It’s once again time to bust out your lawn mower and fire up the sweet smell of fresh cut grass every Saturday! I hope you guys look forward to this as much as I do… its what I live for!
There’s nothing better than cutting a healthy and beautiful organic lawn (while drinking a craft beer), but you have to do it right or you could upset the eco-balance you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
These Spring time lawn mowing tips will benefit anyone with a lawn, not just those with healthy organic lawns… so listen up ya’ll… and follow this advice.
Lawns Grow Fast In Spring
The reason your lawn grows fast in the spring is because turf tries to soak up as much sunlight as possible. It’s been sitting dormant all winter and needs to make some fresh sugars (thru photosynthesis) in preparation for the long summer ahead. In addition, daylight is somewhat limited in the spring due to shorter days and lots of overcast/rainy days.
The reason I bring this up is to reiterate to you guys the importance of:
1) Mowing tall
2) Mowing consistently
3) Using a sharp mower blade
Mowing Tall
We mow tall for a lot of reasons, but in the spring, we mow tall so we don’t take off too much leaf structure. It’s actually good for the lawn to be cut. Cutting stimulates activity throughout the grass plant and makes things “flow.” However, cutting off more than 1/3 of the total leaf structure at one time can have an opposite effect and stunt growth… especially when the lawn is recovering from winter stress.
If you are wondering what “cutting tall” means, you should keep your grass at 3.75 inches or more. Don’t get cute… cut it tall baby! Go for 4 inches if you REALLY wanna go big and large!!!
I personally prefer you take no more than ¼ of the total leaf structure in a single cutting, and that’s why some of you (like me) will choose to cut your grass twice-a-week during April, May and early June. This brings us to the next point:
Mowing Consistently
I am not gonna spend a ton of time here. With consistency, I mean “you can’t miss a week: ever!”
If you let that lawn grow for two weeks in spring when it’s already growing fast, your lawn will be 6 inches tall in two weeks. At that point, you have no choice but to cut it down a good two inches to get it back a manageable level. That will surely cause damage.
Mow Tall ALWAYS!
If you have to go out of town, hire a neighbor kid to cut your lawn while you are gone. It’s that important! We don’t want to injure the turf in any way!
Sharp Blade
In addition to mowing tall and regular, the quality of the cut has a lot to do with your results as well. A dull mower blade rips and shreads grass leaves. These rips allow moisture to escape the plant, but even worse that that, these openings allow diseases pathogens to enter the plant and spread.
If you use a sharp mower blade, the cuts are very clean and heal over quickly, reducing these negative impacts.
There is no room for error in any of these points about mowing the lawn in spring guys. You gotta make sure you do it right. Remember, our ultimate goal is to have a super thick turf structure that can resist weeds, pests and fungus. You can achieve this goal organically and be proud of your results, but it has to start with good cutting and mowing practices!
