Mowing Basics
As Important as Anything I Do for My Lawn!
Unless you are growing grass on a golf green there is only one rule to cutting properly. Cut your lawn at 3½ inches or higher and mow when it grows a third higher. If it’s growing wildly, then once a week.
Regularity
It's really good for my ego to think that making treatments of magic pestilence is the only thing that’s keeping your lawn beautiful. That’s not true. Mowing is at least equal to treatments. I’m going to make a case that treatments are going to be no more than a Band-Aid if you don’t mow properly in Morgantown.
Mow when the grass needs cut, not when you feel like it. Whether you cut it yourself of have a mowing service, once a week is okay but make sure the grass is never cut less than a heigh of 3½ inches.
Height
Height is very important here in Morgantown because of the grass types we have to choose from. Height determines the following:
- density (that lush feeling to your bare feet)
- water use
- root depth
- grass’s ability to sustain itself
- color
- cooling potential
- oxygen production
- soil arthropods
- microbial diversity
- rainfall capture
- carbon capture.
Knowing this is important but the simple thing is if we cut right, most of the problems with maintaining a beautiful lawn in Morgantown simply go away.
How Do You Know How High The Grass Is When You Cut It?
Set your mower to a setting you think is appropriate, start the mower, and run it a few feet. Now, get out an old-fashioned ruler and measure it. Do this a couple of times a season because your mower is always changing. Tires wear down, blades wear up as they dull and get resharpened, and mowers like me just sag with age. There are many studies done on cutting height that illustrate the difference a quarter of an inch can make, so just check it, please.
Some Common Sense When It Comes to Mowing
Mowing to some is the worst job imaginable. If that’s you, please hire someone to cut your lawn. I’ll happily help you find someone. When you're mowing, enjoy being outside, the smells, the beauty you create with each step, enjoy doing a job that is so noisy it blocks out all the mental chatter This can be your mental self-therapy.
Your blade needs to be tapered well, not razor sharp, and the back of the blade is as important as the front. Blades need sharpened once or twice a year depending on the size of your lawn. The back of the blade wears thinner as the blade spins at 180 miles per hour and cutting depends on the lift, or vacuum that the blade creates. Much like the old shavers the blade lifts the grass so it is cut even. You might keep a new blade around to compare to as the changes can be subtle.
Lastly, slow down. You are involved in a marathon not a hundred-yard dash. Consistent ground speed means the cut will be even. If you look behind, note that you are creating a pattern. Just like the baseball fields the grass cut from left to right is a different shade of green than the grass cut right to left. I can go on and on but you basically get the idea. Show some creativity or if you can’t muster that some joy.
