If applied pressure, such as your shoe stepping on it, leaf cells will rupture causing damage to individual grass blades. By learning why, when and how to dethatch, you can keep your thick, lush grass on track. When you do finally mow, you are taking off more of the leaf which will stress your lawn. Ensure that you keep a strict watering schedule to prevent roots from drying. Mow your lawn on its schedule, not yours. After you mow your lawn and get the grass nice and short (but not too short! By liming your lawn when it's needed, you help ensure your grass gets the nutrients and advantages it needs for lush, healthy, beautiful growth. This means the grass can’t repair itself when you mow, especially if you mow too short and it becomes more susceptible to disease. If you ask should you rake your lawn in the spring, the answer will be affirmative. Mowing neatens the lawn, but also encourages healthy growth. Spring can work, but you have to get the timing right. July/August. Dethatch when your grass is growing vigorously. If the ground is very hard, aerate it by spiking with a garden fork before watering, to aid water penetration. “Scalping” occurs when more than one third of the leaf blade is removed at one time. Just remember that you have to give the nutrients a chance to be absorbed before you mow, so time accordingly. Both early and late spring are ideal times to fertilize. When Should You Start Mowing Your Lawn in the Spring?. Remove any leaves, stones, rubbish, branches, or dead sticks that may be lying around or gathered through the wintertime. However, be sure to raise the height of your mower blades as winter approaches. If you check on your lawn and continue to follow these steps your lawn should continue to thrive for years to come until the next time you will have to dethatch. Northern Texas often sees more mild winters, so you might mow your lawn even as it gets closer to Christmas. ), you might wonder what to do next. You have to mow off a third, wait a few days and then mow again to get it back to the optimal height. Spring is a great time to fertilize your lawn because of its high rate of new growth. There are huge thatch, rocks, debris, and other particles on the ground in the spring. Early spring aeration can be just as good as fall aeration if you overseed early enough (once the soil comes to temperature).. You should water your lawn before you aerate it (or do it the day after a heavy rain). Mowing doesn’t just make the garden look neat, it’s a vital part of lawn care that helps to keep the lawn growing strongly. For best results, mow your lawn quite short before dethatching. Bosch equipment can help you here. This is much better for wildlife and will encourage habitats to flourish throughout summer. Pennington and the line of lawn and garden productsPennington are dedicated to helping you give your lawn the best care possible, so you can grow and enjoy it to the fullest. Mow the grass shorter than usual – about 2 inches. Obviously lawns look better if the turf is uniform and you might feel like mowing it as soon as possible, but it requires correct timing. Dethatch the entire lawn. While you may weed and feed your lawn every way right, you must know the correct timings for everything. If you know the temperature won’t be getting above 40 degrees for a while, then you can reasonable put your mower in the shed. Is it OK to go ahead and mow, or should you wait until the yard dries out? How To Mow Your Meadow – Technique. Doing it properly is going to ensure the safety as well as the overall health of your grass. Each time you mow you’re essentially pruning the grass, encouraging it to spread outwards from the base which ultimately thickens the sward and leads to a lush, dense lawn. Mowing frosted or frozen grass can damage your lawn, possibly killing it. Overfeeding a Lawn. We know you’re working for the lawn of your dreams, and you don’t want all your efforts to go to waste. Tips on mowing a wet lawn: No Lawn Striping: Striping is purely for aesthetics anyway, so shouldn’t be an issue for you. Watering once a week to every 10 days is normally sufficient. So your lawn can “heal” before the heat of the afternoon that can put stress on your lawn. Take your mowing schedule back to every 10 days. So avoid winter, of course, and shoot for early fall (if you have cool-season grass) or late spring (if you have warm-season grass). Set your lawn mower on the highest setting. And, the same applies to other lawn-care tasks like aeration, refilling … This new growth is unable to survive under certain conditions, like dry roots. You should avoid rushing out to mow the lawn on the first day of meteorological spring (March 1), however, as the grass will still be frosty. Unless I’m fiddling about mowing paths and avoiding some of the plants, I just start in one corner and cut a swathe through the meadow area. Mow your lawn while moving forward to save time having to go back and fix any areas you missed if you weren’t mowing as efficiently, in a straight line. I like to go a little heavier than the recommended rate so I’m sure to get a nice result. Before you start mowing, do a pre-cut tidy. When you scarify your lawn at the right time, it’ll recover quickly and look better than ever. Raise Your Mower Deck: If you were mowing at 3 inches, move it up to 4 inches; Overlap Stripes by … You can also maintain the borders of your lawn with a strimmer, half-moon edging tools or edging shears before you mow. Not all lawns need dethatching, but when your lawn does need it, knowing how to dethatch your lawn is crucial to its future. And sometimes, your window of opportunity to mow the lawn just happens to be right after it rains. If you do have to water the lawn and maintain a green sward, water when the soil becomes dry, but before the grass turns yellow or brown. Autumn is usually the season during which you will perform your last cut. Over time you’ll notice your lawn become thinner and more sparse. All lawn owners will need to get rid of weeds at one point or another, and for many it is a constant battle to keep weeds at bay. Literally, frost will freeze the grass, making it rigid. You don’t want to do that, or else, you’ll have footprints all over your lawn. This creates room for weeds and moss to invade. This means you might have to increase your mowing frequency to once every 5-7 days. When to Fertilize and Water Your Lawn. Below the 40 degree mark, your grass won’t grow as quickly. Almost all the professional farmers or gardeners never forget to rake their lawn in the spring. Mowing the lawn in winter isn’t usually necessary unless the weather is warm and the grass still growing. Upon overseeding, you might notice that the turfgrass grows unevenly. The best time to mow your grass is mid-morning. So when autumn comes around, do the same as in spring, mow your lawn, once a week. Seed hulls require an adequate amount of water to germinate into healthy plants. Like winter, raking in the spring bring much favor for the plants. Lawn Dethatching Step-by-Step. Done properly, dethatching helps restore your lawn to health and keep it beautiful in years to come. The best practice is simple. The disadvantage of that of course is that seeds do not fall back into the sward. After spending the chilly winter months in dormancy, grass awakens in the spring in need … About Tim Stephens. 1 1. Photo: Shutterstock. We recommend watering your new lawn twice a day until you mow it. You might even see parts of the lawn turning yellow or brown and in the worst cases, the grass could die off altogether. Once the lawn gets quite long, don’t take more than a third of the leaf off at a time. The first variant is particularly suitable if the area is used intensively by children or pets for play. Some prefer a taller grown lawn in the garden, others like a neatly clipped English lawn. Choose the part you'd like to be neat and tidy but then let the rest stay a little messy. Even if you’ve scarified hard. So if you like your lawn at 5cm high, you’ll need to mow before or when gets to 6.5cm. Don't mow all of your lawn. 1.25x the manufacturer’s recommendation seems to be a good number in my experience. Ensure that the water reaches a depth of 10cm (4in) after each watering. However, do not mow again if temperatures drop and there is frost. Use the “1/3s rule” and don’t mow down more than a third of the total height of your grass each mowing. Some people mow their lawn like clockwork every Saturday afternoon, but it’s better to mow based on the height of the grass. Avoid your lawn during this time and avoid stepping on frozen grass. Step 1: Check the seed you have chosen to know the recommended rate of overseeding. Like a child going through a growth spurt, the grass consumes nutrients at a much faster rate than normal. It’s really important to remove all the smaller objects that got lost in your yard. However, do it at the wrong time and you could ruin your lawn and create more work for yourself having to put it right. Cutting too early would destroy the actively growing shoots, delaying the establishment of open patches on the lawn. But the heat of the day hasn’t yet begun. So, the act of weeding and feeding a lawn isn’t something you do robotically. In fact, here is a basic plan that you can use when you’re planting new seeds – often called overseeding your lawn. If I’m using my lawn mower I have the grass box on so that I collect all the debris. Getting rid of moss in lawns where there is a serious problem needs a combination of moss killer, scarifying and lawn care. Here is the step-by-step process I follow when I dethatch my lawn. "Don't mow all of your lawn. The aim is to give the grass a trim, not a front back and sides shave! You could even plant some wildflower seeds here and make it a real visual feature of your garden Cornfield seed collection, BUY NOW). The Lawn Care Nut put together a great video below giving a few tips on mowing wet grass. However, sometimes real life gets in the way and you simply have to mow when wet. When to mow the lawn after overseeding. Lawn Mowing Is Important for all Types of Lawn. Letting your lawn get too long actually ends up causing you to mow your lawn more often! Now it’s time to seed: Step-by-Step. The younger your lawn … Also, the sun has dried all the dew. Mow your current lawn a little shorter than normal and remove any shavings left behind. Lawn diseases can be caused by a host of things but thinking you can just mow over that brown (or white or slightly pink) patch and not spread the disease to other parts of your lawn is a mistake. If your new lawn or overseeded lawn has reached the golden heights of 5-7cm then it’s time to give it its first mow. A overall browning of the lawn will follow a “scalping.” Scalping causes the grass plant to use up its carbohydrate reserves as it regrows. Just keep an eye on the weather and time it accordingly. You need to know when and how you might want to mow your lawn at this stage. When you don’t mow often enough you’re weakening the lawn by “scalping” it. The best way to tell when it’s time to pack it in is by the temperature and the frost. So, if you keep your lawn at 2 inches (5.1 cm) high, wait until the grass is 3 inches (7.6 cm) high before mowing it. When to Put Weed Killer on a Lawn. Things To Check Before You Mow Your Lawn.