3 Mowing Habits that are Killing Your Yard

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As a general rule you should only cut 2/3 of the blade of grass

Most of us want a nice looking yard. The other side of that coin is that most of us don’t like mowing. It can be a nuisance, stealing our valuable time. However we usually find the ends justify the means when it comes to lawn care. At the end of the day, being able to sit on your porch with a glass of cold ice tea and take pride in the hard work you’ve put in. But what if, while you have the best intentions, you’re actually hurting your yard? Here are three common habits that are killing your yard.

Mowing too fast.

We all have better things to do than mow the grass. Whether its baseball games, date night, or just the NBA Playoffs, there is something more fun. That said, it’s important to not rush too fast. Even if you own the world’s fastest lawn mower, you need to slow down and take your time, especially on turns and hills. Tires can skid if you go all out, ripping up grass and leaving nasty holes in an otherwise beautiful lawn. Sometimes these holes are easy to fix and sometimes they’re not. Just slow down and enjoy the ride a little more!

Mowing in the same track.

If you’re on your game you’re mowing at least once a week, maybe more. It can be really easy to mow in the same track every time (usually the fastest). You’re lawn mower isn’t weightless, its shaping your yard every time the tire hits the turf. It’s important to keep this in mind as you mow. You need to alternate between a couple different mowing routes. This prevents ridges from forming as your dirt is compressed by the weight of the tire. If you’re mowing in the same direction (the same route) and have been for a while, drive on a perpendicular route next time and see how many ridges you’ve already created. If you find a lot you, may want to run a roller over it before its gets to dry.

Mowing too short.

Again, this can be in an effort to cut down on the amount of times you need to mow. “Maybe by cutting the grass especially short I can skip a week.” This is the typical mindset. This behavior can wreak havoc on your yard for a number of reasons; the first of which being that it can make your yard brown faster in dryer weather. Your grass is a plant and plants need leaves to breathe through photosynthesis. In cutting your grass short, you’re essentially suffocating your yard. Another way short grass can be harmful is that it allows more sunlight to get to the dirt level in your yard. This is more sunlight for pesky weeds to grow. Typically, shorter cut yards have more weeds. The general rule of thumb is to cut at most 2/3 of the blade of grass. Now I know most people aren’t going to go out with a ruler to make sure their mower is set right, so we recommend a 3” cut. If you’re mowing regularly this should be short enough to look nice yet long enough to not cause too much damage.

There are many more things that you can do to kill your yard but mowing too fast, mowing in the same direction and mowing too short are the most common issues that we see. If you have more insight or a personal story please leave it in the comment section, and if you’re yard is getting unruly, take a look at our new line of lawn mowers!