When is the first cut of the year for your lawn?

Grass is often neglected during the winter and according to folk law, the first cut of the season commences in March and the last cut undertaken toward the end of October.

However your lawn does not completely go to sleep during the winter months, whilst the rate of growth dramatically reduces as the temperatures drop but the grass will never actually stop growing.

With the effects of global weather changes, the cutting season is now longer – okay in the UK we had the coldest December on record and if you still currently have snow on the ground as parts of Scotland and other northern counties now is not the time to consider getting your mower out.

But when the air temperature outside is around 4 to 5 degrees, the top of the leaf blade will produce new spikes. Mowing your lawn over winter not only keeps your lawn neat and tidy but will also help to stimulate growth ahead of the main growing season and build up a dense lawn that has a strong growth rate. In fact when the temperate rises by just one degree more this will effectively double the metabolic growth rate of the grass.

I personally mow my lawn every 10 to 20 days during November, December and January and then fortnightly from February. It is also a useful method of picking up the last of the winter leaves.

This is of course subject to the ground conditions – as long as there is not a risk of frost /snow and the ground conditions permit (not waterlogged!) and ideally when dry.

Before cutting, I bush off any worm casts and any fallen debris.  This allows me to also assess the ground conditions and check for any lawn disease and moss infestation.

Lawns should be mowed according to the rate of grass growth and only taking off no more than a 1/3 of the grass sward. However for the cuts over the winter months I would only aim to just “top” the grass sward and leave the height settings at their highest.  If the ground is nice and dry, I will even use the rear roller mower!

The key to mowing your lawn over winter is:

  • When dry and ground is sufficiently firm
  • Never mow when there is snow or frost on the ground nor when the ground is frozen
  • Sharpe blades
  • Cut high (set the mower blades to no lower than 25mm)
  • Always collect the cuttings – do not mulch

And before you know it, it will soon be late February / March and time to consider what lawn treatments are required and increasing your mowing to fortnightly / weekly.

If you can’t (or don't want to) undertake the mowing of your own lawn then please check out:

http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/fed-up-with-mowing-your-lawn

Or if you are still enjoying the thrill of mowing but can’t just get the desire finish then read http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/a-good-lawn-starts-with-a-good

Should you have any questions or queries regarding lawn cutting / treatments please don’t hesitate to contact BGS – You will find our contact details at http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/profile/BGSLTD

 

 

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Comments

  • When we had our meet up at the Worplesdon Place, you told us the number of lawn cuts that you did a year.

     

    Now, driving home we got confused by the 0's on the end, so how many to settle a family discussion?

  • A two man team will cut on average 30 to a max of 35 domestic lawns a day, five days a week over a 8.5 month period which is therefore over 5,000 lawns per team. This of course depends upon weather and other conditions and key to have clients very close to one another.

     

    Personally as I am getting older (and wiser I hope) I find 15 - 18 lawns a day is more than sufficient.

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