06/06/2026
🚔 🌱 Lawn and Order 🌱 🚔🏛️
In the YYC grass-care system, Calgary Parks has a few separate (yet equally important tasks): mowing sports/playfields which maintains recreational green spaces, mowing manicured parks, which makes our high-use public areas accessible (and look nice), and mowing some roadside spaces for visual appeal and sightlines. These… are our stories.
**DUN DUN**
-How often-
We break out the blade runners every 10 – 14 days, depending on rain and location. Water-logged dirt and grass are a safety concern (it’s slippery as heck) and ride-on mowers damage softer, wet turf. If the weather gets really dry and hot, grass doesn’t grow much, so we focus on other services!
️-How much-
Our grassically-trained staff mow over 4000 hectares of space during the growing season. (Trivia: That’s over 7500 CFL football fields—which, we’ve been told by sportsing fans is waaay bigger than American football fields. )
-Where- ️
Popular/highly-used larger parks or sports fields get mowed more often, and smaller parks or roadsides will be cut less frequently.
-Cutting edge tech and training-
We use large tractor mowers, smaller push mowers, hand-mowing power tools-- heck, this year we've even got zero-turn mowers, which are great for small narrow spaces and large fields. Our field staff are turf trained in everything from use-specific-grass-blade heights and safety practices to machinery operations and environmental protection procedures.
-Why aren’t we mowing RIGHT NOW?-
You may have noticed tiny wet drops of moisture falling from the sky lately. Many, many, MANY tiny drops. All this moisture has been fantastic for our plants and trees, but rain-soaked grass is slippery and unsafe for mowing. We have to let turf dry out before we give it a haircut.
-Why do you sometimes see grass clippings left on the turf?-
During periods of peak grass-growing, we'll complete a first cut, and might leave clippings behind to dry out, returning a day or two later to mulch the clippings into smaller pieces. Don't worry we haven't forgotten and left the job half done! This approach helps us catch up when all the grass in the city is growing very quickly and we're mowing our little butts off.
We hope this has helped give you a mow-ment of zen. 😎 Now back to kicking grass and taking names!
