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How often should you mow your lawn? by Sheila and Tony Squire
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How often should you mow your lawn? |
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Advice,Gardening,Recreation & Leisure
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The frequency of mowing a lawn is often a personal choice but mowing it too much or too little can determine the health and street appeal of your grass and garden in general. The weather conditions can often determine how often you mow your lawn, but lawns do need some tender loving care when it comes to mowing. Generally with the tropical weather on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast the rule is to mow fortnightly during the warmer months and every three weeks when it is cooler. During the current Autumn period the intervals between mowing increases slightly to 3 weekly. To keep the lawn healthy the cutting height should also be raised to an average quarter of an inch higher than the Summer level. The purpose of mowing is not just to keep the garden looking good, but to build up a strong and healthy grass. The secret is to keep the grass at a suitably long length to prevent root starvation, but short enough to be attractive. The height must also remain constant during the growing season. Of all gardening tasks, mowing takes up the most time and studies show that it has a controlling influence on the make-up of the turf. The grass varieties in a good lawn will change dramatically if the cutting height is either raised or lowered for a long period of time. The basic rule is to mow often, but not too closely. This prevents excess leaf growth, fertiliser loss is reduced or prevented, and menaces such as worms, weeds and coarse grasses are reduced. Grass is a living thing and trains itself to assume a shorter growth habit, the production of side shoots is stimulated, and these, in turn, thicken the lawn for the Summer. Scalping the lawn to save yourself time and lessen the frequency of mowing happens too regularly. Good quality grass is destroyed because it becomes too weak to survive, and the thin, open lawn is soon invaded by moss, clover, daisies and all manner of grass, spread by birds and the wind. The correct cutting frequency depends on a number of factors but generally the height of the grass is the best guide. Roughly, in the Summer when the grass is growing fast the lawn should be mowed twice a week. In Spring and Autumn and dry periods it should be mowed once a week. Doing less than this could result in the sudden loss of leaf and the grass is shocked and reduces its vigour. The lawn then becomes damaged and suffers a similar fate to when it has been scalped. If you have allowed the grass to grow tall you must treat it gently and not merely slash it with a whipper snipper then mow it as usual, but you must just take the tip off the grass at the first cut, reduce the height a few days later, then resume normal cutting after that. This will make the difference between a brown mess due to a lack of knowledge or patience, and a lovely green and healthy lawn. As we all now, in an ideal world this is all possible, but the time and financial constraints of today mean that the aforementioned methods/advice will not always be used. My basic advice is not to let your grass get out of control or be invaded by weeds and pests. Frequent mowing, as advised, is the key but mowing fortnightly in the warmer months and reducing it to 3 weekly in the cooler periods should be enough to at least keep your grass looking good. Of course, other treatments may be required to keep it up to its full potential. For all your lawn mowing and gardening needs on the Sunshine Coast
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Mowing, lawn mowing, Sunshine Coast,
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