Lawn Mowing Heights

The Third issue the MAY have a detrimental (negative) effect on your lawn is ………….

MOWING HEIGHT

The single BIGGEST mistake that most Australian Lawn Owners make is mowing there lawn too low. The green part of your lawn is the part that absorbs sunlight and turns it into energy for the grass.  When the lawn is mown too low that green part of the lawn is taken away in the catcher. This therefore means that the lawn has to draw on the reserves that it has stored in the roots. These reserves will only provide enough energy for the grass to recover once. If that lawn is then mowed down to low AGAIN, the grass has run out of reserves and begins to die off.

An easy way to think about it is – ‘Your lawn is very similar to your bank balance’.

The green part of the leaf is putting money back into the bank account, when you mow your lawn you are paying bills, or taking money out of the bank account. The energy stored in the roots is your overdraft or credit card, you can borrow from it BUT you have to pay it back…… The idea is to have a POSITIVE bank balance, not a NEGATIVE one. Therefore it is very important to keep putting money back into your bank account (ie, it is very important to ensure that you have the majority of your lawn in GREEN leaf). This will ensure that you bank account (lawn) will remain positive (lush and GREEN). A great way to reduce the strain on your bank balance is to pay your bills weekly instead of monthly. This means that a lesser amount of money is taken out on each payment and provides the opportunity for your bank balance to grow. (ie, the best way to ensure that you have a lush green lawn is to mow more regularly and take a lesser amount of green leaf away each time.)

Each variety of Turf / Lawn should be  mown at different heights. The recommended mowing heights of established turfgrass varieties (in Summer Months) are –

• Green Couch =             25 – 30mm
• Qld Blue Couch =             35mm
• Buffalo Grass =             40 – 45mm
• Zoysia Grass =             40mm
• Carpet Grass =             40mm
• Coastal Mix =             40mm

Some other Great tips for mowing are –

• Only remove 1/3 of the leaf area at any one time.

• The lower you mow it, the more often you need to mow it.  (Bowling greens are mown daily)

• In Summer mow Weekly.
• In Winter mow every 2^nd or 3^rd week.
• In shady areas increase the mowing height of the grass. (This creates a greater leaf area to capture sunlight).
• Mowing is the best form of weed control. (The 2^nd best is physically pulling them out. Do not rely on chemicals).

As the amount of sunlight (food for the grass /lawn) changes throughout the year, so too should your mowing heights change throughout the year. There is more amount of sunlight in summer and therefore your lawn can be mown shorter. There is a lesser amount of sunlight during winter (with shorter days) and therefore your lawn should be mown higher (to allow a greater amount of food (sunlight) to be captured by the grass / lawn.