Now that summer is approaching in the southern hemisphere, those of us in dry climates lucky sufficient to own a lawn, should be starting the regular lawn mowing regime that may take us through into the onset of winter.
The commonest lawn grasses in hot dry climates are evergreens like the Bermuda grasses, Cynodon, Zoysia varieties, Kikuya grass (Pennisetum), or St. Augustine grass, (Stenotaphrum secundatum). With the exception of the latter, these grasses should have been de-thatched sometime in the spring. This extraordinary treatment must never be carried out on grasses like St.Augustine, that spread by stolons, but only, like the species mentioned, on grasses that develop rhizomes.
After the grass has come back – a technique that will take anything up to a month, we start our regular mowing. Regular means regular! Not when we feel like it, not when the grass is a foot high, but as a regular activity. Other than watering, regular mowing at the right height is perhaps the single most important factor determining the standard of the lawn.
You can decide the right height by mowing a tiny swathe of grass with the blade set high, then go back, lowering the blade’s height till as discussed some 40% of the leaf is cut. This 40% does not include the stems, that the leaves are attached, but only the leaves themselves.
So how regularly should you mow the grass? The solution is – it depends. As we’ve established the fact that not so much leaf should be removed at one shot, it follows that the longer the interval between mowings the longer the grass is going to be, and therefore the more leaf let the grass get So do not let the grass get so long that this situation arises. If the lawn is growing well – a consequence factors like adequate moisture, nutriment levels, and well aerated soil, then you must mow once a week at the very least.
What we need to remember is the leaf, as the leaf, as the plant’s photosynthesizing organ, is its source of energy. Consistent removing of OTT amounts of leaf during the plant’s most active growing season, decreases the potential energy available to the plant, when it most needs it. Also, scalping the grass, occurring when the blade is too low, or when the grass is too high, exposes the stems to direct daylight which can regularly cause direct damage to the grass.
The more healthy the grass the more hardy it is to pests and illnesses. Inversely , as the grass weakens, regularly as a result of a doggedly poor mowing regime, the more exposed it becomes to pathogens, and the more weed species may be able to create themselves, so further weakening the lawn.
