by Paul Wallis

Created on: February 17, 2007   Last Updated: July 18, 2011

The best way to mow a lawn is to not mow it at all, and when mowing, to adapt your technique to the best advantage of the grass. Generally most lawn mixes are comprised of grasses that don't grow particularly tall, but to have an optimum height for healthy plants. Turf is structured to form an even bedding, and the growth rate in lawn mixes is pretty standardized. However, that also means that the lawns are rather limited in their tolerance to mowing and other human interference.

Some lawn grasses, like the beautiful English lawn mix, are excellent in wet, temperate climates. Mowing can damage the integrity of these soft grasses, and create gaps, which is fairly disastrous for these plants, creating bald patches which suck moisture out of the soil. That's why bald patches spread; the integrity of the turf has been affected. Other grasses thrive in dry conditions, but suffer severely with excess moisture.

Don't mow anything until you know what you're dealing with.

FUNDAMENTALS

1. Always mow so the root system is well protected. The blade should be set at no less than two inches from the ground. Exposing the roots is dangerous, and will dry them out.

2. Some forms of mowing can impact soil. This is also bad for the grass, because although all grasses can deal with some level of compacting, too much is actually crushing them, and the soil is harder for them to penetrate with their roots.

3. You'll notice that even the most meticulously mown golf courses and greens are mown with a great emphasis on the integrity of the grasses and surfaces. This is vital to their maintenance, because the slash and burn version of mowing would cost the golf clubs a fortune.

4. *Don't mow at all in dry spells.* The grass is weak, and needs to conserve moisture.

BASIC LAWN CARE

Healthy lawns can be mown much more easily and far less destructively:

1. The lawn will tell you all about itself with a bit of observation. Like most garden plants, it will give you a map of its problems and its strengths. Allow the lawn to reach a decent healthy growth level, before even thinking about mowing or re-turfing. You now know what that lawn is capable of doing. Any weak points will be immediately obvious. This is the tactical scenario. You can plan better when the problem is properly defined.

2. You will also see that the grass in your lawn does better at a certain height, (extremely important when mowing) and that some areas are at least relatively run down. This may be a result of drainage, exposure

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