How often should a customer mow the lawn?  It’s kind of a silly question when you think about it.  They should mow it when it needs to be mowed.  Depending on the temperature, irrigation and the time of year one may have to mow their lawn twice a week or twice a month.  There is no real answer to this question other than you should mow your lawn when it needs to be mowed.  A general rule of thumb that is sensible when you think about it is to never remove more than one third of the grass plant when you mow.  As we said earlier, mowing the lawn is a violent process.  We want to try to soften the blow as much as possible when it comes to this process and when a customer or a landscaper allows the grass to grow to six inches and then cuts it down to two inches bad things are bound to happen.  You can expect stunted growth, poor color and severe weed and crabgrass infestation within a week or so of the mowing.

There is one absolute requirement when it comes to mowing frequency.  You should always tell your customers that they must never mow their lawn when temperatures are over 90 degrees.  NEVER.  NOT EVER.  In fact it is always best to mow the lawn in the morning hours or near dusk.  Mowing the lawn while the sun is beating on it or if the lawn is under great stress from heat will cause it to go into shock and even go dormant.  Many times a few days after a very hot day you can see strange brown patterns in lawns that were mowed in the heat of the day.  It isn’t uncommon to literally see the tire tracks of mowers where the weight of the machine has caused the lawn to go dormant.

One more very important issue when it comes to mowing is to always maintain a sharp mower blade.  A dull mower blade will shred the tips of the blades of grass as opposed to making a clean cut.  This will immediately cause the color of the lawn to decrease in quality.  Sometimes it makes sense to pick a couple of blades of grass and look closely at them.  If the tips are shredded and brown you have a problem.  The best way to explain this to a customer is to show them several blades of grass and ask them to envision millions of blades of grass with brown tips.  Naturally, the over all color of the lawn as a whole will be affected negatively.