North & South Surrey Lawn Cutting Service

Believe it or not, lawn cutting is not as straight forward for Surrey BC residents.

How you cut, when you cut and even what you do with the cuttings can make a tremendous distinction in how your lawn performs.

Mowing the lawn in Surrey is more often than not the most underrated and neglected part of ideal lawn care.

yard care

Don’t Cut Too Short

The primary mowing mistake the ordinary homeowner makes is cutting grass too short. Some individuals totally scalp the lawn, using the putting-green image as the best model. That’s a detrimental tactic culturally for numerous reasons:

It boosts hydration and nutrition requirements as the turf seeks to fight back from near total decapitation.
It reduces the amount of chlorophyll available to manufacture energy to fuel the grass roots. (Longer blades mean more chlorophyll per grass plant and consequently more vigorous grass).

More Lawn Cutting Tips

It allows the soil to dry out faster, which increases the ill effects of drought.

And, weeds germinate better and get off to a faster start when taller grass blades aren’t shading them out.

What really makes a mown lawn look good is the evenness of the cut not its height. Most people are just as happy with a 3-inch-tall evenly cut lawn as a 1-inch-tall evenly cut lawn.

A bad cut can dehydrate your lawn and encourage weed growth.

The idea that cutting short lengthens the time between cuts also doesn’t hold up. Grass in fact grows faster after it’s been cut short as it tries to rebuild itself to its genetic norm.

A good in-season height for most turfgrasses is 2 1/2 to 3 inches – typically the highest setting on mowers.

When it makes sense to cut a little shorter so the grass blades will dry faster over winter, the exception is toward the end of the season. That can help head off early-spring fungal problems such as snow mold.

Pay Attention To Your Lawn Cutting Intervals Here In Surrey

A second significant issue is when to get out the mower. A good rule of thumb is to mow the lawn often enough so you’re never removing more than one-third of the blade length at a time.

Mowing is actually pruning. And that’s a form of injury to the grass plants. Severe cutbacks are much more stressful on grass than lighter cuts and require more energy to heal.

This may mean mowing twice a week or every four or five days when grass is growing fastest in mid-spring. It’s much better to cut that often than to wait a few more days and end up having to whack 3 inches off of a 6-inch stand. That’s not only a shock to the grass but creates an unusually large mass of clippings.

Properly Dispose Of The Clippings

Because they can’t be left on the lawn, big piles of clippings are bad news for Surrey residents. They’ll mat down the living grass blades and shut off the sun’s rays, which will yellow the grass and encourage diseases.

Clippings that can be seen even in small piles should be raked up and preferably composted or used as a mulch over garden beds.

Believe it or not, lawn clippings can provide 1/3 of your lawn’s nitro needs.

Clippings won’t be a problem if you’re mowing regularly. They’ll be short enough to disappear into the lawn. It’s actually best to let the clippings drop into the lawn as opposed to bagging them. Why?

lawn care langleyThey return precious nutrients to the lawn soil as they break down. Allowing the clippings to decay in place supply about one-third of the lawn’s total nitrogen needs for the season. Not bad.
The decaying clippings add organic matter to the soil.
Clippings are not a substantial cause of thatch in the lawn, as is often believed. When it’s too thick (i.e. more than an inch), Thatch is that layer of dead roots, crowns and other decomposing matter that can impede rainfall and oxygen exchange.

In a healthy South Surrey grass cutting microbes quickly break down small grass clippings.
Returning the clippings to the ground is recycling at its best and keeps organic “waste” out of the trash stream.
Mulching mowers do a superb job of chopping the clippings into small pieces. Even ordinary side-discharge mowers distribute clippings well enough to let them lie when you mow at frequent enough intervals.

If you fall behind, at the very least try to work around the perimeter of the yard, shooting the clips inward so you’ll end up having to rake only one or two channels in the middle.

Then to the left– you’ll end up with a channel of clippings every two passes, if you go back and forth– shooting first to the right and.

Keep away from cutting the grass when it’s wet. The clippings are most likely to tangle together then, you won’t get an even cut (the mower wheels will flatten grass blades), and you may even compact the soil if it’s wet.

Don’t attempt to lawn cut when grass is going brown and dormant in a drought– even if you’re mainly doing it because weeds are continuing to grow and are poking up.

Grass crowns become fragile and brittle in drought conditions, and if you smash them with your feet and mower wheels, the plants won’t recover when rains return. Dead crowns equal dead grass.

Use a Good Mower When Cutting The Lawn

Some people swear by their reel mowers – the ones with the old-fashioned bladed drums that go around and snip off grass blades like scissors. These work great, but so do rotary mowers when they’re kept in good condition.

No matter which style of mower you’re using, the most important thing you can do is keep the blades sharp. Nice, sharp lawn mower blades make a clean cut. Dull blades rip the heads off grass blades and cause ragged edges.

That’s a cosmetic problem because rough, ragged cuts make bigger openings that turn brown and stand out more than sharp cuts. Even worse, those bigger openings cause the grass to lose more moisture, which increases drought stress in hot weather. And bigger openings leave grass blades more vulnerable to disease spores.

lawncareOnce every few years is not enough, sharpening your lawn mower blades. Two or three times during the course of the growing season is a better game plan, or even sharpening once every 25 hours is not excessive.

Some South Surrey homeowners own two different lawn mower blades so they always have one for the mower while the other is being sharpened.

Follow That Habit

Finally, there’s the issue of the course you take as you mow. Many homeowners take the exact same route every time because it makes sense to them for one reason or another (convenience, habit, avoiding the nosy neighbor, etc.) There’s no horticultural problem with that, but altering the route can make a cosmetic difference.

Look closely and you’ll notice that the color of the grass appears different according to which way you passed over it with the mower. Because the force of the spinning mower blades blows the grass blades as it cuts them, that’s. Light reflecting off the grass will make it look lighter or darker, depending on which way the blades are laying.

It’s this pattern of cutting that accounts for the designs often seen in athletic fields. Some really avid home-lawn fans do the same thing themselves, and there are even special mower blades designed for creating patterns.

Varying your route can make a delicate difference in the consistency of the cut by ensuring no particular areas keep getting pushed down while others are always cut off.

Lawn cutting in South Surrey might not be brain surgery, but it isn’t exactly foolproof either. Just remember these few key rules, and you’ll be master of your mower: Mow high and often. Let those clips lie. And keep those lawn mower blades sharp!

Now that you know tips on how to cut your lawn properly if you live in Surrey, make certain to use right strategies to get the job done right.

If you prefer, we’d be happy to help. Contact us for a complimentary quote.