Getting your mower out every week to trim your lawn isn’t always the best. Depending on your lawn, the type of grass that you have, and other factors, you may have to mow your grass more frequently. So, how often should you mow your lawn?
What is the best time to mow your lawn?
This really varies on you as the person mowing your lawn. But, I always suggest that you do so early in the morning when the sun has just risen or is already rising. At this time, you have enough light to see your lawn or yard.
Mowing in the middle of the day under the full blast of your sun’s rays can cause sunburn, dizziness for overexposure under the intense heat of the sun, and even dehydration (especially if you always happen to like sipping on sweet drinks as you mow).
Mowing early in the morning (unless your grass is extremely dewy) allows you to easily trim your lawn without having to spend time under intense heat. Plus, you get to do more things with more time on your hands.
How Often Should You Mow Your Lawn?
During the warm season, your grass grows faster. Therefore, you’ll need to mow it once every ten days. While once every two weeks in the cold season on average. Trimming your grass is essential in keeping your yard looking fresh and clean. Here are the three main factors to consider before you pull out your mower.
Grass height
Mowing your lawn isn’t about how frequently you do it but rather how quickly your grass grows. Grass height dictates just how often you mow your yard. In warmer seasons like spring and summer, you may need to mow your yard every week. Still, this also depends on the condition of the grass.
Grass Condition
When your grass is turning yellow or brown, it means that it isn’t growing well. Before mowing your lawn, you need to nourish your grass first and let it grow out. Add fertilizers and turn on your water sprinklers more often.
Your grass turns yellow when its either cut too short in too little time, gets dehydrated under the sun, or simply has a disease. Mowing your lawn is to maintain a green grassy yard but without healthy grass, you have nothing to mow.
Type of mower you own
Whether you have a mower that you push from behind or a riding mower such as zero-turns to simplify your trimming chores, the type of mower you have also plays a factor in mowing your lawn. Smaller electric mowers (even with height adjustments) are less accurate in mowing your lawn since you’re manually still driving your mower across your lawn. This may require you to mow more often. Riding mowers, on the other hand, are quick and accurate and won’t require you as much in maintaining your lawn.
Mow Your Lawn Conditionally
Lawn mowing is not about how often you do it but finding the right time and conditions to trim your grass. Mowing is a task that not just requires frequency but also alertness especially if you really want to maintain a beautifully manicured lawn.
Cold Season
Autumn and winter seasons slow the growth of your grass. But you may still have to mow your lawn once every two weeks, and in the coldest of months, it may be every after three weeks. See “Can you mow lawn in rain” to learn whether or not you should mow your wet lawn in the first place.
Spring Opening
Once winter melts and spring breaks, the best thing to do is mow the tips of your grass before thinking of fertilizing grass. Removing the dead dried tips of your turf makes it easier for your grass to grow healthier. Plus the mulch by the clippings will warm the soil thus adding more nourishment to your grass.
Putting Green
Putting green requires more care and more mowing. It is a special type of grass that frequently needs maintenance and keeping the grass height as short as possible requires you to mow it at your lowest setting of about an inch. Depending on what type of fertilizer you use, putting green can grow twice as fast as ordinary grass and requires as much care as possible.
How short should you cut your grass?
Always remember that cutting too short poses a lot of problems for your grass. It can damage it by making it prone to diseases and dehydration from intense heat, especially in summer.
Ideal grass height
The ideal grass height is between 2-4.5 inches. Some would even consider 5 inches of grass is good. Though it may seem too tall, 4.5 inches is a great height for grass to grow properly. It also allows you to identify growing weeds quickly and pull them out.
I don’t personally recommend low-cut grass. I think (and other landscape specialists) that an inch of grass is pretty short. At this height, it gets a lot of plant illnesses that we want to avoid.
Cut ⅓ of your grass
It’s always ideal to cut only a third of your grass every time you mow. With this being said, if you want a grass height of 2 inches, wait until your grass grows to at least 3 inches before you start mowing again.
The ⅓ rule is a rule of thumb that is ideal for maintaining your grass and even your mower. Once your grass gets too high, it’s better to go over your grass twice (even with a riding mower) this helps maintain your blades and it also lessens the instances of long grass tips from getting tangled in your mowing deck.
The Bottomline
Always remember that the frequency of mowing your lawn on average is once every week or ten days in the warmer season and once every two weeks in a colder climate. But the true measure of when you should mow your lawn is all about how tall your grass has grown.
