscape professionals at “A Clean Cut Lawn Care” can help you get rid of those pests. If you’re a homeowner or property manager in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Springdale, and SW Rogers, we can quickly assist you.

Are you ready for your yard to become a tick-free zone at your Northwest Arkansas property or landscape? If so, call us at 479-262-0253 or Contact us here.

If you’ve never tried it, gardening with containers is fun, easy, and anyone can do it. With a terracotta pot, some summer bedding, and green-fingered expertise, your miniature garden comes to life. As each plant grows, it brings a high level of beauty your friends will envy.

When you’re unsure where to set the containers, you have numerous spots around your home, for instance, near your front entrance or driveway. Around the pool, the back porch, inside your home, or out on your balcony.

Before Using Inspect Your Containers

Before you begin using your containers, we recommend inspecting and washing them thoroughly, inside and out. That is vital if you’re using a pot that previously had plants in it. Quite often, there are traces of old compost found on the pot’s walls.

Attached to the composting material, you will discover pests, diseases, and mold spores, that gets overlooked. Those intruders can harm or infect your new plants. We recommend putting your planter in water that contains a garden disinfectant and scrub it until clean.

During your inspection, do check for adequate drainage holes. Your plant’s roots need oxygen; should water fill the container and not drain quickly, those roots will starve. A simple trick is to place a layer of broken terracotta over the drainage holes to prevent compost blockage.

How To Prepare Your Containers

With your containers thoroughly washed, scrubbed, disinfected, and rinsed, now it’s time to prepare them for plants. Here you will have four simple steps:

• Compost Level
• Plant Emersion
• Center Planting
• Watering

Step 1. Fill your container with quality peat or loam-based compost and firm lightly. Check that the compost stops at least 1 inch below the lip of the container; this will be your watering space.

Step 2. Hours before planting, plunge our plants into a bucket of water and thoroughly soak them. That type of watering prevents shock once replanted in new compost.

Step 3. Create a central hole large enough for the rootball. Place the plant into the hole firming the compost around it.

Step 4. With the 1 inch space below the lip of the container, level the surface of the compost. Water thoroughly until water starts to flow from the base of the pot.

That’s all it takes to get you started gardening with containers!

Need Our Help Gardening With Containers?

Do you have a gardening container idea but don’t know where to start? Our lawn care & landscape professionals at “A Clean Cut Lawn Care” can help you bring your vision to life. If you’re a homeowner or property manager in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Springdale, and SW Rogers, we can quickly assist you.

Are you ready to discover the possibilities of gardening with containers at your Northwest Arkansas property or landscape? If so, call us at 479-262-0253 or Contact us here.

What’s The Best Grass To Grow In Fayetteville, Arkansas?

Living in or the surrounding areas of Fayetteville, Arkansas, e.g., Benton and Washington counties, you’ll find different grass types planted; primarily, Zoysiagrass, Bermudagrass, and Tall Fescue. There’s a reason for this; it’s our hardiness zone.

The interesting fact about our beautiful state, Arkansas, sits in what’s known as the Transition Zone. Unlike other states, homeowners and property managers will always have challenges maintaining different lawn types due to our environmental climates.

How Will Homeowners and Property Managers Be Affected?

Unfortunately, our harsh Arkansas winters are known for injuring or killing warm-season grasses, but it doesn’t stop there. The extreme summer heat causes stress, dormancy and can destroy cool-season grasses that thrive in temperatures between 60º to 75 º F.

To guarantee you’re planting the best and most resilient grass on your property, our A Clean Cut Lawn Care team has vital information below for you to review. So before you lay sod or plant seeds, we invite you to read further.

What Are The Best Warm-Season Grasses To Grow?

Warm-season grasses grow best during late spring, summer, and early fall months. That’s when the temperatures range from 80º to 95 º F. You can expect aggressive growth during those months. However, in the wintertime, expect dormant and brown turf to appear.

Warm-season grass cultivars are:

• Zoysiagrass Cultivars – Meyer, El Toro, Palisades, Zenith, Compadre, Emerald, Cavalier, Royal, Zorro, and Diamond
• Bermudagrass Cultivars – Tifway, Tifgreen, Tifdwarf, Tifsport, Patriot, Midland, Quicksand, and Seed Varieties

When it comes to winter hardiness, the Zoysiagrass cultivars, Compadre, Meyer, and Zenith, are more resilient than the rest. They remain the best warm-season grasses to grow in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the surrounding areas.

What Are The Best Cool-Season Grasses To Grow?

Cool-season grasses grow best during our late fall and early spring months. That’s when the temperatures range from 60º to 75 º F. During the summertime; you will need to keep a close eye on these different turfs. Also, expect to water them more than their warm-season grass counterparts.

Cool-season grass cultivars are:

• Centipedegrass Cultivar – TifBlair
• Kentucky Bluegrass Hybrid Cultivars – Durablue, Thermal Blue, Thermal Blue Blaze, and Solar Green
• Tall Fescue Cultivars – Apache, Avenger, Barvado, Bonanza, Cayenne, Cochise III, Durana, Dynasty, Finelawn Elite, Firebird, Greenkeeper, Guardian, Inferno, Jaguar, Justice, Masterpiece, Millennium, 2nd Millennium, Plantation, Rebel, Rebel II, Rebel Exeda, Red Coat, Rembrandt, Scorpio, Shenandoah, Solara, Turbo, and Watchdog

With their wider leaf blades, the Tall Fescue cultivars can thrive better in our state’s Transition Zone than others listed in this group. That makes them the best cool-season grasses to grow in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and surrounding areas.

8 Areas To Consider Before Selecting The Best Grass

With Arkansas sitting in the Transition Zone, not every grass type or cultivar is suitable for your landscape. When you walk your property, your selection of grass depends on eight vital areas for it to thrive year-round. They are:

• Drainage
• Slope
• Climate
• Sustainability
• Soil Type
• Intended Use
• Desired Appearance
• Ease of Mowing

Though you have a turf preference, the cost to maintain it could become unbelievably expensive if any of these areas get ignored. Our lawn care specialists at “A Clean Cut Lawn Care” understand this and can help you select the best grass and stay on budget.

If you’re a homeowner or property manager in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Springdale, and SW Rogers, we are here to assist you. To get started, call us at 479-262-0253 or Contact us here. 

What Accessories Do You Need To Create A Beautiful Garden?

Do you enjoy the gardening lifestyle? Many in Benton and Washington counties do. Every Spring, determined green thumbs are on a mission to design and create their masterpiece garden for the new season.

If the thought of digging in the soil gets you up in the morning or planting flowers that beautify your home. Or ripping it all out and starting all over, the only thing left to do is make a wish list of gardening accessories you’ll need.

Before You Begin, Here Is Your First Step

With any outdoor gardening project, we recommend planning it first. There are areas of your landscape where a garden should not go. For instance, you’ve chosen a place where sunlight is limited or has too much shade, heavy foot traffic, a large pest population, or poor soil.

So, before you start searching for garden accessories, walk your property. Note what times of the day there is adequate sunlight. Test your soil to uncover any toxins, invasive pests, or high levels of harmful chemicals. Once you’ve picked the right place, you’re ready to move forward.

What Gardening Accessories Should You Consider?

If this is your first time putting in or setting up your garden, there are different accessories and supplies you’ll need. Now depending on what you’re planting will determine the types of accessories to look for and buy.

For plants, you’ll need seeds. Those seeds need plant food and other supplies to help them germinate and grow. For trees and shrubs, you’ll need saplings. Those saplings will also need food supplies to help them take root quickly and adapt to their new environment.

What Gardening Tools Should You Consider?

For starters, you do not need every tool a home improvement center sells. Only purchase what you will use immediately. Over time, and as your plants grow, the need for additional tools will become clear. A perfect example, you don’t need a chain saw if you’re planting a sapling.

Initially, you can start with these essential tools:

• Gloves
• Pruning Shears
• Loppers
• Spade
• Garden Fork
• Hand Trowel
• Rake
• Hoe
• Water Can
• Wheel Barrel
• Water Hose
• Adjustable Nozzle

Each of these tools is available at most hardware stores, home improvement, or garden centers. However, if you prefer to shop for these tools online, read the reviews, the product descriptions, product spec information, and if the manufacturer provides a warranty and support.

Need Our Help Creating A Beautiful Garden?

Do you have a gardening idea but don’t know where to start? The Lawn Care & Landscape professionals at “A Clean Cut Lawn Care” can help you bring your vision to life. If you’re a homeowner or property manager in Fayetteville, Farmington, Prairie Grove, Cave Springs, Elm Springs, Springdale, and SW Rogers, we can quickly assist you.

Are you ready to discover the possibilities of creating a beautiful garden for your Northwest Arkansas property or landscape? If so, call us at 479-262-0253 or Contact us here.