Thank goodness this isn't snow on the ground.
It's from the Bradford Pears.
I almost did it!
I almost busted out the mower to scalp down my Bermuda here in the front, because weather
was starting to look nice.
The temperatures were starting to climb and looked like spring had finally arrived.
But before doing that, I checked in with some of our customer service staff members and
they advised against it, and it's because temperatures are going to drop, and we have
freeze warnings on the way.
So once again we found ourselves waiting to bust out the lawn game to start crushing the
competition, otherwise known as our neighbors.
So it did get the gears and the wheels turning and it got me thinking about this question,
when is the right time to start mowing your grass?
Now before we get into this conversation, you have to understand that it all depends
on the weather.
Like I've said in a few videos, we've had some unseasonably warm weather, especially
at the end of February, so things started to germinate, they thought spring was here
and grass started to pop up, weeds were growing like crazy, yeah, it kind of freaked everything
out.
Myself included I thought spring had finally arrived, but it hasn't.
Cold weather is still around the corner, we even have freeze warnings coming in the next
few days.
But the simplist answer to the question of when you can start mowing your lawn is mow
when the grass is growing.
For the first few times that you get out in the yard and start cutting it, we recommend
that you cut it slightly lower than standard mowing guidelines.
Now for dormant grasses, when you go to cut it, you want to make sure that your bagging
up those clippings and your getting rid of them, especially if you suspect that you might
have disease on your hands.
Regular mowing is most certainly key to a health lawn, but avoid setting a hard set
mowing schedule.
How often you cut should not be determined by a date but rather how the grass is growing.
What's the growth like?
That's what you want to pay attention to when you're going to cut your yard.
And again that is going to be affected by the season, the weather patterns, and what
grass type you have.
General rule of thumb here is you want to follow the one third rule.
Meaning you don't want to remove no more than one third of the grass blade.
If you cut more than that, you're going to reduce the amount of carboyhydrates that are
stored up in those grass blades that help it to grow.
If you cut and remove too much of the grass blades, you're going to open up yourself to
disease problems, pest problems and most certainly weed problems.
So let's say that it's recommended to keep your grass type at two inches.
I would set my mower to that height and wait for my grass to get to three inches and then
I would cut it down to that two inch mark.
This is especially important in the summer months when the grass and the turf is stressed
by the summer heat.
So when you got all of that lovely summer heat on your hands, I would opt for the higher
mowing height, and I would not cut your grass when it's wet, otherwise you'll get that clumping
problems on your hands, and ain't no body got time for that.
So what about newly seeded or overseeded grass, when should you cut that?
It's recommended that you do not cut that grass until the seeds have sprouted and it
is one and a half times its recommended height.
But when you do go to cut those newly seeded areas, I would set my mower to its heighest
setting and cut it at that.
You just really want to make sure that those seeds have really gotten into the soil, they've
germinated and they've got a strong root system before you start cutting it and tugging at
it and risk damaging it.
Ok, so, for Bermudagrass like what I have here in the front, you want to scalp it down
all the way to the dirt in early spring to promote green up.
After that you can start regularly mowing it because it will be actively growing.
But since we still have a risk of freezing weather and frost around the corner, I'm going
to hold off from scalping it down.
I did leave it tall for the winter, so I'm just going to do a small cut now to remove
some of the height and lessen some of the work that I'm going to have to do in the future
when I finally do go to scalp it down.
It will lessen the amount of dead clippings that I’ll to have to get rid of.
I'll drop my mower to take just a little off the top so that I don't risk damage to my
grass from that upcoming freeze.
After the chance of freeze has passed, that's when I'll scalp it down to the dirt.
We will dive into that topic when we get to that point.
Well that was pretty depressing.
Like I said before, I am going to scalp this yard down, right before I go to aerate it
and put my last application of pre and post emergents down in the yard, but I wanted to
take a little bit off the top now, so that I reduce the amount of clippings I'm going
to have to get rid of later on.
So doing this depressing cut right here saves me work in the future.
So now what about cool season grasses like what I've got here in the back, or rather,
what I'm trying to have here in the back.
It's...it's mostly still weeds but there is some fescue.
So, let's take a moment to appreciate that.
Yeah, I...I know.
It's...it's mostly weeds but there is some grass in there, so I'm still pretty hopeful
that eventually I'm going to have a yard back here.
So now let's talk about when we should think about cutting cool season grasses like Kentucky
Bluegrass, and turf type tall fescues.
For all my lawn care brothers and sisters from other misters up north that have cool
season grasses in their lawns, your window for cutting is going to be between April and
November.
One you're in the growing season, you're going to want to at least cut your yard once a week.
Your mowing might be more frequent when your in the spring and fall when your growth is
really active.
And once again you want to make sure that your mowing frequently enough that you're
removing no more than one third of the total grass blade.
Now when we're in the heat of the summer, all you folks with cool season lawns, your
mowing might be less frequent.
Now when warm weather finally does come around, and it will, I promise!
Just...just...just hang in there.
You want to avoid additional stress on your cool season lawn by mowing it hot weather
late in the day.
Also a good nother maintenance practice here is change your direction every time you mow
so that you don't create a habit of the grass laying down in one particular direction.
When it comes to the mowing height of your cool season grass, it's recommended that you
mow it about two and a half to three and half inches above the soil line.
For turf type tall fescue, like what I'm trying to grow back here in the back because of the
jungle and all the shade that it's throwing back here, it's recommended that you keep
it at a height at about three and a half inches.
And there are benefits to keeping a taller cut on your cool season grasses, so let's
touch on those real quick.
It's going to shade the soil and reduce weed problems.
They prefer the cooler soil temperatures created by the shaded soil.
A taller cut really encourages a deeper root system.
A deeper root system encourages water uptake during dry periods.
Taller cut cool season grasses are less susciptable to disease and drought.
And heavily shaded areas like back here experience less stress with a taller cut.
Like I said at the the beginning of this video, the simplist answer to knowing when to mow
your grass is when the grass is actually growing and back here?
Yeah!
It's definately growing.
So once again, cue the montage and music.
And that was slightly better than cutting the front yard because there's actually grass
back here!
Yeah, it is still mostly weeds back here but hey, I enjoy a good challenge.
One day the weeds will be gone, and we'll have a beautiful lawn.
Hands down the most important thing that you can do for your lawns right now before spring
gets here, if you haven't done it already, is get those pre emergents down in your yard.
We've already made a video on this, I'll leave that link in the description box below, as
well as a link over to our website were you can go and see all the different pre emergents
we offer, and you can pick out the one that will best fit your needs.
So there you go.
I hope this video helps you out.
If nothing else I hope it just have you itching for spring.
I know I'm just so ready for it to be here.
Also just want to give a huge thank you to everybody that's been leaving comments on
our videos, giving us ideas, and things we should cover in the lawn series for all of
you.
So thank you!
We will try our best to incorporate that into the series.
Any other further questions on anything we discussed in this video, leave them in the
comments section below, email the customer service staff or pick up the phone and give
us a call.
And if you're not already, click that button right there to subscribe to the channel, you
can click this playlist to see all the videos in the do my own lawn care series and you
can click this playlist right here to see all the videos in the do my own gardening
series.
And as always, thanks for watching!