Lawn Mowing
Our lawn mowing service provides our customers with a properly maintained lawn that not only has great curb appeal, but is also strong and healthy. Each time we mow your lawn we'll make sure to use the best mowing practices for that particular service. We also string trim around all buildings, walks, drives, flower beds and fences, and edge all paved areas as part of our routine mowing service. Of course we always clean up our mess, blowing off all patios, walks, drives and streets.
Proper Mowing Practices
Proper mowing is the first and most important step in achieving a healthy, beautiful lawn. Persnickety Lawn and Land care focuses on proper cultural management of turf to strengthen the grass which reduces the need for pesticides. Strong healthy lawns will themselves overcome a portion of the weeds, disease and insects confronting them. A strong healthy lawn will also sustain less injury from drought and heat stress.
Turf grasses naturally grow to be one or two feet tall. The short cutting of grass in lawns is very stressful for the plant. We encourage people to maintain a mowing height of 2 1/2" - 3" for Kentucky bluegrass and 3" - 3 1/2" for turf type tall fescue. (Add 1/2" to both in the summer.) The rule of thumb for mowing frequency is to never cut off more than one third of the blade. Waiting too long between mows will result in clumping, poor color and thin turf.
Don't take our word for it
Here's an excerpt from an "Ohio State University Extension" fact sheet
"Lawn grasses, like most other plants, must manufacture food through the process of photosynthesis if they are to survive and grow. This process occurs mainly in the leaves of the plant. Typically, the more leaf area, the more food produced. Grasses cut at low mowing heights cannot sustain the rate of photosynthesis necessary to produce enough food to maintain a healthy plant because of a low leaf area. The short mowing height weakens the grass and increases its susceptibility to weed invasion, disease and injury from drought and summer heat. Higher mowing heights favor deeper grass roots, a greater number of roots and an overall healthier grass plant. The deeper, more prolific root system increases the capability of the grass to acquire soil water and nutrients. This, in turn, makes lawn maintenance easier.
It is advisable to raise the cutting height of the lawn slightly (by 1/2" plus) in the summer to provide more shade to the lower portion of the grass plant and soil to reduce heat stress and, also, to increase the leaf area available for food production.
Mowing frequency is extremely important in the Don't Bag It program to ensure a healthy lawn and reduce the accumulation of clipping debris on the lawn surface.
The homeowner should never remove more than one-third of the total leaf surface at any one mowing. For example, if the selected mowing height is two inches, the grass should not grow to more than three inches before it is mowed.
Removing more than one-third of the leaf surface at one time results in an open, stemmy appearance of the lawn, weakens the grass plant, reduces or stops root growth, and leaves significant clipping debris on the lawn surface. Clipping debris is not only unsightly as it dries on the lawn surface, but it also excludes light from the grass, further reducing its health. Mowing will normally be required more often in the spring and fall with a frequency of at least once every week."
Street, John R. - Pound, William E. . "Mowers and Mowing." Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet . . . 16 aug. 2009. <http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1190.html>.
To read the entire sheet visit:http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1190.html