How to cut tall grass

Mow the lawn with overlapping passes to ensure an even, uniform cut. Water the lawn deeply and evenly, and allow the lawn to rest for several days. Mow the lawn every three to five days until the lawn reaches the desired height. Move the mower blades down a third of the way each time.

When cutting tall grass there are four stand-out tools. If you have access to power tools, start off with a strimmer or weed eater and strim down to around 4-6 inches. If cutting grass by hand, start off with a Sickle or Grass Scythe, work your way down to a length you can eventually mow of around 3-4 inches.

It is important to not immediately take a lawn mower to your tall grass. The lawn mower likely not be able to handle the amount of clippings, but it will also damage your lawn. Trim it back first using a trimmer for the best results. After the first trim, it is likely that your lawn is still too long to mow.

Trim the grass down to a height of between 4 to 5 inches with a weed whacker or trimmer, if it’s overgrown beyond this length. This might take several hours if your lawn is large, but is well worth the effort to avoid damaging your small mower on this difficult grass.

Mowing regularly is best, and for most lawns, a grass height of two inches is ideal, cutting no more than one-third of the grass of at a time. Anything above two inches is high, but not too high for a lawn mower.

No, according to the RHS you should never mow wet grass. Mowing wet or frosty grass can damage the turf and compact the soil. Wet grass cuts less cleanly and you will tear out too much grass. These clippings clump together and can block up the mower’s deck, damaging the mower itself too.

Trimming is done second because all the debris will get mowed over and it will disappear. If you mow first then trim, all the debris will just lay there on top of the lawn in plain sight. Yes, they can be blown away, though if you mow after you will not have to clean up the trimming mess.

Grass needs a temperature of at least 6 Celsius to grow, and will grow at varying speeds depending on the temperature. During extremely hot or cold periods grass growth will be slowed. During the winter and periods of extreme heat you should avoid cutting the grass where possible.

In general, grass shouldn’t be mowed lower than three inches, so it’s best to wait until your new turf reaches at least 3.5 inches. Cutting too low can cause stress to the new roots of your turf, which will remain delicate for several weeks.

Unless you’ve let the lawn grow excessively long, or the clippings are in thick clumps, grass clippings are a good source of nutrients. Leaving clippings helps save fertilizer costs and thereby prevents ground and surface water contamination.

Don’t water before you mow.

While it’s definitely fine to water after mowing the lawn, you should avoid watering before you mow. Wet grass will just clump up as you mow it, clogging your mower and being a pain in general.

A Rule of Thumb

An optimal height for a cool-season grass generally is about 2 1/2 inches. And at each mowing, you should only be removing about the top 1/3 of the grass blade. Consequently, a good time to mow lawns is when your grass is about 3 2/3 inches high.

Typical cool-season grass height range: 2.5-4 inches. For warm-season grasses, including Zoysiagrass and Bermudagrass, peak growth occurs during summer. Typical warm-season grass height range: 1-3 inches. During periods of peak growth, expect to mow the lawn once every 5-7 days.

Most lawn care experts recommend cutting no more than one-third of the total length of the grass blades each you mow; trimming a smaller amount is even better. Very long grass is hard to mow effectively—the grass blades tend to tear rather than be sliced off cleanly by the lawnmower blade.

Cutting too short.

Why that’s bad: Scalping increases moisture and nutrition demands as the grass tries to recover from near decapitation. Short grass also allows the soil to dry out faster (bad news in drought), and weeds germinate better and get off to a faster start when taller grass blades aren’t in the way.

Mowing your lawn properly is one of the easiest ways to fight off weeds and diseases. Mowing too short (“scalping”) can have some pretty serious repercussions; it can weaken and even kill your lawn. Additionally, cutting too short will limit the grass’s nutrient supply, giving weeds free reign.

Mowing your lawn too short is a bad idea!

Highly manicured greens (what lawn experts call ‘fine turf’) will be sown using a highly specialised cultivar of grass. It is developed to specifically tolerate very regular, close mowing.

Avoid Short Cuts

A good rule of thumb — never cut more than the top third of the grass blade off. Otherwise, it could stress the plant and cause unsightly browning. Forget the lawn-mowing myth that says the shorter you mow grass, the less often you’ll have to cut it.