The valley year, one month at a time.
Twelve months on a Flathead property, written down. What the grass is doing, what the deck should be set to, when the leaves have to be off and when the first plowable snow tends to show up.
Nothing on a property here happens on a national schedule.
A lawn calendar written for somewhere else will have you cutting short in August and raking in November. This is the valley’s year, with the two dates that actually matter left honest: nobody knows exactly when spring firms up or when the first plowable storm lands.
- April
- The ground firms up and the first cut goes on. Spring cleanup pulls the winter mat out of the turf, beds get opened, and the deck runs low for the opening pass so light reaches the crown. Green season · mowing, trimming, edging
- May
- Growth arrives all at once. Weekly mowing starts in earnest, the deck comes up, and the edges get their first hard cut of the year so the line is set before the grass gets ideas. Green season · mowing, trimming, edging
- June
- Peak growth in the valley. The busiest weeks of the season, weekly without exception, clippings mulched straight back down because the lawn is using every bit of it. Green season · mowing, trimming, edging
- July
- Highest deck setting of the year. Long blade shades its own soil, and shaded soil is the difference between a green August and a brown one. Pattern rotates every week. Green season · mowing, trimming, edging
- August
- The dry stretch. Nothing changes about the schedule and everything changes about the height. Cutting short now is how people lose a lawn they spent four months building. Green season · mowing, trimming, edging
- September
- Growth slows, colour comes back, and the deck starts coming down gradually. The first leaves begin showing up in the fenced corners. Green season · mowing, trimming, edging
- October
- Fall cleanup. Leaves off the lawn before the first hard freeze, last cut of the year set short, and the winter list starts filling with the people who plan ahead. The turn: green season closing, white season list filling
- November
- The turn. First plowable snow usually lands somewhere in here and it rarely announces itself. Everyone on the list before the first storm gets pushed. Everyone else starts calling strangers. White season · plowing and clearing
- December
- Storms load overnight and quit near dawn. Drives get pushed early, the middle first and the edges after, and the apron gets reopened once the county plow has been through. White season · plowing and clearing
- January
- The deep of it. Every pile made in December is still there, which is why where the snow goes matters as much as whether it moved. Walks and steps cleared to the surface. White season · plowing and clearing
- February
- Melt and refreeze. The month where a quarter inch of packed snow left behind in December turns into the sheet of ice somebody actually slips on. White season · plowing and clearing
- March
- The season lets go slowly. Last pushes, then the banks come down and the lawn underneath shows what five months of snow did to it. Spring cleanup gets booked. White season · plowing and clearing
Green season
April through October
Weekly mowing, trimming and edging, and the cleanups at both ends of it. Seven months of the same yard on the same day.
White season
November through March
Driveways pushed open, walkways and steps cleared to the surface, small lots kept usable. Five months of storms that arrive at two in the morning.
