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Mowing your lawn is simple, right? Not so much. Grass is a living, breathing organism, and has very specific requirements. For instance, cutting your grass too short can make your lawn look bald or patchy, while letting it go makes your property look like a scrapyard. The key is to find that happy medium where your grass looks healthy but isn’t overgrown, and Mower Source has all the answers.

Mowing Height

Different climates have different grasses, and each one demands a different height for optimal growth. At the most basic, grass and the height it should be cut can be divided into cool season height and warm season height (when it grows the most).

  • Cool Season Height: Grasses in this group include fescues and bluegrasses, and consist of four basic types—fine fescue (0.5 to 3″); tall fescue (1.5 to 4″); Kentucky bluegrass (0.75 to 3.5″); and perennial ryegrass (0.75 to 3″)
  • Warm Season Height: In this category, there’s a bit of a wider variety of grasses—Bermuda grass (0.5 to 2.5″); Buffalo grass (1.5 to 4″); Kikuyu grass (1 to 1.5″); St. Augustin grass (1 to 3″); and Zoysia (0.5 to 2″)
  • One tip to use if you have no idea what kind of grass you have and still want to get the height right is to cut no more than one-third of the leaf. The reasoning for this is so grass can grow at its optimal rate during its peak growing season. Cut more than that, and you’ll stunt the grass’s growth. Grass is a plant like any other, and cutting it the right amount will promote full, lush growth, while it can thin out and look patchy if you go too short.

    It’s not absolutely crucial to know what kind of grass you have, as you can tell by how fast or slow it’s growing, as well as the climate you live in. But one good thing about knowing exactly what kind of grass you have is you can Google its tallest recommended height. By staying within those parameters, you’ll ensure deep, healthy roots, which means the grass can hold onto water more easily and space out so weeds can’t grow as readily.

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    Sharpen Those Blades

    It’s no good knowing the theory behind proper grass height if the goods don’t match that. The duller the blades, the more of a tendency they’ll have to just bend the grass blades instead of actually cutting them. Plus, dull blades making you feel like you’re working 10 times harder with a fraction of the result.

    Other tips to remember include:

  • Avoid cutting grass when it’s dewy or wet from rain. The weight of the rain will bend the grass blades down, leaving them with little contact with the blades of the lawn mower (re: you’ll end up driving over the grass and making little progress). Dry grass is super easy to cut.
  • If you start early in the day when it’s cooler, your lawn mower will thank you. Really hot temperatures (the hottest part of the day is around 4pm) are harder on your mower and make it work more strenuously. But take care not to cut first thing in the day, otherwise the morning dew can weigh the grass down.
  • Because mowing is a regular activity, taking place as frequently as every four or five days during peak growing season, ruts and compacted soil can easily occur. One of the best ways of avoiding this potential problem is to change your patterns, e.g. mow side to side one time, and then up and down the next.
  • Mowing the lawn doesn’t have to be a magic formula known to few, although there is a bit of an exact science to it. Now that you’re armed with everything you need to know about grass height and other tips, let Mower Source take care of the hardware. Our line of lawn mowers and accessories have something for everyone, and shipping is free to the lower 48 states.

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