Turf and Ornamental Maintenance Practices
Turf
Oregon lawns are predominantly cool-season grasses: tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, and Kentucky bluegrass. Follow the one-third rule, removing no more than one third of the blade height per mowing, and keep blades sharp. Raise mowing height in summer heat and lower it slightly in the last mowings of fall. Fertilize according to a soil test, emphasizing fall and late fall for cool-season turf and avoiding heavy summer nitrogen. Core aerate compacted or thatchy lawns, overseed at the right rate, and water deeply and infrequently to build root depth.
Ornamental maintenance
Distinguish thinning and heading cuts, renewal pruning, and shearing. Time pruning to biology: shrubs that bloom on old wood, such as forsythia and lilac, are pruned right after bloom; plants that bloom on new wood are pruned in late winter or early spring. Remove dead, diseased, and crossing wood first. Deadhead to redirect energy, and avoid heavy shearing of plants that should be selectively pruned. Refresh mulch, but never mound it against trunks.
Worked example
A lawn mowed at three inches should be cut before it reaches four and a half inches; going from four and a half back to three removes exactly one third.
Traps: pruning spring bloomers in fall and losing the flower crop, scalping turf in summer, and applying high nitrogen before dormancy.
Rule of thumb: one third of the blade per cut, and prune flowering shrubs within a few weeks of bloom.