Mowing the Lawn: The 11 Most Important Tips
Mow your lawn regularly to keep it looking beautiful and well maintained. Bosch equipment can help you here.
Lawn Mowing Is Important for all Types of Lawn
Some prefer a taller grown lawn in the garden, others like a neatly clipped English lawn. The first variant is particularly suitable if the area is used intensively by children or pets for play. The lawn is durable and also forgives heavy use.
The English lawn, on the other hand, has visual appeal. It may not stand up to heavy wear, but it does give the garden a very well cared for look.
Regardless of which of the two variants you prefer: Regular lawn mowing is important in both cases. As it is only through regular mowing that the lawn is cared for, can grow healthily and develop well.
The following tips will help you to mow your lawn correctly and therefore care for it properly.
1. Ensure Sharp Blades and High Rotational Speeds
Cylinder lawnmowers are extremely popular in some countries. The powerless devices cut the grass with a rotating blade drum. They are very practical for smaller areas, however on larger areas operation quickly becomes laborious and physically demanding.
And cylinder lawnmowers do not cut the lawn as reliably as other models. The small devices also have a further disadvantage: Individual blades cannot usually be replaced when they are blunt.
Instead, you can always achieve an even and neat result with a lawnmower with rotating steel blades, such as the CityMower 18 from Bosch. The mower is battery operated, quiet and particularly easy to control. The particularly fast rotating blades ensure a clean cut and a reliable, attractive end result.
You should have the extra sharp blades sharpened once a year. Winter is a good time for this, when you don’t need the lawnmower in the garden. Alternatively, you can also easily replace the blades.
You can recognize when blades are blunt by the cut edges of the grass: If they are extremely frayed, the blades are blunt.
2. Mow at Least Once a Week
The more often you mow the lawn, the neater it looks. Regular lawn mowing is the most important step towards keeping the lawn looking great and staying healthy. Did you know? With the Bosch Indego lawnmower you can even set a fully automatic mowing calendar.
If you remember to mow the lawn regularly, the blades of grass branch out at the plant base. This makes the grass grow particularly densely. So you should use the lawnmower roughly every seven days.
Grass grows particularly quickly in May and June. You should mow even more frequently at that time. However, the frequency with which you should mow the lawn also depends on the type of grass seeds used. Quality seeds grow approx. 2.5 cm per week on average over the year. Cheaper seed mixes grow up to 3.6 cm per week. If you have used a mix like this, you will have to mow even more frequently.
But this work is easily done with the CityMower 18 from Bosch. However, it may be that you don’t have enough time for this. In that case, a robotic lawnmower could be a good alternative for you. It takes on the task for you and can even take care of your lawn daily if required using Smart Mowing functionality.
3. Don’t Step on Parts of the Lawn You Haven’t Mowed
When mowing the lawn, always remember not to step on the parts which have not yet been mowed. So start mowing at the edge of the lawn and walk behind the lawnmower.
If you tread down long grass before mowing, it takes some time for it to stand up again. In this case, the lawnmower may not be able to cut the grass, or not to the same length as the rest of the lawn.
4. Choose the Correct Cutting Height
A cutting height of four centimetres is recommended for a lawn which receives average use. So you should base the lawn in your garden on this length.
If you like it a little shorter, most grass varieties also tolerate a cut of 3.5 or even 3 centimetres. And you can also allow your grass to grow a little longer. Most grass varieties also tolerate a length of 4.5 centimetres equally as well. Simply decide here what you like best and adjust the cutting height on the lawnmower accordingly. However, too short is not a solution either. Grass which is cut too short burns in the summer months in particular.
Check on your lawnmower which levels you can select. If they are not given in inches, take a look in the operating instructions. Alternatively, mow a small section and then measure the height. Afterwards, you can adjust the cutting height if necessary.
5. Observe the One Third Rule
Never cut off too much length when mowing the lawn. Always observe the one third rule. This means: you should never cut off more than a third of the blade length. So if the lawn has grown to a height of six centimetres, you should not cut it lower than to four centimetres.
This is important, as if you remove the vegetation point to about half the height of the grass blade, it takes much longer for the individual shoot to recover and sprout again. Gaps may then appear in the lawn. And - as already mentioned - the lawn will then burn more quickly in droughts.
6. Cut off Less in Droughts, Shade and the Autumn
If your lawn is in the shade, leave it about a centimetre longer than usual. Otherwise, the blades cannot absorb enough light and then develop poorly.
The same applies to the autumn. During this time there is less and less light in the day. So it’s good for the grass if you leave it at about five centimetres when mowing the lawn.
You should avoid taking off too much length in the summer when it is very hot and dry. The longer the lawn, the better it can shade the soil. Longer blades therefore practically protect themselves from drying out.
7. Approach Carefully when Returning from Holiday
If you are away from home for a longer period, your lawn will of course continue to grow. In this case, do not cut it with the usual cutting height setting. Instead, remember the one third rule here. Cut the lawn back to the desired height in several stages.
The vegetation points in the blades will then return to the bottom bit by bit. If you approach it carefully and patiently, you will soon have a beautiful, short, neat lawn again.
It’s easier to get through a longer absence with a robotic mower. The Indego M 700 or the Indego M+ 700 from Bosch for example, can also take care of your lawn as you require while you are on holiday. This means you won’t have to do anything when you get home, except for look forward to a perfectly neat lawn. The great thing about this is that the robotic lawnmower returns the cut grass to the soil with a mulch effect and thereby returns nutrients. The best natural fertiliser you can have.
8. Do not Mow in the Wet
You should not mow the lawn when it is wet. Wet blades bend down and therefore cannot be cut off to a unified length. In addition, lawnmowers are but under a lot of stress in the wet: The lawn cuttings can clump and may not be completely transported to the basket.
If the soil is soft, a very heavy petrol lawnmower may also sink in and cause damage to the grassroots.
9. Use the Full Cutting Width of the Lawnmower
Take care when mowing the lawn that you utilise the full cutting width of your lawnmower. With the CityMower 18 from Bosch it’s a full 32 centimetres. Use it completely, then you will be finished more quickly and you will also have a uniform cut.
Always move your lawnmower over the lawn in such a way that one wheel width overlaps the already mown track. This will prevent transition marks in the grass and stripes.
10. Protect the Lawn Edges
If your lawn has a separated edge, i.e. an “English lawn edge”, you must take care not to roll into the neighbouring plant bed when mowing. Otherwise the lawnmower blades could damage the edge.
It is therefore preferable to mow at a small distance from the edge. You can then trim the remaining blades or cut them off easily with a lawn trimmer, for example the EasyGrassCut 18 or UniversalGrassCut 18 from Bosch.
11. Mow Slopes Diagonally to the Slope
If you have steep slopes in the garden it’s essential that you follow this tip. It will not only ensure your safety, but also give you a beautiful result.
Always mow slopes diagonally to the slope. So always move in such a way that the slope is on the right or the left. In this way, you can comfortably control the lawnmower and there is no danger of it rolling down the slope.
Through the even movement of the lawnmower you will also create a unified cut and avoid damaging the turf due to unevenness in the soil.
If you want to find out lots more about general lawn care, you can get more valuable tips here.