You want a beautiful lawn that you can be proud of. But like a lot of homeowners these days, you’re already quite busy and have a lot on your plate. That might be one of the reasons why you pay for professional Louisville lawn care services. Having a pro apply fertilizer and handle your weed control can help you have a gorgeous and healthy lawn.
But often, people don’t realize how much their lawn maintenance tasks (mainly mowing and trimming) also contribute to the health of their grass. While you might think you’re “just cutting grass,” the way that this is done can actually have a major impact on the overall health of your lawn.
Going even further, the state of your lawn maintenance equipment is also going to impact your results.
In this article, we’ll share some of our best lawn equipment maintenance tips to help set you up for success with these tasks. At the end of the day, we want to work together to ensure that you have the healthiest lawn possible.
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While you might think you’re just pushing a mower around or running a string trimmer to cut your edges, the truth is, these tasks are really important to the overall health of your lawn. Poor mowing and trimming habits can lead to problems with the grass color, thickness, and overall health and vigor. It can also lead to unwanted weeds.
While we’d never claim that grass mowing or trimming are rocket science, there are some important things to know about this service. At Limbwalker, we do not offer lawn mowing services, but we do have some advice for homeowners on the proper way to go about cutting grass.
One of the biggest mistakes that homeowners make is cutting grass too short. We know that people love a well-manicured, short lawn. But did you know that there is an optimal mowing grass height for different grass types?
For turf type tall fescues in our region, we generally recommend setting your mower to the highest level of four inches. We know that this is taller than people sometimes want but that will promote a healthy lawn with deep roots.
The trouble with cutting grass much shorter than that is that the root system grows shallow. To have healthy grass, you really want to encourage deeper roots that grow further down into the soil.
Longer grass also happens to be greener grass since you are leaving more of the leaf blade behind for photosynthesis. When you cut the grass too short, you also negatively impact the photosynthesis process.
Keeping up with regular mowing is also important. We know that life gets busy and you might skip a weekend of mowing. But when too much time lapses between mows, you have to make a larger cut to keep up.
Unfortunately, cutting a significant portion of the grass blade is very stressful on the lawn. People don’t always think about the fact that mowing is stressful for a lawn. You’re making cuts from which the grass has to recover.
If you wait a long time between mowing, you’ll still want to “cut high.” We recommend never cutting more than one-third of the grass blade at a time. That might mean it will take several mowing sessions to catch up but it’s healthier for your lawn.
Once you’re done mowing the lawn, you also want to take care to be cautious about your trimming habits. It’s quite common for homeowners (and even some “pros”) to scalp the edges of the lawn when trimming along hardscaping like the driveway or sidewalk.
Unfortunately, these areas become hot spots for crabgrass growth. When you scalp the edges of your lawn, you make it difficult for healthy grass to grow there. It’s cut too short and will begin to struggle. These areas are already problem spots because they tend to really heat up being right next to hardscaping.
The tips above have to do with your mowing habits. But the lawn equipment itself will also have an impact on your results and can contribute to mistakes. With mowing equipment, some of the biggest equipment failures we see are related to the blades and tires. Let’s talk about how this affects your results.
When you mow the lawn with a dull blade, instead of cleanly “cutting” the grass, the blade is ripping it. This leaves a jagged edge which is harder for your grass to recover from. Again, people don’t always consider the fact that mowing can be pretty stressful on the grass. Dull blades put added stress on the lawn and can cause it to turn yellow or even brown over time. It’s not uncommon for homeowners to jump to the conclusion that discoloration is a lawn care problem when in fact, it might actually be related to the mowing.
Make sure that you are sharpening your mower blades at the end of every mowing season so that you’re making a nice, clean cut. Depending how often you mow, your lawn conditions, and your lawn size, you might need to change the blades more than once in a year.
When you mow with an unlevel mowing deck, it leads to an uneven cut. This is another way that your lawn might deal with added, unnecessary stress. Usually a mowing deck becomes uneven due to damage, such as hitting a curb or rock. But it could also be related to something as simple as the tire pressure (tires being inflated more on one side than another). Mowing with inflated tires is also important!
String trimmers are also subject to a number of different problems including dull blades or dull lines, clogged heads, and issues with starting. When your string trimmer is not operating at its best, it can lead to jagged cuts or uneven trimming. When thinking about lawn equipment upkeep, you also want to keep your trimmers in top shape.
There are some regular mower maintenance tasks that you can perform each time that you mow to keep your equipment in top shape.
Here are a few of our lawn equipment maintenance tips.
While many of these tasks can be handled on your own, you’ll also find that many mowing dealerships will perform lawn equipment upkeep tasks for a reasonable fee.
More extensive repairs almost always require a professional. If unsure, it’s best to get the opinion of an expert.
Even though we do not offer lawn mowing, we care about how you’re mowing your lawn because we want to see you get the best possible results. After all, if you are investing in our lawn care program, then you deserve to have a beautiful lawn. But when you make mowing or trimming mistakes, you can detract from your success.
Fortunately, paying attention to lawn equipment upkeep and making adjustments as needed can go a long way. Even just following some simple lawn equipment cleaning tips can make a difference in the overall performance of your mower and trimmer as well as your results.
We know it can feel overwhelming but you aren’t on your own. Here at Limbwalker, we’re always available to offer advice, even when it has to do with services that we don’t offer ourselves.
We believe that the best lawns are the result of a strategic partnership between you (the homeowner) and us (the lawn care pro).
We’re always available to provide advice and tips that will help you see better results from your lawn. Together, we can have lawn care success.
Are you ready to have a thick and healthy lawn that’s getting everything it needs at your Louisville, KY home? Get in touch with us to get a quote for our lawn care programs, which include three lawn care pricing options.