Hi, I'm Brian with Top Notch Lawn Care.
We specialize in taking overgrown, out-of-shape properties
and getting these properties back into a manageable state.
Today, I'm going to take you guys through the process
of getting this overgrown property back into shape.
On this property here,
the first thing we're going to do
is we're going to blow off the patio
to expose what's underneath there
and to see what needs to be done.
Walking into this backyard,
it was very evident
this property hasn't been maintained in a long time.
I'm guessing probably at least a year to two years.
You can tell that by all the weeds in the cracks,
all the overgrown edging,
and the very tall grass in the lawn.
Then we are going to trim and edge
and then we're going to finish off with mowing.
That way we can get all the trimming and edging clippings
back into the lawn
and mulch those up with the grass.
Not only did we transform the backyard,
we transformed the front yard on this property as well.
In this job in particular,
we had to move all the furniture to one side of the patio
so we can get all the weeds out of the patio cracks
and make it look really good.
Blowing off first is not something I normally do
on these types of projects.
But on this project here, I felt it was necessary.
So that way I could see all the weeds
coming through the cracks to make sure I got them all.
So after that, we're going to start with the trimming.
And I started with the patio first
to get all the weeds out of the cracks.
I started with the side of the garage,
worked my way around to the back of the garage
and then just around the fence.
In order to not damage any of the perimeter,
whether it being the house or the fence,
we used the trimmer to get the areas that the mower cannot.
The rotation of the trimmer head goes from right to left.
So if you trim from right to left,
it blows the clippings left back into the lawn.
I started on the right side of this property
with the trimming.
That way, I can control where the clipping shoot out.
If you start from right to left,
the clippings will shoot out left, back into the lawn
and that way you don't have to worry about them.
Once the trimming is done,
I will move on to the edging
to clean up the patio and the sidewalk.
The purpose for edging
is to give it a nice, clean, crisp look
to separate the lawn from the patio and the sidewalk.
I will start edging on the right side of the patio
and I will work my way down the sidewalk,
back up the sidewalk
and then finish off with the other side of the patio.
I usually just start on one side, I'll finish on the other.
The biggest reason why we start with this process
of trimming and edging first
is so we can get all the clippings
from the trimming and edging process back into the lawn
so when we mow, we're not mowing multiple times
and we can actually mulch it up with the tall grass.
After the trimming and edging is complete,
I'll take the leaf blower,
blow all the debris back into the lawn
so I can mow it up.
The final step in this process
is going to be mowing the lawn.
I always start at a higher height when I'm cutting the lawn
and then I'll go over it a second time
decreasing that height.
Most of the time,
my desired height that I'm aiming for
is right at three inches.
Be very careful when you're mowing
an overgrown lawn like this,
because you can't see what's in the grass.
There's a lot of things like debris, rocks, bricks,
and sometimes even concrete.
And you can actually throw stuff out of your mower
that could damage a house or a fence.
So lastly,
I'm going to blow off one more time
just to get all the remaining grass and dust
and reposition the furniture back on the patio.
From start to finish,
this job took us right around four and a half hours
to complete.
If you want a nice healthy lawn,
I recommend mowing once a week or once every two weeks,
depending on your grass type.
It was very satisfying to hear how shocked the homeowner was
at this transformation.