No matter what guys, you gotta mow the lawn right! Organic is great, but cutting an organic lawn the wrong way is just plain foolish! So let’s get down to the basics on how to mow your lawn.
I have talked about the importance of a quality lawn mower in the past, but it is worth mentioning again. Cutting right can only happen if your lawn mower is able to do the job. Here are three quick things to look for when buying your next lawn mower.
1) Good power – I would recommend a mower that is a minimum of 5 horsepower. This is especially important if you are mulching a thick, tall lawn. An under-powered mower will not turn the blade fast enough and cause an uneven cut, or ripped grass blades. It will also cause clumps to fall out beneath the mower. Clumps harbor disease and block sunlight, as well as add to the lawn thatch problem.
2) Deep Deck – the depth of the deck matters when you are mulching. (which part of having an organic lawn is mulching when you cut). You want the deck to be deep so the grass clippings will stay under there long enough to get ground up into smaller bits. A shallow deck will drop the clippings out quickly and in clumps. If you buy a quality, name brand lawn mower, you will get a quality deck.
3) True Mulching Mower- don’t go buy a cheap lawn mower from a big box store and try to take the bag off and convert it into
My Lawn Mowed Tall - Nice!
mulching mowe. That won’t work. You need a true mulching mower with a good mulching blade, period.
Mow Tall – Mow Tall
Mowing the lawn tall is extremely important. I know that you want that tightly manicured look, but you need to compromise a bit sometimes in order to keep your lawn healthy. By mowing tall (3″ or higher) you are leaving more grass blade intact. The more grass blade there is, the more sun the blades can grab and make more food through the process of photsynthesis.
The more food the lawn makes, the more dense root structure can be formed, thus pushing up more grass leaves or blades. Yummy!
Now I need you to trust me here guys: once your lawn gets thick and healthy, mowing tall will end up looking VERY good (look at my lawn here). Just follow the next tip and mow tall and you will be in love with the results.
Mow Consistently
You must commit to mowing every week consistently. If you let the lawn go for two weeks and it gets to overgrown, you will stress it not matter how tall you mow. No matter what, I need you to make sure you mow every seven days at a maximum. If you can, cut every five days. This way, we are only taking a small amount of grass blade with each cut, causing minimal stress to the turf.
In addition to these tips, you should make sure you use a sharp lawn mower blade.
If you follow these tips to the letter, I can promise that you will get much better results from all your other lawn care tasks. TRUST ME!
