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!

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You guys are doing a great job with your lawns from what I have seen through the emails you send. I have seen some of your lawns go from crap to craptacular in just a few months! Good job you! … but others of you struggle even though you are working hard. The key is in the timing guys. Here’s what I mean.

Fertilizer Timing

If you have my organic lawn care ebook, then you know about what you should be putting on the lawn and you also know when. But sometimes your busy schedules don’t always allow you to get out on time. But you must! Applying fertilizer at the precise time that I instruct is very important for getting your lawn thicker. That is the main goal here guys… a thicker lawn.

Make sure you keep consistent with your applications, and keep them on time. Don’t skip any steps, you’ll get results.

Irrigation Timing

You don’t usually need to break out your sprinkler until summer. The key here, however, is knowing when to start watering. What you must do is keep your eyes on the lawn when it starts to get hot. If you notice areas of the lawn starting to go greyish in color, it is time to start watering. It may start in one spot, but over the course of a couple days, the entire lawn gets a gray-green look. That means it is time to start watering.

Keep this consistent ya’ll. Water 2 or 3 times per week for an hour in each spot and you will be fine. The importance of the timing comes in staying consistent. You can do it!

Mowing Right

We have talked a bunch about lawn mowing. I harp and harp on this more than pretty much any other lawn care  topic. The reason I talk about it so much is because of how freeking important it is! You can be doing everything right but if you screw up the lawn mowing, you won’t see much progress.

When I talk about “timing” in regards to lawn mowing, I am mainly talking about being consistent (sound familiar?) You MUST mow you lawn EVERY single week. If you are on my organic lawn fertilizing schedule, then your grass isn’t going to grow super fast or too much, but you will still need to mow every week consistently.

This consistent mowing keeps the grass plants growling steadily. If you miss a week and let it grow too long, you can do damage to the grass plants by taking off too much leaf surface. This can also contribute to the grass losing moisture too quickly.

Lawn Insect Controls

There are a bunch of insects that can attack the lawn over the course of the year. There are also lots of great natural products on the market to knock them out. If you get lawn moths or grubs, for example, you can use organic insecticides to stop them, but the timing must be right. Remember, prevention is much better than a cure.

Treat for these pests in late spring and you should be just fine.

Keep your timing right, and your lawn will benefit in the long and short run!

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I talk a lot about organic lawn care, but even more important than is cutting your lawn properly. I mean, let’s be honest here, your lawn could be the greenest, more organic thing on the block, but if you hack the living crap out of it, that beauty will soon turn to dead straw and dirt spots.

With that in mind, here are the most basic of lawn mowing tips that ALL homeowners should follow.

Lawn Cutting Tips: Proper Mowing Height

The first thing I want you to know is that mowing height is very important. In fact, it is the most important of all the mowing tips you will read here. This is why:

I want you to imagine cutting your fingernails. If you clip them lightly, you are good, but if you cut too deeply, what happens? yep, nasty! Same thing with your grass. I want you to only take a small amount with each cutting, meaning no more than 25% of the grass blade should be cut in a single trimming. So if your lawn is 4″ tall when you are ready to cut, you should take it no lower than 3″ when completed.

Now, this is the other part of mowing your lawn tall, and that is to keep it right around 3″ all year long. If you are unsure of how to really measure for lawn height like in the video below, then just set your mower wheels on the second to the highest setting and forget it. That is the safe way to go… mow tall, trust me!

Once you are set with the mowing height, now I need you to consider the rest of your lawn mowing practices.

Lawn Cutting Tips: Sharp Mower Blade

You may not realize it, but a dull mower blade will do wonders to make your lawn look brown. This is is because the dull blade rips and shreds the the grass blades instead of making a super clean cut. If you are mowing just your lawn as a homeowner, then you are usually safe getting your lawn mower blade sharpened at the beginning of each season. Just keep an eye out for the typical ripped tips to know whether you need to get a sharpen or not.

Of course, I recommend you keep two sets of mower blades on hand anyway, just in case. This way, if one set needs to get sharpened, you have a spare.

Lawn Cutting Tips: Lawn Mower Horse Power

This is one that most folks don’t think about , but it is very important. You must have a lawn mower that has enough power to cut a thick lawn properly. If your mower is under-powered, it will clog and heave and the grass blades will be damaged, but not cut and this is not a good situation. These days, I recommend a mower that is a minimum of 5 horsepower.

You also should consider the quality of the mower and the depth of the deck. A deeper deck will allow more freedom beneath and less grass buildup. This is usually more important if you have a mulching lawn mower.

Remember guys, cut it right and you’ll be all good!

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