Mow Smarter, Not Harder

Effective Mowing Techniques

To achieve a pristine lawn, begin by mowing around the perimeter of your property two times. This technique not only sets a neat boundary but also allows to you easily transition into creating stripes, ensuring clean turns without leaving any uncut grass. When you need to turn, think of it as a proactive maneuver. Rather than steering the mower like a car, gently tilt the deck up with one hand and walk around the mower to rotate it on its back wheel. Once turned, lower the deck into the new stripe and continue mowing. After outlining the perimeter, shift your focus to creating straight stripes across the lawn. Strive to avoid curves, aside from the necessary edges. Maintaining straight lines will enhance the aesthetic appeal of your lawn and simplify the mowing process. For your first stripe, start from the center of the area, rather than one edge. Take your time with this initial cut to ensure it’s as straight as possible. Straight stripes not only enhance visual appeal but also improve mowing efficiency. To maximize efficiency, aim to minimize the number of stripes created and avoid overlapping your previous passes. By keeping the front wheel right on the edge of the last stripe, you can achieve a slight overlap without missing any grass.

Mowing Guidelines

Mowing height

• Mow tall: Taller grass encourages deeper root growth, making the lawn more drought-tolerant and requiring less frequent watering.
• Avoid scalping: Cutting the grass too short can stress it, leading to scalping, where the mower blade cuts too low.
• Blade height: Mowing height is the height of the grass blade and not the mower deck. Follow these guidelines: June – August, mow at 4-4.5"; September – November, 3.5-4.0". After fall cleanup (final cut of season), 3.0".
• Mow less often: Cutting the grass too frequently can expose the roots to sunlight and hinder growth.
• Consider a weekly schedule: Mowing once a week is generally recommended for most lawns.

Mowing pattern

• Vary your pattern: Consistently mowing in the same direction can create ruts and cause the grass to lean in that direction.
• Try straight lines: Mowing in straight lines is generally more efficient and effective.
• Overlap passes: Overlapping your passes by a few inches ensures you don’t miss any grass.

Blade sharpness

• Keep blades sharp: A dull blade can damage the grass, resulting in yellowing or brown tips.
• Sharpen regularly: It’s advisable to sharpen blades at least every 5 mows or once a month.

Edge maintenance

• Use a string trimmer: A string trimmer is helpful for cleaning up edges around trees, sidewalks, and other obstacles.
• Avoid scalping: Keep the grass the same height as the mowed grass.

Bag clippings

• Always bag if you have capability.
• If you hire a landscaper, ask them to bag.
• Bagging clippings will help reduce your thatch layer. Insects live and thrive in the thatch layer.
• Bagging clippings will reduce weed seed heads from spreading.
• If you can’t bag, be sure to cut on a dry day, leaving no clippings on the top.
• If you have excess clippings on top of the grass, you may need to double cut to chop up the clippings to a finer size or blow your lawn and/or rake the clippings to remove them.
• If you cannot bag your clippings, you will need to dethatch your lawn in the fall to remove all the debris.

The “1/3 Rule” for Lawn Mowing

The “1/3 rule” dictates that you should only remove one-third of the total grass blade height at a time when mowing. For example. If your desired mowing height is 4 inches, you should mow when the grass reaches 5.5 inches. Cutting too much off at once can stress the grass, leading to scalping (cutting into the crown of the plant), reduced root growth, and a less healthy lawn.

It Pays to Refer!

Refer your friends and neighbors to receive a $50.00 credit off your next invoice. There is no greater compliment than to have one of our customers pass on a lawn care referral!