Learn how to mow your lawn like a pro to complement your lawn care service. This article is for the DIY homeowner wanting to make sure they are following the best lawn maintenance practices when mowing their lawn to complement their lawn care program to achieve the healthiest lawn possible.
Mowing correctly is an essential aspect of creating a beautiful lawn. Let’s discuss the things you need to know!
This is an informative blog post on how to mow your lawn like a pro. Premier Lawn Services does not offer lawn mowing services.
We do provide lawn fertilization, weed control, aerating, and seeding services, along with leaf removal in the fall.
Lawn Mowing Basics
Below we outline the key points you need to know about lawn mowing.
- Grass Cutting – A couple of important things to know about lawn mowing include ensuring your lawn mower blades are sharp, scraping the underside of your lawn mower deck regularly to remove grass clipping buildup, don’t remove more than 1/3 of the grass blade during a single cutting, and alternate your path through the lawn from week to week. The ideal height to cut your grass is 3.5″ in Central New York.
- String Trimming or Weed Eating – Any grass that can be cut with your mower should be cut with your mower! Any of the grass along edges or obstacles should be string-trimmed to the same height as you cut the grass. We recommend you mow first so you don’t spend more time trimming than you need to and to be very careful not to scalp the grass when trimming.
- Lawn Edging – Edging create a crisp 90-degree border where your grass meets your driveway, sidewalk, or mulch beds. Edging your lawn after mowing and trimming it really creates that manicured look.
- Grass Clipping Cleanup – It’s obvious to most to blow the grass clippings off of paved surfaces after mowing. This can also be done with a rake or broom instead of a leaf blower. We wanted to point out that if you notice grass clippings laying on top of your turf after mowing you should blow those clippings around until they disappear or rake them into piles and remove them. If you notice grass clippings in your mulch beds, gently rake or blow them around until they are hard to notice and they will break down quickly back into the soil.
Lawn Mowing Best Practices
Let’s discuss important best practices when mowing in more detail.
- Sharp Lawn Mower Blades – Sharp mower blades cleanly cut the grass blades. Dull mower blades rip or tear the grass blades. Ripped or torn grass blades put the lawn under unnecessary stress.
- Remove Buildup on the Underside of your Mower’s Deck – If the underside of your lawn mower’s deck is caked with grass clippings, the lawn mower blades can no longer create ‘lift.’ Lawn mower blades are designed to draw the grass blades upward as they rotate which provides a flush, even cut height. If the lift cannot be created, your lawn will not look as nice as you’d like after mowing.
- Alternate Mowing Patterns – If you take the same path with your lawn mower week after week, eventually the soil beneath where the wheels make contact will become compacted. Simply alternate your mowing pattern to easily avoid this.
- The 1/3 Rule of Grass Cutting – The 1/3 rule of grass cutting states that no more than 1/3 of the grass blade should be removed during a single mowing. If your lawn is 6″ tall, the lowest height you should cut it to is 4″. If more than 1/3 of the blade is removed, the grass will be put under stress. Cutting less than 1/3 of the blade off at a time is perfectly acceptable.
- To Bag or Not to Bag Clippings? – In general, it is a good idea to return the grass clippings to the lawn as you mow with a mulching mower or side discharge mower. A couple of reasons why you should bag your grass is to limit the spread of fungi or turf disease if present or to make clipping cleanup easier if your grass has gotten too long since the last mowing.
How about you mow and we apply the fertilizer, weed control, and more?
Premier Lawn Services no longer offers lawn mowing services. We just focus on fertilizing lawns, eliminating weeds from lawns, aerating, overseeding, turf disease management, and keeping harmful insects out of lawns.
We love educated clients though and that is why we create informative content like this for services related to the services we offer.
If you’d like to partner with us this season to create the most beautiful version of your lawn, let’s start by providing you with a free estimate for lawn care!