Mow pro offers tips for keeping it green

Tom Jones once sang “It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home.”

Of course the Welsh crooner with the swiveling hips doesn’t have to mow that grass.

For the rest of us, mowing the lawn is a chore we can look forward to for months. And months.

For all the practice we get manicuring the grass, we all make some fairly common mistakes – mistakes that can be easily corrected.

Tony Lee is a grass-cutting expert – the groundskeeper for the Spokane Indians. Lee is the man responsible for making the field at Avista Stadium look crisp and green, with intricately cut designs worked into the landscape.

Lee is back this season after a couple years holding down the job of groundskeeper in El Paso, Texas, home of the Diablos – and happy to return to his old job.

“The grass is so much nicer up here,” Lee said. “Down there they have a lot of Bermuda grass, and it’s not as lush. Up here we have beautiful bluegrass, and it’s so much nicer to work with.”

Nicer, yes, but some general rules still apply when it comes to keeping a lawn looking good.

“First off, you have to feed the grass,” Lee said. “People put a lot of time and effort watering their lawn, but they forget that it needs food, too.”

What type of fertilizer to use depends on the type of lawn you have and the area in which you live. And on personal preference between chemical and organic fertilizers.

The Scotts company, makers of a wide range of fertilizers, including Miracle-Gro, suggests feeding your lawn four to five times a year. The first feeding should coincide with the first time you mow your lawn, the company says, and the last feeding should come at the end of the year, when the grass stops growing for the year.

When you mow, Lee says, is another important factor in keeping your lawn healthy and handsome.

“A lot of people figure they can get away with mowing once a week,” he said. “What happens then is that the grass grows too much and you end up cutting too much of the plant. You’re much better off mowing every three days and taking off only a small amount of the plant.”

How you mow a lawn also is important, Lee said.

Of course, professional landscapers – at ballparks and golf courses, especially, use powerful mowers that use a rotary drum that cuts the top off the grass cleanly, with a roller attachment on the back that grooms the lawn, pointing the grass in the same direction.

“The roller is what allows us to put those fun designs in the grass,” Lee said. “But even if you use a rotary lawn mower, you need to cut the grass in two different directions to get it even and make it look right. We mow the grass in two different directions every time we mow.

“It’s not something that a lot of people are interested in doing – it’s enough of an effort to go over the lawn one time. But I’ve started doing that on my own lawn, and it makes a big difference.”

Lee’s final tip is to taking care of the mowing blade.

“If you don’t sharpen your blade, you’re just tearing up the top of the plant,” he said. “You’re not cutting cleanly and the grass turns brown and doesn’t look good.”

Lee said he’s busy working on his plans for opening day at Avista Stadium, on June 26 when the Indians host the Everett AquaSox.

“Opening day is special on its own, so I think we’ll keep it pretty traditional,” Lee said. “But one thing we work on is to make sure that, no matter where you sit in the stadium, you can see the mowing pattern in the grass. That’s part of the experience.”