If you ask Mike Pungitore, owner of Pungitore Irrigation & Fertilizer, what the biggest challenge is when it comes to lawn care, he’ll tell you the answer is simple — the weather.
“It’s all dependent on the weather,” he says. “Each year presents its own new challenges. You’re never going to have a perfect season.”
Pungitore says that most seasons can be chalked up as either too wet or too dry, where both opinions can make things difficult for the Massachusetts-based lawn care and irrigation company.
“Two years ago, our summer was way too hot and dry and we had multiple heatwaves of 90-plus degrees and humid for nine days straight. For us that’s crazy,” he says. “And last summer was too wet. It was the rainiest and wettest season on record. It was warm but it wasn’t super hot. We didn’t really have any heatwaves last year, but it rained every week.
“There’s a good side and a downside to both of those,” Pungitore adds. “In drier seasons, you can manage your water a little more and know exactly what the lawns are getting for water, but it gets hard with droughts and municipalities saying no more watering — which affects the fertilizer and how it affects the grass. It affects what the maintenance guys can do because they can’t mow if the lawns not growing.”
Though Pungitore notes that excessive rain can bring along fungus, mildew, root rot and similar issues.
While there’s no crystal ball for LCOs to use to predict the weather, Pungitore says the best thing they can do is be adaptable.
“For me, we just try to manage the storm as it comes in because you have to play it by ear and change and adapt,” he says. “You have to be a chameleon and change week-to-week or month-to-month based on the weather.”
He adds that it’s not just lawn care that must deal with Mother Nature’s challenges, but maintenance, irrigation and other services as well.
“As much as we can try and predict the weather, you really don’t know until you’re in it,” Pungitore says. “That’s the hardest part of the green industry — the weather. You’re not just dealing with clients, or just dealing with employees, then you’re dealing with the weather that has a direct impact on your business. There are so many variables.”
