Natural Green Lawn

That title is a little strange but it conveys an important message here guys and that is “mowing your grass tall is very important!” Now I have been in the lawn business since I was a teenager and I can tell you that the single biggest reason lawns look like crap is because they are not mowed and cut properly! If you don’t cut right, you may as well just pave it all over with concrete and throw away your lawn mower!

Why Cut The Lawn Tall?

I want you to think about your lawn in this way: if you trim your fingernails, you are doing something that doesn’t hurt you physically, but does make you look cleaner and neater. But if you cut off your entire hand, you are gonna be in a world of hurt! That is the same with the grass guys!

Plants make sugars through the process of photosynthesis and for your lawn, this is done through the grass blades! If you cut too much of that leaf surface off, you are stopping the food production and thus weakening the plant. Weak grass blades cannot support the root structure beneath causing the lawn to thin out over time. A thin lawn can’t fight weeds and crabgrass.. UGH!!

Look at the picture here… does that scalped area look healthy to you? Many of you will say “well, the lower I cut it, the less often I have to cut it” and I will say to you “go ahead and keep cutting it too low and there ain’t gonna be nothin’ left to cut pretty soon!”

Look ya’ll, if you don’t like cutting the lawn, then hire someone to do it, or move the heck out of the house and get an apartment! I mean that! Don’t be “that guy” in the neighborhood with the crappy lawn. You are dragging the rest of us down!

How Tall Should I Cut My Lawn

As a rule, most turf grasses should be cut around 2.75 to 3″ tall. If you don’t have the time to get out and use a tape measure to check this, then a good rule of thumb is to set your mower on the second-to-highest setting during the spring and fall, and on the very highest setting during the hot summer. Here is a super long and boring (but important) vid I did that tells you about mowing height in the summer.



Final Considerations

I also need you to cut your lawn consistently every week at a minimum during the growing season! It’s right to mow tall, but if you allow the grass to grow taller over two weeks, for example, then you are still gonna be whacking too much off! You HAVE to keep up with your regular mowing or you will damage the grass. The best consideration is to never remove more than 1/3 of the grass blade in any single cutting!

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Hey guys! Let’s get started with some of the most important lawn care tips I can think of: lawn mowing. And to start off the 2010 lawn season, we need to look at some of the basic maintenance you should be doing, namely mower blade sharpening.

Why A Sharp Mower Blade Is Important

When you mow the lawn with a dull blade, you end up ripping the grass blades instead of cutting them cleanly. Think of getting your hair cut with dull clippers… it ain’t a happy situation! Ripping the grass blades shreds them and rips them (see the picture here), causing all kinds of issues. Ripped and shredded grass blades turn brown and millions of brown tips viewed from far away make the lawn look brown and not green and that just ain’t cool. You can fertilize the heck out of it, and it will still look brown from the rips on the tips.

In addition, ripped turf blades allow the grass leaf to dry out faster in the sun, and even worse, those injured areas allow an entry for disease pathogens! If you keep your blade sharp, you will get clean cuts, flat and straight and those heal over very quickly and don’t turn the lawn brown.

How Often Should I Sharpen My Mower Blade?

It depends on how big your lawn is and how often you mow, but as a rule, I recommend a good sharpening here in the spring before the first cut, and again in July to help you finish out the season. Of course, you should always keep an eye on things and if you notice the grass blades ripping, go ahead and sharpen up the blade.

I actually keep two lawn mower blades on hand (I use a Lawn Boy mulching mower) so that I can make quick changes when I notice the grass ripping. I also tend to sharpen the lawn mower blades myself to save money and time. There are a couple options you have all the way from a full bench mounted grinder, to Dremel tool attachments, drill attachments, to some cheap but effective sharpening tools that work well on the fly. Check out the boxes I have included here and see which works best for you. Remember, guys, a sharp mower blade is one of the most important mowing tips of the season!