Maintaining Public Areas

Mowing

There are 232 acres of grass areas in the City that are maintained by the Parks and Grounds Division. This includes ballfields, parks, and right-of-ways mowing. The mowing season begins the first week of April and runs through October. Crews mow each of their sites at least every seven days and some areas are mowed twice per week.

 
 Landscaping

 The horticulture crew is responsible for care and maintenance of all landscape, beautification, and gardening efforts in the City. There are 20 locations throughout the City where beautification areas are currently maintained. They comprise over two acres of woody perennials, herbaceous perennials, and annual plantings.
Maintaining these areas is a year-round job. Starting in mid-winter the crew performs bed maintenance, edging, mulching, and applying a pre-emergent herbicide. This process takes two to three months to complete.
 
 In early May annuals are planted. Usually this consists of planting approximately 6,000 annuals at sixteen different locations. The horticultural crew also takes care of watering and fertilizing the annuals and newly planted trees throughout the late spring and into the summer.
 
 In September annuals are removed and fall color plants are installed. The normal fall planting is 3,000 pansies. It is also at this time that spring bulbs are planted.