Avoid the most common lawn mowing mistakes

Many of us do not think twice about growing or mowing lawn and see it as the easiest and most natural thing. But that may not always be true. If do not care for your lawn properly (or even too much), you may harm it instead of helping it and that negatively affects the entire garden. However, the vast majority of mistakes are made during lawn mowing. Here they are.

Cutting too short

If you want to save yourself extra work and you cut your lawn too short to gain an extra time between mowing well, not good. A lawn that is too short needs a lot of energy to recover and grow strong again. Moreover, this energy could be used by the lawn to form stronger root system. Clearly, a lawn that has well-developed roots is much more resistant to frost, drought, extreme heat or various diseases.

Cutting wet grass

Well, wet grass clogs the mower, and results in uneven cut. Some sections are usually higher than others. The ideal time to mow is when the grass is rather dry (meaning no wet from rain), preferably in the early evening. This way you give your lawn plenty of time to recover and prepare for the upcoming day in the sun.

Photo: Pixabay

Failure to change the direction of mowing

If you mow in the same direction all the time, you may notice lawnmower tracks on your lawn, and you may even notice that blades tend to lean in one direction. This is not good. Therefore, change the direction of mowing frequently. You can even mow perpendicularly.

Mowing schedule

Mowing your lawn is not something you can schedule precisely. Just because you have time on Saturday evening it does not mean that you need to mow your lawn. It may be still too short. It is better to wait few days. This may reduce the mowing frequency but most importantly your lawn will benefit.

First mowing

If you saw new grass seeds or if you making a new lawn, wait until the lawn has reached a certain height before mowing. This depends on the type of grass seeds you got of course. However, the rule of thumb says that you should not to cut your lawn more than one third of its height. Cutting too short will slow down the growth and it will create an unnecessary stress for the lawn, making it more susceptible to diseases.

Raking

If you cut grass that has grown rather long, it is better to remove it. Use rake to do so. However, if you mow regularly you do not necessarily need to remove everything. Small grass cuttings decompose quickly and bring nutrients back to the soil. If cut grass is too long, you may use it as mulch or compost.

Dull mower blades

It should be enough to sharpen mower blades once a year but it is necessary to keep them clean after each use. If cutting blades are dull you need to sharpen them because you want to cut the grass nicely and not torn it apart. Dull blades may produce brown ragged edges of the cut . Repeated mowing with dull blades can even weaken the grass which again reduces the ability of your lawn to deal with harsh conditions (drought, heat). So, when necessary sharpen blades properly.

Source:

https://www.scotts.com/en-us/library/spreaders-mowing-tools/how-mow-lawn-lawn-mowing-tips-tricks

https://www.compo.com/cz/rady-a-tipy/pece-o-rostliny/travnik/tipy-travnik-seceni

Preview photo: Pixabay