ST. LOUIS – With the wettest April on record and a rainy start to May, it’s been hard to get much done outside. 

Even professional lawn care companies are struggling to keep up.

The abundant moisture is causing the grass to grow quickly, but it also makes it more difficult to find opportunities to go outside and maintain it.

“If you’re not mowing your yard every five days right now, when you do cut it, you’re having to bag it or just have clippings all over the yard. It’s growing so fast. Not only that, with all the rain that we’ve had, it’s making it more difficult to cut due to the saturation in the soil and you’re starting to see a lot of standing water causing issues in the yard as well,” said Craig Calhoun, the Turf Department Manager at Ryan Lawn and Tree.

Calhoun says the weather hasn’t only been frustrating for homeowners; they’re running behind.

“So right now it’s been extremely wet to the point where we’ve had to skip days going out in the yards and getting things done,” he said.

Heavy commercial mowers can cause rutting when mowing while the soil is too saturated and it’s also not ideal for putting product down.

With the quick shift in the forecast this week, the heat may cause a new set of challenges.

“What people are going to start seeing is brown patch and dollar spot disease. It’s a little early. Normally, this issue pops up a little closer to Memorial Day but our temperatures and with all the moisture that we’ve had, we’ll probably start to see some brown spots popping up in their yard later on this week,” Calhoun said.

But with a drier forecast ahead, Calhoun says they plan to play catch-up.

“We’re hoping the forecast is dry for the next couple of weeks ideally, and we’d like to be caught back up in the next week or so but right now it’s all up to the weather,” he said.