Lyons is just about 60 minutes west of Burrton — one of the closer stops in our extended service area. Sitting in the heart of Rice County along the Arkansas River corridor, Lyons is a proud agricultural community with Coronado Heights visible to the northeast. We bring the same professional fertilizing, spraying, and weed control to Lyons that we provide across central Kansas.
Rice County has some of the most salt-affected soils in Kansas. The ancient Permian salt deposits that run beneath this area influence the soil chemistry in ways that most homeowners don't realize. Higher sodium content makes clay soils even harder and more compacted, and it creates drainage issues that leave yards soggy after rain and cracked during dry spells. Salt-affected soils also push pH higher, locking up the nutrients your grass needs most.
The Arkansas River influence adds another layer of complexity. Properties near the river corridor often sit on sandy alluvial soils that drain fast and don't hold nutrients — the opposite problem from the heavy clay just blocks away. Both soil types respond well to the right program — and that's what we bring.
Summer heat and wind exposure are the other constants in Rice County. Lyons gets the full force of south-central Kansas summers with temperatures regularly above 95 degrees and dry south winds that pull moisture out of turf faster than you can water. Crabgrass, sandbur, and bindweed thrive in these conditions, and without a pre-emergent program timed to local soil temperatures, they'll take over your lawn by midsummer.
Our proven program handles what Kansas lawns need season by season — pre-emergent crabgrass control, broadleaf weed treatment, grub prevention, and winterizer. We use Solu-Cal to address pH and improve soil structure, and Mycorrhizae to build resilient root systems. Same program we run across central Kansas, refined over 20-plus years.
When a Lyons lawn has been cooked by summer heat or thinned out by years of salt-stressed soil, sometimes the best option is starting fresh. We grade the surface, address soil issues that caused the original lawn to fail, and seed with grass varieties that can handle Rice County's challenging conditions. Proper soil preparation is everything in this area — skip it, and you'll be replacing the lawn again in three years. We don't skip it.
Rice County's rural acreages, pastures, and CRP ground benefit from native grass that's adapted to the local conditions. We seed with warm-season mixes appropriate for the Arkansas River corridor — sideoats grama, blue grama, big bluestem, switchgrass, and little bluestem. Native grasses handle the heat, wind, and variable soils far better than introduced species, and they provide excellent wildlife habitat and erosion control along waterways and on marginal ground.
Grubs and armyworms can destroy a lawn overnight. I've seen it happen — a yard that looked perfect on Monday is brown and dead by Friday. Armyworms move fast and they don't leave much behind.
We use a premium grub preventer that also prevents armyworms. It's not the cheap stuff. It costs more, but here's the result: we've had zero armyworm damage on our lawns in over 10 years. Zero. While other companies' customers were watching their yards get eaten alive, our lawns were fine.
Most lawn care companies use the cheapest grub product they can find because it saves them money per application. We'd rather spend a little more on the product and never have to make that phone call telling a customer their lawn is gone. The premium preventer handles both grubs and armyworms in one application. One product, two problems solved, and a lawn that stays green when your neighbor's is getting chewed up.
In Rice County with all the crop ground nearby, armyworm pressure is real. This isn't something you want to gamble on.
At about 60 minutes from Burrton, Lyons is one of our closer extended-area communities. Owner Terrill Unruh has been running Windy Ridge Lawn Care for over 20 years, and Rice County has always been part of our territory. We know the soils, we know the salt issues, and we know what works in this part of Kansas. When you call, you're talking to the person who does the work — not a scheduler in another state. That's the Windy Ridge difference.