The process of mowing your lawn is not only meant to benefit you externally, but also intrinsically as it promotes having a healthy soil and grass. Whether you have a small or large garden, mowing is certainly one of the tasks that could keep your lawn looking lively. However, if this is done incorrectly, your lawn could turn the opposite direction. The grass can look bare and unappealing if keep doing multiple passes with your lawn mower, more than it should.
On the other hand, leaving your grass to grow extensively can also be unappealing. Weeds could grow and overtake your lawn. The only way you can control this is by doing regular lawn mowing. The question left to ask are how much do you actually mow, when is the best time to mow, and what do you exactly mow. Knowing all these things can make a huge change in your process of lawn mowing. With more knowledge, you can ensure that your lawn will continue to look great for spring and summer.
Part 1: Why Mow Your Lawn?
Cutting your lawn should not only concern aesthetics, it should be considered as a regular maintenance task that enhances vitality and growth. By understanding how to properly mow your lawn, it gives you many vantage points. It ensures that your lawn is dense enough, have a healthy foliage, and prevents weed to grow. This all happens because as you trim your lawn, the foliage grows thicker. When you maintain the practice of mowing your lawn, it encourages your lawn to grow. Having a grown lawn means that there are healthier and deeper roots that can hold it together. Surely, your lawn will only keep looking great and healthy.
Part 2: When to Mow Your Lawn?
The typical approach when to mow your lawn can come when you need it. Whether you choose to mow your lawn by yourself or opt to hire a professional service, it is entirely up to you. However, to keep your lawn from looking great, you would need to consider regular lawn mowing. Depending on the season, it could be scheduled as often as every week to twice a month. Normally, your grass will first have a growth spurt before it consistently grows evenly.
When it comes to the warm season, grass is encouraged to grow faster. And this is a great opportunity to bring out that lawn mower and start the job. Over the cooler season, the workload can slow down a bit until the spring and fall periods come in.
Part 3: How Often should You Mow Your Lawn?
To achieve a perfectly great looking lawn, your lawn mower could be brought out at the very least, once a week. It is possible that during the spring season, it could be more. You may need to assess your turf on how fast it grows. If you take a step to measure your lawn on a weekly basis, you can get the trend. If the grass grows beyond 2.5 cm on a weekly basis, you will have to mow twice a week.
Again, the type of lawn that you have is a huge factor on how often you should mow. Some grass lawns have a more durable variety that cutting on a weekly basis is just enough. For those that are more sensitive and are normally bedded for ornamental purposes, every 4 -7 days should be more appropriate. Keep in mind that grass lawns that are shaded by a tree tend to grow slower than average. Thus, cutting them once a week will be more ideal.
Part 4: How to Mow Your Lawn?
1. Choose the right lawn mower
When it comes to mowing your lawn, you would need to find the appropriate lawn mower. Of course, this does not come an option when you only have one. However, it does matter if you are still about to purchase one. There are several types of lawn mowers available, Typically, gasoline lawn mower is the “go-to” choice for residents that live in the city. Another option is the manually-pushed lawn mower. These are highly affordable as it does not require any motor to power it. It is also friendlier to the environment.
Electric lawn mowers are quieter to operate and would normally be more expensive than the gasoline types. It could come as a wired machine where it relies on a power socket or a cordless type that is battery operated. For experienced individuals that have a wider space to tackle, a riding lawn mower is a preference. This type is larger than most of the ones we described, to a point where you can drive it like a car. The wideness of this lawn mower enables you to cover more ground with less effort.
2. Clean and sharpen your blades
When it comes to lawn mowers, blades and grow dull when used over time. It can also be chipped due to hard objects that it passes through. One of the ways to check this is to simply inspect before you mow. However, there is also a chance that it could get worn while on the job itself. It this case, watch out for cutting results. If you notice that the grass has brown tips from the blade or that the grass cut appears ragged and uneven, then it may be time to sharpen that blade.
If you wish to stay ahead and maintain the sharpness of your blades, you can have them sharpened once or twice a year. This depends on the extent of use. To sharpen your lawn mower blades, you can remove them using some tools and instructions. Sometimes, even when you think that your blades do not need to be sharpened, at least conduct inspection after every three or four lawn mows. This helps you avoid any build up on the blades from any debris and large objects.
3. Adjust your lawn mowing height according to the grass type and weather
Often, it has been a mistake that people mow their lawns too much. If you trim your grass too short, it can lead to browning of your lawn and more opportunity for weeds to grow. To control this, you can adjust the height of your blades in the lawn mower so that you can prevent excessive trimming. Usually, you can allocate around 2-3 inches in height from the ground.
Remember that when you set the height of your blades, it should be measured from the ground up. At the point where you fix your height, this becomes the resulting height for your grass.
4. Inspect your lawn mower’s fuel and oil
Before starting your lawn mower, it is important that you inspect the oil and fuel to make sure that it is enough. It is not safe to add fuel while your motor engine is warm and in use. Thus, it is advisable that you already gas up full tank before mowing. If you want to keep a regular maintenance check of the oil, by any means do so. It is recommended that you check the oil level after every 2 to 3 lawn mows. If needed, replenish the oil before running the engine.
Do not hesitate to change your oil regularly so that the fuel lines remain clean. Most owners would have this done by a professional service but you can also opt to do this by doing research and consult. Like a car, fire up your lawn mower every now and then to keep it from sitting around long. Once a year before start of the spring should be enough.
5. Mow frequently but appropriately
One of the common mistakes in lawn mowing is sticking to the schedule. Although we have mentioned prior about our recommendations, you would need to understand that this is only a recommendation by average. At the end of the day, you would still have to assess whether your lawn needs trimming today or can it be postponed. Just because we mentioned that it is good to trim weekly, it does not always hold true in all cases. Your schedule should partially depend on the look of your lawn, and not necessarily your own schedule that you trim for example – every Saturday.
Keep in mind the rule of one third. The 1/3 rule means that you should not mow more that 1/3 grass’ total height. Here are a few details of how you can employ it. If you wish to maintain your lawn height to be about 2 inches, then you would need to wait until the grass grows to 3 inches in height before you mow it.
Look out for weather forecasts for the season. It is better to mow during the dry season rather than the wet season as the wet grass could end up in your lawn mower, making it too slippery to operate. Best to mow during the afternoon and evening compared to the day because the lawn is slightly cooler by then. The moisture has already been absorbed by the grass roots and reduces heat stress for your lawn.
6. Work without obstacles
Make sure that before you start mowing, your lawn is clear of any obstacles such as toys, branches, and any other large objects that are could be an obstruction. Otherwise, it could damage your lawn mower. Make sure that your kids and pets are kept inside as you would need to secure the area before mowing. Some lawn mowers may send small rocks and other debris at fast speeds. Thus, it I important to keep your family indoors to prevent injuries.
7. Wear protective gear when lawn mowing
When you do lawn mowing, make sure that you have the proper gear to keep yourself protected from any discharged debris. The typical protection gear is composed of having safety glasses or goggles, ear mufflers, closed boots, long pants, and sometimes gloves or a hat. The safety glasses are meant to protect your eyes from any flying debris. The ear mufflers are to keep your ears from the loud sound of the lawn mower engine. Having a sturdy, closed shoes ensure that nothing can damage your feet. Long pants are more to protect your legs from any gash wounds.
In some cases, you can also put sunscreen to combat the heat of the sun especially if you plan to work with daylight and spend long hours. A hat can get you a long way in combating the heat even when the days look cloudy or late in the day. Keep a bottle of water at hand or go on breaks to stay hydrated. If you plan to tackle a huge space, then you would need to plan your approach. Isolate a space that you intend to finish in the day and resume the following day.
Conclusion
If you want to effectively mow your lawn, you can do a strategy by first starting on the perimeter where there are less obstacles in the way. Not unless you have a square lawn, your goal should be to create the initial barrier lines as your guide. Mow around the trees and curve plant beds. And then you can go back to again and do multiple passes as you go inside.
Although mowing your lawn is a great way to keep the grass healthy, you can opt to postpone the task if you see that your grasses do not necessarily grow as aggressive. Sometimes, this can be due to the weather or maturity of the plant. Just make sure that when you do mow your lawn, you do not cut them too short or your space will look barren.
Now that we have explained how you can mow your lawn, you can confidently take on this task. In the first few passes, you may still be challenged. However, this can lessen as you continue to practice and keep our instructions in mind. Mowing your lawn should not be a difficult task especially when you already have the knowledge. Of course, you can take help of a professional if needed. You may even learn from them.