A professional looking lawn is an ideal goal for many homeowners, although most of them aren’t willing or able to pay for a professional lawn care service.
The typical American tends to their lawn an average of four hours per week, which adds up to over eight days a year, or 208 hours. Yet, giving your lawn the proper care it needs to look as though it was taken from a painting isn’t as simple as it may seem. In fact, most people don’t even mow their grass the right way.
If you’re looking to improve the quality of your lawn, you’ll need to first make sure your mowing technique is the best for your lawn needs.
Don’t cut too much
Even though it may pain you to only cut a little at a time, cutting more than one-third of the grass blade’s height can actually produce undesired results. Keeping at least two-thirds of the blade height will ensure that your grass grows strong roots, which can help create a healthy-looking lawn. It can also act as a barrier against weeds. Cutting your grass too low could result in scalping the grass and thus the blades are trying to grow in height rather than grow healthy roots. This may mean that you have to cut your lawn more frequently, but it will ultimately produce healthier grass. The blade setting on most lawn mowers is easily adjustable so that you can alter your blade height.
Mow a dry lawn
Some people are used to getting up early in the morning to start mowing their lawn, but this can pose a problem. In the morning, the grass is typically still wet from the morning dew, which isn’t ideal for grass cutting. With that said, you shouldn’t mow after a rainstorm until the grass has had time to dry either. On a typical clear day, the best time to cut the grass is early evening, when the dew is long gone and the sun isn’t as intense (saving both your skin and the mower).
Change it up
Most homeowners are accustomed to a mowing pattern that they’ve used for years and they never vary. This is bad. Not only does it create ruts and odd grow spots in your lawn, but your grass will actually begin to learn which way it’s cut from and begin to lean that way, producing a less-effective cut. Changing up your pattern can keep your grass nice and tall, which allows for a better cut, as well as fewer ruts from your lawn mower.
If you’ve been mowing your lawn like this already, then you’re good to go. If not, you should consider changing your mowing habits so that your lawn can grow healthier and have the desired curb appeal.
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