We’ve all been there, where mowing the lawn feels like a Sisyphean and never-ending task. But it doesn’t have to be, because Mower Source has compiled a list of how to make the job a whole lot easier.
Synchronize Your Schedule with the Rain
Wet grass is one of the biggest culprits to a mowing job made much worse than it has to be. That’s because when water droplets get on grass blades, they weigh it down and prevent each blade from standing up straight. And for a lawn mower’s blades to work, they need to shave off the blades at an angle, as opposed to just bending them down towards the ground.
The fix to this is really easy: don’t mow right after it’s rained, after you’ve watered the lawn, or first thing in the morning/last thing in the day. If you want to be really safe, wait 24 hours after a rainfall to ensure your grass is totally free from water.
Watch Out for the Sun
Just like mowing after it’s rained makes the job harder than it has to be, sun has a similar effect. But in this case, it’s not so much what it does for the grass as what it does for you. Mowing when it’s blistering hot tires you out and puts you at risk of dehydration. And when you’re not in peak condition, even the simplest tasks can make you feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle.
In this case, pick your times accordingly. Avoid mowing when there’s a serious heat wave going on, as your grass won’t suddenly become too tall to mow in that time period. If it’s regular weather, then aim to hit the lawn either a few hours after sunrise or a few hours before sunset — basically, you just want to avoid 11am to 4pm.
Keep Your Lawn Mower Blades Sharp
If you’ve ever tried to shave with a dull razor, then you know how painful — and what a lousy result — it can be. Because the blades don’t have a perfectly straight, sharpened edge, the little metal fibers on the blade sort of hack at the grass blades instead of chopping them straight off, and your lawn will look kind of shaggy instead of neatly mown.
Mowing generally just needs to happen about once a week, so you don’t have to worry too much about keeping your blades sharp. At minimum, you should be taking the blades in once a year, but we recommend at least twice (or a couple times more if you mow more frequently).
Use the Right Mower for the Size of Your Lawn
Matching machine to yard is super important for how easy (or hard) the lawn mowing job can be. For example, using a zero-turn mower on a postage stamp-sized yard, or one where you’ve got plenty of random plants or statues and incredibly tight turns, is going to make your life impossibly difficult. Likewise, using an electric walk-behind on a huge manor property is going to take forever and be more of a physical job than it needs to be.
The answer is simple: take a look at our previous posts on zero-turn mowers and walk-behind mowers to see how yard space matches up to the kind of machine you should be getting, and then look at our catalogue for the right one for you.