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To any Australian, the lawn serves as the ultimate summer playground – no other place works just as well for afternoon barbecues, picnics, frolicking pets and children, or just general fun under the sun as a lush, green, and expansive yard.
But if you want to be able to enjoy your lawn when the summer months roll around, a rolling up of the sleeves will be required.
For any homeowner with a grassy front or back yard, mowing the lawn is the ultimate chore, as well as one of the simplest ways for the schoolchild on summer vacation to make a bit of money on the side.
Regardless of who does it, however, making sure that your lawn is well trimmed will bring a lot of benefits that will eventually pay off during the days when you need it the most. Here is a quick guide to help you do just that.
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Improves Lawn Growth
A lawn that is mowed regularly will have grass blades that are trimmed down to an equal length. Because of this, the entire lawn will be able to receive an even amount of sunlight throughout the day, which helps the lawn to grow at an equal rate.
Mowing the lawn regularly will reduce the occurrence of dead spots on your lawn, allowing the grass to grow stronger and healthier, as well as make the lawn look cleaner and evener.
Keeps Pests at Bay
Tallgrass serves as one of the best safe havens for insects and even rodents to hide in plain sight. The last thing you would want to see are pests on your lawn that can gnaw away at grass blades and severely damage your lawn.
A lawn that is regularly trimmed will let more sunlight reach down to the ground, discouraging insect and rodent pests alike from sticking around on your lawn.
Makes Grass Stronger and More Resilient
Similar to what happens when you trim a hedge, mowing your lawn will encourage the grass to grow more quickly. This growth not only extends upwards through the grass but also downwards through the roots.
As the roots of the grass grow further into the ground, they help the grass cling harder to the soil, making the lawn stronger and better able to withstand very hot days, strong rains, and other instances of bad weather.
How Should You Mow Your Lawn?
The average homeowner and gardener would probably be well aware of the benefits of mowing their lawn, but the tricky part is figuring out how to do it and to do it right.
The problem with lawn mowing is that there is no one size fits all answer for every lawn in every home. Different types of grass respond differently to being mowed at different lengths and different frequencies.
That being said, gardeners that have come before have dedicated their time and experience to the art, and we’ve compiled a couple of helpful tips for you to figure out the best way to mow your lawn.
The One-Third Rule says that, when mowing your lawn, you should never trim off any longer than one-third the length of the grass blades during a mowing session.
To put this into an example, if your lawn grass is about 6 centimetres long, you would not want to cut off any more than 2 centimetres of grass when you mow. This is a particularly helpful and simple tip for a couple of reasons.
For one, it trims off a good enough amount to keep your lawn looking clean and even and second, it keeps enough of the blade intact to help reduce the risk of the soil drying out, keeping your lawn nice and healthy.
Now, unfortunately, we don’t have a similarly catchy rule of thumb when it comes to how often you should be mowing your lawn. That’s because mowing schedules will start to vary depending on the season, meaning proper lawn mowing requires several factors to consider.
To keep your lawn nice and trimmed, you would want to mow your lawn once a week during the spring and summer when the lawn grows at its fastest, and every two weeks during the colder months.
Conclusion
Mowing the lawn is simple but not exactly easy, especially if you own a home with a large yard. But then again, having what is effectively a summer playground all to yourself is one of the privileges of having a lawn in the first place.
By following our tips and keeping your lawn in tip-top shape, your efforts will no doubt pay off when the warmer months roll in and you step out the door to be greeted by bright sunshine, a cool breeze, and a beautiful green lawn that you can enjoy to its fullest.
