For many lawn enthusiasts the first ritual of spring isn’t seeing their first flowering shrub, it is the first time they fire up their lawn mower.
When February delivers as many spring like days as it has this year, the questions about the first lawn mowing are abundant.
Let’s cover some of the most common first lawn mowing questions we field:
When is the right time for spring lawn maintenance?
The best time is between the last week of February and mid-March. The goal is to do it after the last chance for extended cold weather and before spring green up.
How low do I need to cut the lawn the first time?
This will be the most often asked question over the next few weeks.
The old rule was to cut the lawn as short as the mower would go. Homeowners would brag about getting the lawn shorter than their neighbor. The more dirt exposed, the better.
But why? What is the purpose of scalping your lawn to the dirt? Is that the best thing for your lawn?
The practice of scalping your lawn in the spring on the lowest setting isn’t needed and isn’t beneficial for your lawn.
But there is something you should do every spring – the initial spring lawn maintenance.
It is common for Fescue to end up over 3” tall. 1.5-2” is a good starting height in the spring.
Spring lawn maintenance is the process of cutting the lawn to the height you plan to start mowing this spring. The purpose is to remove the cold damaged leaf blades allowing the crown, stolons, and rhizomes to grow. It is not good to cut the lawn so short you see dirt.
What is the difference?
Lawn scalping is setting your mower on the lowest setting, cutting the lawn as short as possible, often exposing some soil in the process. But, anytime you expose dirt in your lawn you are opening the opportunity for more weeds to germinate. And, when you scalp as low as possible you run the risk of damaging the plant crown. Damage to the crown will result in a weaker root system and a stressed lawn through spring and into the early summer.
Spring Lawn Maintenance is the practice of setting your mower height at or just below the height you plan to start mowing for the season. This sets the lawn up for you to gradually increase the cutting height through the spring and summer with your lawn reaching its maximum height during the heat of late summer. If you plan to start your lawn off for the season on the second notch on your mower, then do the initial spring lawn maintenance at the same height.
Often Bermuda lawns end the season at 2-3” tall. Cutting it down to 1” is a good place to start the season.
Warm season turfs, Bermuda and Zoyia, go completely dormant during the winter, so removing the brown leaf blades is necessary. The leaf blades (grass shoots) are damaged by the winter freezes and do not green back up. In the spring, the crown, stolon, and tillers will green back up. So, only leaf blades need to be removed, not the crown or stolon.
Fescue lawn before Spring Lawn Maintenance has removed the freeze damaged grass tips.
Fescue lawn after Spring Lawn Maintenance.
Should I remove the clippings or leave them on the lawn?
Bag the clippings or rake them up after mowing. Removing the clippings is always a good practice anytime you are removing more than 1/3 of the grass blade in one mowing whether it is dormant or green.
Fescue lawn 3 weeks after Spring Lawn Maintenance
If I have a cool season lawn (fescue or rye), is spring lawn maintenance needed?
For the best spring green up, I would recommend mowing the lawn a little shorter than you left it at the end of last season. Fescue and rye leaf blades often have brown tips from the winter cold. If you remove the brown leaf tips soon, your lawn will develop better color quickly as soil temperatures warm.
If you have a fescue lawn, in the next couple of weeks cut your lawn a little shorter than you left it in the fall to remove the freeze damaged leaf blades.
Should I dethatch the lawn?
Dethatching is the process of removing excess thatch. Thatch is the layer of undecomposed grass clippings that builds up on the soil surface. When your lawn is healthy and you are mowing often enough, you should not have thatch build up. This is even true if you do not catch your clippings during the growing season. But, if you have a layer of more than 1” of thatch, dethatching is recommended. Use a verti-cutter, also known as a power rake, to remove the thatch before spring green up. Excessive thatch stops air, nutrients, and water from reaching the root zone and results in a shallow rooted turf.
Aeration, after spring green up, is also an effective way of removing thatch and has the added benefit of reducing soil compaction.
In most cases, spring lawn maintenance followed by aeration after spring green up will cure thatch problems. In over 30 years in the lawn and landscape industry, I have only seen a handful of lawns with excessive thatch problems to the point that dethatching was required.
Best Practice for Bermuda Lawns – Anytime in the next 3 weeks, cut the lawn on your mower’s next to lowest setting and remove the clippings. Plan to aerate your lawn in April – June to reduce compaction, improve soil structure, and move organic material into the root zone.
Best Practice for Fescue Lawns – In the next 3 weeks, cut your lawn a little lower than you left it in the fall to remove the freeze damaged leaf blades, then be ready to resume weekly mowing in mid-March.
If you have any questions concerning the practice of spring lawn maintenance vs scalping, send us an email or give us a call.
Our goal is to help you get your lawn off to its best start this spring.
Lorne Hall
Hall | Stewart Lawn + Landscape
(405)367-3873