Learning your grass is the first step to answering, “How often should you mow your lawn?” Every homeowner wants to have a perfectly sculpted, professional-looking frontage. To impress everyone on the block, you’ll need the perfect mowing schedule for your property.
There isn’t a specific rule of thumb when figuring out how frequently to mow your lawn. It has everything to do with the custom needs of your property. Also, you’ll need to decide on your personal preferences to figure out the length that works best for you.
What Do I Need to Start Mowing My Lawn?
The first step of maintaining your property is to ensure you have the right equipment available. Surely, you can manage a fresh cut with just a lawn mower, but a couple of extra items can take it further. Let’s look at the top-recommended yard tools you’ll need in your repertoire.
Mower
Of course, the most obvious thing for yard maintenance is a lawn mower. You can use gas-powered, electric, or manual mowers based on your budget and preference. Electric is always recommended, especially if you can get your hands on a battery-operated model.
Weed Trimmer
Every lawn deals with weeds at one point, which is where a weed trimmer proves useful. This helpful piece of equipment allows you to get closer to the edge of your lawn, eliminating weeds. It can also be used as an edger, as you get more experience to perfect the finishing touches to your property.
Grass Seed
Have you noticed there are areas of your lawn that look a little barren? If so, grass seed is a great thing to consider having on-hand. It allows you to grow extra grass in areas that look like they need some TLC.
Sprinkler System
After mowing your lawn, you must replenish the grass’ moisture. Sprinklers are the best way to ensure your property is thoroughly watered without doing so manually. You can opt to buy sprinklers to put out yourself or invest in an in-ground system.
How Often Should You Mow Your Lawn: Starting a Schedule
After you have all the right equipment at your disposal, it’s time to develop your mowing schedule. Every property will be different, as different types of grass have different growing lengths. In general, you’re going to want to pay close attention to your grass’ growth cycle.
Most property owners find it beneficial to cut their grass once it is 1/3 taller than they prefer. In most cases, this means they’ll pull out the mower when the grass is about one and a half inches. This should give you enough length to achieve a perfect, professionally landscaped aesthetic.
Once you’ve completed your first mow of the season, you must pay attention to how long it takes for the grass to grow back. Take your lawn mower out for another spin once it’s one-third longer than you’d prefer. At this point, you’ll have all of the information you need to start establishing a weekly or bi-weekly grass-cutting schedule.
How Much Grass Should I Cut?
Another common question amongst property owners is how much grass should be cut during mowing. The majority of lawn mowers come with adjustable cutting decks, allowing you to customize the mowing height of your grass. You want to make sure you don’t cut too much length off, as this can cause your grass to burn.
On the other hand, you don’t want to leave the grass blades too long, as it won’t allow you to leave your lawn healthy. Most homeowners find that cutting about 30% of their grass height gives the perfect finished product. This rule of thumb also applies when your grass is overgrown, such as at the end of the season.
According to New Mexico State University, different cutting lengths are recommended for a specific type of grass. If you know what kind of grass is growing on your property, this guide is a foolproof way to know how much to cut. A few examples of grass types and their ideal height in the list include:
- Kentucky Bluegrass: One to three inches
- Perennial Ryegrass: One to three inches
- Bermudagrass: Half to one and a half inches
- Buffalograss: One and a half to four inches
Important Mowing Tips
Fortunately, once you get the hang of maintaining your property, cutting the grass will become second nature. However, beginners will benefit greatly from this list of essential tips to help you get started.
Tip 1: Promote a Healthy Lawn
The most important part of cutting your grass is to make sure you’re promoting the overall health of your lawn. You want to make sure you don’t overcut the grass, also known as scalping. This can cause the ground to turn brown, showing signs the grass is burning and stressed.
When you scalp your lawn, it encourages the growth of weeds, which suck extra nutrients away from your property. It can also lead to considerable grass death, which is expensive and time-consuming to fix. One of the top recommendations for maintaining a healthy lawn is to consider mulching your clippings.
Instead of using a grass clippings bag, side or rear discharge the leftover grass when mowing. This helps to put nutrients back into the soil, allowing them to decompose over time. Your grass will thank you for this extra growing support.
Tip 2: Maintain Your Mower
It’s far too often that homeowners forget the importance of keeping their yard tools in their best condition. Did you know that a poorly maintained mower can significantly damage your lawn? There are many steps to take throughout the year to keep its pristine shape.
First, you’ll want to keep an eye on the sharpness of the mower blades. Mowers with dull blades will do more harm to your property than good, as the leaf blade will rip the grass. This can cause considerable plant stress and lead to your lawn dying over the season.
Be sure to take the blades in for sharpening at the beginning of the season or when you find your mower’s performance is lacking. You’ll also want to take special care when mowing, ensuring the lawn mower only touches the grass.
Tip 3: Offer Adequate Water and Sunlight
It’s important to remember that grass is a plant that requires a little bit of maintenance to look its best. Although it can proliferate with less observation than other plants, it still needs plenty of sunlight and water. This is important to note, especially if you tend to mulch your grass clippings after mowing.
There should be a sufficient amount of clippings to add nourishment but not block the entirety of your lawn. If your grass can’t access the sun, it cannot continue to grow healthy and produce its food. Water is another important thing to note, especially when it comes to promoting healthy grass growth.
Most lawns require a minimum of one to two inches of water per watering. Depending on the grass you own, you may only need to water it once or twice a week. Also, this is dependent on the weather you’ve been experiencing; if it’s been hot, you’ll need to water the grass more often.
Tip 4: Watch for Weed Growth
The final tip for having the perfect lawn is to ensure you keep an eye out for weed growth. As one of the most annoying parts of owning a property, weeds can be a challenge to eliminate. They are also massive stressors to your grass, impeding its growth over a period of time.
Every week that you go through a mow, ensure you remove any signs of weeds on your property. This helps prevent them from taking over the landscape while protecting your green lawn. It simply looks better to have perfectly maintained grass without weed activity.
Mowing Your Lawn at The Right Time
If you ask, “How often should you mow your lawn?” the answer varies depending on your grass type and preference.
Optimizing your mowing frequency can help you stay on top of your lawn’s needs throughout the season. Also, you’ll begin to notice a positive change in your property’s overall aesthetic with the right cutting height.
