Best Landscaper in Peterborough, Ontario

Local lawn notes

Lawn Notes From the Best Landscaper in Peterborough

Peterborough sits right in the middle of a field of drumlins. Those are long, low hills the glaciers left behind. Add a late spring and an early fall, and lawns here need their own plan.

Late frost, early frost

Environment Canada normals (1981 to 2010) for the Peterborough Airport station put the last spring frost around May 14. The first fall frost arrives around September 24. That's about 132 frost-free days a year.

In other words, grass has a short run to grow thick. A crew that skips June weeks leaves you playing catch-up until fall.

Hills of stony till

The federal soil survey of Peterborough County (1981) counts about 3,000 drumlins on this plain. It says they're made of limy glacial till, full of broken limestone and older rock. The common Otonabee soils are loam or sandy loam, well drained, and can be stony.

So your crew watches for rocks in the turf and trims around them. On the crest of a sloped yard, they raise the deck so the mower doesn't scalp it. The City's Official Plan also names landforms the glaciers left, like the Otonabee and Jackson spillways.

Low ground in the south end

The South End and downtown sit on the flat floor of an old glacial lake. That land floods more easily, as it did on July 15, 2004. After a big storm, a good crew waits for the lawn to firm up before it mows.

Water less, cut on time

The City says most lawns need only 2 to 3 cm (about 1 inch) of water a week. It says over half the water put on lawns and gardens is lost to evaporation or runoff from overwatering. Water early, once the dew has dried.

That's where steady weekly lawn mowing pays off. Neat trimming and edging keeps the rocky edges tidy.

Peterborough rules that touch your lawn

• Long grass. The Property Maintenance By-law (96-41) says grass or weeds on a lawn can't pass 20 cm. An officer can give you 7 days to fix it, then arrange the work and recover the cost like taxes.
• Watering. From June 1 to August 31, even addresses water on even days and odd on odd days, between 7am and 10pm.
• Yard waste. Pickup is weekly from the first full week of April to the end of November. Use paper yard waste bags, bushel baskets or labelled bins up to 80 L. No plastic bags.
• Weight and brush. Each bag or bundle must be under 13 kg (30 lb). Brush bundles can be up to 1 m long and 30 cm across.
• Drop-off. The City/County Landfill at 1260 Bensfort Road takes yard waste all year.
• Weed spraying. Ontario bans most cosmetic pesticides on lawns, so our partner crews don't spray.

Rules change, so check the City first. Sources: property by-law, watering, yard waste, pesticides, climate normals, soil survey.