Established lawns
- Make sure your lawn mower blades are kept sharp for healthy turf! Using dull blades to cut your lawn can pull at the turf causing unnecessary damage.
- Avoid “scalping” or cutting your lawn to short. Soil temperatures will increase when lawns are mowed short and can cause root stress and increase weed growth.
- Adjust your mower deck height based on the season. Most lawns can be mowed 2.5 – 3” in spring and fall. In the summer, deck height should be raised to 3.5” to 4”. Only mow lawns in the summer when needed to avoid stressing turf and causing it to burn out.
- Adjust your mower deck even shorter (ex. 2” to 2.5” for most turf) for the last mowing of the season. Keeping your turf short through the winter can help eleviate snow related problems like snow mold.
- Mulching clipping properly. Don’t make clumps of grass on your lawn or you can kill the grass below. Use a mulching blade on your mower. Mulching loose clipping into the lawn can naturally add nitrogen and water giving your lawn a heathy appearance.
- Make sure you are only cutting one third of the total height of the grass blades at one time. If you have to cut greater than 1/3 of the height, do so over multiple cuts to avoid stress to your lawn. Example if your grass is 6” tall cut it down to 4” the first time. Wait a few days. Then say its 4.5” tall you would cut it down to 3” the second time.
- Utilizing these tips and proactively monitoring stressful weather conditions to adjust mowing frequency can prevent unnecessary stress to the lawn and greatly improve the overall health and appearance year round.
Newly seeded lawns
(see hydroseeding bible)
