Get the 'Mow' Down: Lawn Tips From The Grounds Guys

The Grounds Guys aren’t all men.

Gary and Jamee Fouts work as a husband-and-wife duo in the residential landscape management business. The two recently joined The Grounds Guys—a Texas-based Dwyer Group team with 85 franchises throughout the U.S. and Canada.

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Previously, the Foutses spent 20 years as independent contractors. During that time, they became recognized in much of the Southland—including — for their seasonal work. Their spring and summer focus is primarily on grass cutting and lawn maintenance and their fall and winter months are spent removing snow and ice.

Gary attended Lincoln-Way High School back when the district had only one. He played basketball and was a jumper on the Knights’ boys track and field team. Later, he went on to attend Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis.

He earned a teaching degree and spent some time standing in front of a chalkboard before deciding he preferred to make the great outdoors his classroom.

“There is an immediate sense of accomplishment that comes from taking care of a lawn,” he said. “When you’re done, you can see you’ve made a difference. You don’t get that often in a school setting.”

Jamee taught kindergarten for five years and retired when she and Gary started a family. She returned to the work force as his “boss” and office manager when their two daughters reached school age. Tiffanee Fouts, 18, now is a senior at Romeoville Christian Academy. Her older sister, Stephanee, 22, will be married in June.

The Grounds Guys—and girls—will be cutting lawns right up to those “I dos” and working, as always, to please their customers. Before the Foutses joined their new team, The Grounds Guys were featured on CBS television in a Jan. 22 airing of “Under Cover Boss.”

Now, Gary is blowing his cover. He is happy to share some lawn care tips with homeowners:

1. Cut your grass as tall as you can.

“It’s kind of a rule, the higher the grass is, the better the root system is,” Fouts said. “So, if the grass is high, the roots are going to be going down deeper. It also helps to have the weed seeds not be able go get down in there and make contact with the soil and grow. And you don’t need as much water.”

2. Water less frequently, but in greater amounts.

“The common misconception out there is to water every other day and for short periods of time,” Fouts said. “The best thing is to water for a longer period of time. Maybe you don’t run all of your zones each day, but you let them run for typically an inch per week in each zone. And if you get that whole inch in one setting you’re better off.”

3. Get in the habit of aerating your lawn.

“You don’t see the results of aeration because most of the help that aeration provides is where the root zone is,” Fouts said. “But it’s important. It helps you avoid the compaction of the soil—opens it up, lets oxygen, fertilizer and water down into the root zone. And it promotes the roots to go deeper.”

4. Don’t bag, mulch.

“When you’re bagging your grass, you’re taking all the nutrients away,” Fouts said. “If your fertilizer is going up into the blade of the grass and you cut it and take it away, you’re losing that fertilizer. And it helps not to fill up landfills, too. So, you’re going green, as they say.”

Email Gary Fouts at: gary.fouts@mail.groundsguys.com. Or call him at 815-462-1420. For more information on The Grounds Guys, go to groundsguys.com

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Do you bag or mulch? Mow your own lawn? Hire someone to do the job? Tell us in the comments.