Mowing

When somebody looks at their lawn, how do you tell when it’s time to mow for the first time?

It’s a temperature thing, and the grasses will wake up differently. If you’ve got a really shaded area, that soil is going to stay much cooler because it’s not getting the sun heating it up, and that grass is going to wake up much slower than an area that’s in full sun all day long. Sometimes the sites dictate that a little bit, but I would say most of the time it’s soil temps. When we get into the 50-plus degree of soil temperatures, that’s when that ground is going to wake up and everything is going to start to grow again. That’s when you start to do grass seed or fertilizer.

We’re starting to sell grass seed now, and we’re letting everybody we’re selling it to know that they can put this down now. It will just stay until the soil temperature is right for it to germinate and start to grow. There is a myth out there that the birds will come, and they’ll eat all the grass seed. The birds don’t eat grass seed. Most of the times when we’re seeding our lawn, we’re watering it, and the worms come to the surface. They’re there actually eating the worms, not eating the seed. If you don’t believe me, fill up one of your bird feeders with grass seed. They won’t touch it. They know the difference.

It is a very exciting time, and this is a time when we all need to start to think about all the different things that we want to do. You can get things ready. I remembered at the end of the season last year, I bought like a pack of gardening gloves, like a 10-pack. I got my mowers fired up yesterday for the first time and I cut the front lawn, it seemed awfully lumpy and wasn’t level at all. As the ground freezes and thaws, it does create some even unevenness through the winter months.

Now, as you drive over it with the mower back and forth, it’s important to take different paths each time you mow. So, you may mow it east to west one time, north to south the next time, and then diagonal the next time. And in doing so, you’re evenly packing that soil back down instead of mowing the same exact pattern every time. And we are creatures of habit, so it’s easy to fall into that where we mow it the same direction every time, but it’s better for the lawn to mow it in different patterns. And the grass will be healthier because of it. Now, if it’s moles, we do have some products that’ll help get the moles and basically drive the moles out of your yard if the moles are one of the things that are causing the lumpiness to happen. I do have to change up how I mow, or my tires are packing that soil down in the same spot every time I mow. And so, by doing it different directions, you’ll see the lawn will react favorably to that.

Try that out that mowing trick and get some grass seed or mole repellant at either of our locations!

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).