When To Mow – When To Let It Grow

This weeks commercial landscape tip from Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance is when to mow and when to let your grass grow.

During the warm months when the grass is growing, is there a mowing schedule that should be used to encourage the lawn to be green and healthy? Lawns can seem "unhappy" when it's been cut (goes pale, some browning), which may make you want to mow it less-often.

Is there anything you can do to check to know when it's best to cut the grass?

How MUCH you mow is often more important in my experience than how often, the guideline is never mow more than 1/3rd of the total length. This also is adjusted for grass, time of year and relative conditions (watering, latitude and so on), so lots of options. Some folks tend to keep their grass a little long, consider mowing to about 3" with high traffic and trying to prevent weeds from growing as well. 

 At Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance we use a reel mower, so it's pretty simple to set the cut height and they tend to be better for grass health.  One thing to consider for mowing if it looks like it needs it, do it.

It doesn't matter so much how often you mow, as much as how long the grass is.

If your lawn looks yellow and dried out after you've mowed it, you probably have the blade on your mower set too low. Some people like a super-short lawn like a putting green, but doing this requires both a specific variety of grass and lots of extra care spent on fertilizing and other upkeep. Since you're probably not one of those people, your grass will be healthiest if you let it grow a little longer.

The first time you mow your lawn in the spring, try a lower setting. Subsequently mow about every 1-2 weeks, depending on how much watering you do.  Then moving the blade a little lower until it's on about the middle setting. If you notice that your lawn is looking a little yellow in patches, let it grow a little longer, then move the blade height back up. If your lawn is in a similar state, you'd probably benefit from doing the same.

Conveniently, somewhat longer grass is also more comfortable to walk on barefoot.

At Greens Keeper Landscape we want you to know how to take care of your property.  If you don’t want the headache of landscape maintenance we take care of your landscape for you.  To find out how we can help just give us a call at 623-848-8277.

Presented by:
Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance, LLC
623-848-8277
http://www.commerciallandscapecare.com
greenskeeperllc@cox.net