GENERAL LAWN MOWING

If you want to know the basics of lawn mowing, then take a read of these top tips:

The Golden Rule - ⅓ rule 

This has to be the most important rule when it comes to mowing your lawn. By cutting too much off your lawn with each cut, you will damage, shock and expose the lawn. 

The Golden Rule:

Never cut more than ⅓ of the height of the blade of grass (this decreases to ¼ on new lawns) 

Avoid Cutting Too Short

This is one of the most common issues that is seen - the lawn is cut too short. Cutting too short will expose, damage and shock the lawn. This process of scalping your lawn will reduce the growth and start to turn your lawn brown.

If you want a lawn that looks healthier and greener, then let the grass grow and keep it longer. Check out the guide on how high to cut your lawn.

Avoid Wet Weather

Mowing your lawn when it is wet opens up the opportunity to cause damage to your lawn. Your wheels or roller will sink into the lawn and cause ruts, your wheels will spin and churn up the lawn and finally, the quality of the cut will be reduced. 

There will be times when you need to cut your lawn when it is wet, so in these times, try to be as careful as you can and just take it steady!

Change Your Cutting Direction

If you continue to cut in the same direction, you will start to create issues with your lawn, so switch up your direction every month or so. You will start to get ruts and trenches from where your wheels are running and you will flatten rather than cut the grass. 

Firstly this should be done by adjusting the direction of the cut, so you are cutting perpendicular to the regular cutting direction. 

Secondly, if you are using a roller, you will want to alternate the direction of the stripes that you cut into the lawn. When you cut stripes, you are flattening the grass to give the stripe effect, so by cutting against this, you will ensure you keep an even cut. 

Keep Your Blades Sharp

If you leave your blades to get blunt, this will reduce the quality of the cut and you will see a frayed effect on the grass. So, keep your blades sharp - doing this once a year should normally do. 

If you start to see the frayed effect or your mower starts to sound like it is hacking at the grass, this would be a good time to get the blade sharpened. 

Cutting an Uneven Lawn - Cut it Higher

Not everyone has a perfectly flat lawn, so you will need to be careful when this is the case. If you try to cut too short on an uneven lawn, you will hit those high spots and scalp the lawn (cut it too short). 

To combat this, just raise the height of your mower and leave it a little longer than you would on a flat lawn. Or, take a look at levelling out those high spots.

Mow Before Fertilising

In the summer, you will be cutting regularly and also wanting to fertilise it, so this schedule can be difficult to balance. When you have fertilised the lawn, you should not mow it for 2-3 days, so make sure you mow your lawn before fertilising.