For decades, the lawn-maintenance industry has depended on the same basic system: Load several workers and thousands of pounds of equipment onto a truck, drive from property to property, unload everything, mow the lawn, load everything again, and repeat the process...

Colorado homeowners hear a lot about saving water. Usually, the advice is familiar: replace the lawn, let it turn brown, install artificial turf, or spend thousands of dollars changing the landscape. Those are not the only choices. Before removing the lawn, homeowners...

There comes a point when information creates responsibility. Before you know what is wrong with your lawn, you can blame the weather. You can blame the water. You can blame the fertilizer. You can blame the weeds, the heat, the contractor, the sprinkler system or just...

The “One-Time Fix” Fantasy A few years ago, I was standing in the backyard of a prospective client’s home, discussing what it would take to improve his lawn. He could afford the work. That was not the issue. What he really wanted to know was whether there was one...

Balanced Horizon is the point where the soil is no longer simply keeping grass alive—it is working as an efficient, living system. A lawn can look green because it has been pushed with water and fertilizer. That does not necessarily mean it is healthy. A truly healthy...

Automation Isn’t the Enemy. Waste Is. For more than 30 years, I have watched the lawn-care industry try to solve the same problems with the same basic system: put people on trucks, move them from property to property, burn fuel, race the weather, and hope enough...

Are We About to Repeat 2012? The Lawn-Water Cycle We Can Still Break Before 2027 If you lived through 2012 and 2013 along the Front Range, you probably remember the feeling. Water restrictions. Hotter-than-normal temperatures. Brown lawns. Rising anxiety. Homeowners...

Lawn Anxiety: Why Panic Is Costing Homeowners Money There is a kind of anxiety that comes with owning a lawn that nobody really talks about. The grass starts turning brown. A few strange patches show up. The weather gets hot. The lawn doesn't seem to respond the way...

The silver lining may not be conservation alone. It may be strategy. Colorado has a water problem. I don’t think there is much value in pretending otherwise. But I also believe there is a silver lining buried inside the problem—because the answer may not be...

The Two Water Magic Tricks: Getting It Into the Soil and Keeping It There For much of my career, I’ve thought about two water problems as magic tricks: getting water into the soil and keeping it there. They sound simple. Turn on the sprinklers, water the lawn, and let...

Spring Lawns Are Built in the Fall Every spring, something predictable happens. The weather begins to warm, homeowners step outside, and suddenly everyone becomes enthusiastic about their lawn again. Fertilizer is purchased. Sprinklers are turned on. Mowers are pulled...

Soil Aggregation: How Healthy Soil Learns to Aerate Itself Mechanical aeration creates temporary holes. Soil aggregation creates lasting structure. When most homeowners hear the word aeration, they picture a machine pulling plugs from the lawn. Mechanical core...