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How to Know When to Mow Your Lawn
from: Lawn and Garden MagicMowing at times seems like a mundane, but necessary job to keep your property looking well maintained. However, mowing isn't something you should take for granted. It's actually one of the most important lawn care requirements you perform. There are many factors affecting how effective your mowing can be, from the height you mow your grass to the blade of the mower. In fact, how frequent and time you mow will be a major factor on the health and appearance of your lawn.
You must know when to mow based on the length of the grass, which will determine how often you mow. In a perfect world where you've able to schedule mowing between little league games, anniversaries and trips out of town, you mow your lawn using what many refer to as the one third rule. The one-third rule says that you should never mow off more than one third of the length of the grass blades. In other words, if you were to mow your lawn to three inches in length, you don't mow until the blades have reached a length of four and one half inches. Obviously you aren't going to crawl through your lawn with a ruler to check the length of ever blade of grass. The idea is that you have a general idea of what you are doing when it comes to how often you cut your grass. Mowing is actually injuring the grass. If you don't mow too often and use the one-third rule, you will minimize the damage to your lawn.
The one-third rule means lawn mowing frequency will vary. Your grass, depending on your climate, weather and type of grass will grow at different rates during different season of the year. Also, keep in mind with regard to the one-third rule is that you shouldn't wait too long after your grass has reached the one-third cut off length. Just as you shouldn’t mow too often and cut the grass when it's too short, you should also avoid cutting the lawn when the grass is too long as well.
What can happen if you let the lawn grow too high is that you're exposing parts of the grass to the sun that aren't able to handle it. When your grass grows too long, the tops of the blades prevent the bottoms of the blades from being exposed to the sun. When you then suddenly cut off the tops, you expose those bottom parts and your grass will look rough for a couple of weeks.
The next thing that may happen if you cut the blades when they're too long is you might end up with problems below the surface. The sudden exposure of the bottom blades to the sun can cause the roots to go into shock which can stunt the growth of your lawn for a few days and make it look shabby. Of course, when tall grass is mowed it creates larger clippings and thus a bigger mess.
Once you have the frequency worked out, you should also consider what time of day you're going to mow. Evening is actually the best time to mow. Keep in mind that mowing damages the grass and it needs to heal. During the day your grass is already being pounded by the sun, so mowing just make that worse. If you mow in the evening, your lawn will have more time to start healing itself before the sun's damaging rays hit it the next morning.
Of course, mowing is a very important duty when it comes to lawn care. If you do it properly, it will help you develop a lawn that nearly takes care of itself. It may be that the most misunderstood and most important part of mowing is your timing. Since mowing is a damaging process, timing is everything. Make sure you avoid cutting your lawn too frequently, or even from mowing it when it's too long by using the one-third rule. Also, when possible, mow in the evenings so the cool of the night gives it time to heal. Keep these timing hints in mind and you'll have a great looking and healthy lawn.
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