Local lawn care services beginning to feel drought’s impact

PEORIA (25News Now) - As drought conditions continue, and worsen in some locations, local business owners are feeling it.

It’s the busiest season for lawn care services, but you might not hear the sound of a lawnmower as often. With the lack of rain, grass isn’t growing as fast and that means a mow could very well be delayed.

So instead of getting after a client’s lawn every two weeks, they push it back to every three or four. Plus, mowing short and dry grass can cause more damage than good.

Christian Joplin, Basic Lawn Care Technician, explained, ”Because for one, you don’t want to burn the grass. If it’s too short, and it’s not getting enough water, then it will burn the grass and it will look brown instead of green. So basically, you potentially are killing it rather than mowing it.”

The dry conditions also cause a lot more dust to kick up, which reduces visibility and makes mowing even more difficult. They say the best thing they can do for now is stay busy and find more lawns to mow.

Wednesday, Peoria got 0.05″ of rain overnight, which was the first measurable rain since May 19 when we got 0.06″. The Illinois drought monitor is updated Thursday mornings at 8 AM.

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