Just Another Quick Reminder

I know that I have mentioned this before, but, as we are getting towards the end of the lawn mowing season, I will mention it again.
Do not be tempted to give your lawn one last "GOOD HAIRCUT". This will do so much more damage than you think, and very often you will still have to cut the lawn again because it keeps growing in our milder climates, sometimes even into December.

You should actually be cutting your lawn at about 1/4" (6mm) longer than you do during the summer, so please resist the temptation to scalp it to within an inch of it's life just so you don't have to cut it as early as your neighbour. Your lawn will repay you during the spring and summer months if you treat it properly now, and that includes how you mow it too. Remember, "A lawn is not just for Christmas, it's for life",(or was that something else!).

It is also worth remembering that you should always look after and maintain your lawnmower during the year as well, it is very easy to cause damage to your lawn with badly maintained equipment.

Depending on which type of lawnmower you have, cylinder, hover or rotary, you can cause varying degrees of damage. Scalping,(where you shave the grass away altogether back to bare earth, can happen at the edges of a lawn with a hover mower especially.
This happens when you run the mower past the edge of the lawn and lose the air cushion underneath, thus causing the cutting blades to come into contact with the ground.
Other scalping causes are where you start a mower without slightly tipping it to one side, having the blades on your rotary mower too low and high spots on your lawn (this is especially bad with a cylinder mower as it will just dig in and try to plough it's way through.

If you see browning of the tips of the grass after you have cut your lawn this is a sign that the blades of your lawnmower need sharpening, you are actually "bruising" the grass rather than cutting it. Another reason is if you are cutting your lawn when it is wet.

There are a couple of other problems that can occur through bad cutting practices such as "washboarding", a series of broad and regular stripes or corrugations running CROSSWISE along the length of the cut, almost like a wave. The main reason for this effect in your lawns surface is that you always mow in the same direction and pattern. This causes, or rather your lawnmower causes, a ripple like pattern in your base surface because of the vibrations, especially of larger motor mowers.
You can sort this out by changing direction of your mowing pattern, a gentle rolling of the lawn and top dressing each autumn until you get the surface level again.

"Ribbing" is a pattern in your lawn of a series of short, followed by long strips of grass running again CROSSWISE along the length of the cut.
The primary cause of this problem in your lawn, (which isn't as common as it used to be with the advent of different types of lawnmowers), is that the blades of the cylinder mower are revolving too slowly, there are not enough blades on the cylinder mower or that the grass is too long for the cylinder mower blades to cut properly, so mow your lawn more regularly.

There you have it then, a quick reminder that managed to develop into a full blown article about the problems you can have resulting from mowing your lawn badly.
Please keep them in mind as we finish the mowing season for your lawns and we will be back again soon with more help for you and your lawn.