The Fire Brigade

About The Fire Brigade

Every spring the Flint Hills ridges burn on purpose, and for a few evenings the horizon east of Manhattan carries orange lines and a smell of smoke that means the grass is about to come back stronger. The Fire Brigade works the tamer version of that renewal inside town limits — cleanups that strip out dead thatch, aeration and overseeding, fertilization and weed control timed to the green-up. Then comes the long stretch of mowing, string trimming and edging, week after week, holding the line all summer. A Manhattan yard can travel from brown to lush in ten days when the timing is right. Getting that timing right, year after year, is most of the job.