Nothing can make a property look its best than a well-cared for lawn.
It’s the most visible area of your property. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your house is. If your lawn is in shambles, your house will have an atmosphere of neglect and abandonment.
A Great Lawn Comes With Great Responsibility
Lawns can be a source of pride to many owners. With an addition of a few ornamental plants and bushes, you can make it look lush and beautiful. It’s a place where most family gatherings happen; a great area for your loved ones to relax, relish the air and enjoy being outdoors.
But lawns do come with a responsibility and a price. The responsibility is maintaining it, the price is the effort you put in to make it stay the way it is. And how do you make it stay the way it is? By conducting regular yard care such as keeping weeds out, fertilizing, mulching and on top of it all is grass cutting.
Grass cutting is one of the most regular things we do to keep our lawns in great shape. Depending on the size of your lawn, you can use a grass cutter to do it. But larger areas need to be taken care of with a lawn mower so consider in investing in one. But aside from buying a lawn mower, you should also be prepared to set aside time and effort to use it.
How Low Should You Mow?
The thing is, you don’t just turn on the mower and cut away.
Each type of grass has its own ideal mowing height. Cut off too low and you make your grass more vulnerable to heat damage and weed invasion. Don’t cut it low enough, and your grass becomes the perfect playground for snakes, mosquitoes and other pests.
On top of that, it’s more difficult to mow grass that’s too high—there’s a tendency to accumulate a large amount of thatch (collection of grass clippings and other debris) on the soil. Over time, it can interfere with proper lawn care and ultimately ruin your grass. The only way to get around this is to aerate or de-thatch your lawn which can be an additional hassle and expense for you.
The Right Height For The Right Grass
It may seem like a no-brainer chore, but mowing grass—the proper way to do it, that is—requires skills. For instance, if you have a shady grass, then it’s best to mow a bit higher because they grow better when mowed that way.
Cool season grass must also be cut as high as possible while warm season grass must be mowed at the lower end of the cutting range. This is especially true in the spring in order to get rid of dead blades.
However, the varieties under cool season and warm season grass must be cut at different heights. Here are some examples of grass varieties and the specific height each must be cut:
Cool Season Grass
Kentucky Blue Grass and Perennial Rye Grass – 0.75 to 2 and ½ inches
Fine Fescue – 1 and ½ to 4 inches
Tall Fescue – 2 to 3 inches
Perennial Rye Grass – 0.75 to 2.5
Bent – ¼ to ¾ inch
Warm Season Grass
Centipede – 1 and ½ to 2 and ½ inches
St. Augustine – 2 to 4 inches
Zoysia – 0.5 to 1 and ½ inches
Bahia – 2 to 4 inches
Kikuyu – 1 to 1 and ½ inches
Buffalo – 2 to 4 inches
Bermuda – ½ inch to 1 and ½ inches
Bahia – 2 to 3 inches
Seasonal Height Variations
But the above information is not cut and dry. You still have to base it on the current season and where the grass is located.
In the summer, grass must be allowed to grow taller. They should also be allowed to grow higher if the grass is growing under a shady area. In the springtime, warm season grass should be cut short to get rid of the blades on the soil. Doing this will prevent stressing your lawn.
Your lawn needs extra care in autumn because it is getting ready to go to a dormant phase. Cool season grass must be mowed shorter at this time to prevent snow mold from developing.
Professional Lawn Maintenance
A lot of homeowners don’t really have the time to get to know these details. And really, these are not all there is to it.
Most homeowners also do their mowing on weekends (which may or may not be good for your lawn)—a time they could have spent with their family and loved ones. Why substitute family time with lawn mowing?
You can hire professional companies dealing with lawn care in Mansfield like Help Property Services to regularly take care of your lawn and garden.
It’s especially useful to hire professionals if you are going to be away and there’s no one else to take care of your lawn. Coming home to a messy, jungle-like lawn won’t evoke that “Ah, I’m home!” feeling after a holiday. Remember, there is always time and the effort of capable hands behind the best-looking lawns.
