Albuquerque Lawn Mowing Tips – Part One

Mowing is an important integral component of excellent lawn care and with the hot dry heat of Albuquerque, NM, it becomes even more important. For a healthy Albuquerque lawn mowing must be done the right way. Mowing means your lawn looks nice because your lawn is well trimmed and the lawn looks well kept, however it really involves more than most folks know. How mowing is done, when mowing is done during the day, and what is done with the grass clippings has a positive or negative impact on how your lawn does.

Four Basic Albuquerque Mowing Mistakes

Giving Your Lawn a Buzz Cut and Not a Trim

Since the advent of homeowner grass lawns, lawn-owners have cut their grass down to the quick, so it looks like the putting green at the local golf course. Or they cut it short so times between mowing are longer, meaning they get to mow fewer times monthly.

Reasons Why Mowing Lawn Grass Short is a Mistake

Cutting lawn grass short makes it need more plant nutrition and bumps up its need for water while it attempts to come back from getting cut too low. Blade grass that is too short has lower amounts of chlorophyll which translates into the lawn grass’ food source being drastically limited. Short grass’ underlying soil dries out quickly, causing stress to the plant and it also makes it easier for weed seeds to geminate and thrive when healthy long grass isn’t there to stop this from happening.

A Smarter Mowing Approach

Cut your grass to a blade length of 3 inches minimum. You may discover that a well-cut lawn that features longer blade grass even looks better than a one that’s cut super short. Cutting lawn grass short does not increase the time between each lawn mowing chore time. Grass grows more quickly when its cut short because its programmed by nature to grow back to its normal height and it does this with vigor when it’s cut short. Two times when you can and should cut your Albuquerque lawn grass short are when you are going to over-seed at the end of the lawn season and to reduce the chances of getting winter lawn fungus or mold.

Cutting Lawn Grass Infrequently

People allow lawn grass to grow long for various reasons. One reason this happens is because they have gone on vacation and the other reason is because it reduces the number of times you have to complete the lawn mowing chore most folks don’t like.

Reasons Why Letting Your Lawn Grass Grow Long is Not Good

Long grass dulls your lawn mower blades and it creates giant sections of grass clippings that can suffocate your lawn and starve it from getting sunlight and nutrition. Cutting lawn grass that’s long stresses out the lawn plant because it takes more plant fuel and water to heal and grow back after it’s cut. More frequent lawn mowing is less stress for the same reasons, and it allows the plant to need less fuel and less water to grown back successfully. Big mats of grass clippings will suffocate your lawn. Cutting lawn grass that’s long causes this problem unless its raked up or bagged up as its being mowed from the lawn grass catcher.

Why More Frequent Lawn Mowing is Smart Move and How To Do It the Best Way

When you mow make sure you are mowing only a 35% of the grass blade length. Mow every 5 days when the grass is growing quickly. Mowing less blade and more often will help you make your lawn look better and give it a better chance at being healthy.