To Cut Or Not To Cut

The lawn has really started growing now during the warmer wet weather.

I have been looking at it all week, agonising over when to cut it (Yes, I know I should get bigger and better things to worry about. And yes, I know it is only a lawn. But that's how I am: and this is only the start of it! I could get seriously worried about me. Do you think there is any hope?). In case you're wondering what could possibly be so worrying, let me explain:

As we saw in the article on spring feeding, we are in the last few weeks of active root development for our lawn grasses. And since I want to make the lawn as drought-resistant as possible, I want to take full advantage of this.

All plants grow better as their leaf surface increases, because there is more food produced to fuel growth; grass is no exception. However, we are limited as to how long (physically) we can let it grow. Although I shall be explaining all this later on, here are a few factors to consider:

• Never cut a lawn grass down by more than half. Since I am using a cylinder mower (an old steam model) with a maximum cutting height of 0.75 inches, and since this mower will not cut long grass without flattening it, I want to be cutting it when it gets to somewhere in the region of 1.5 inches long (If the mower had allowed, it would be 2 inches).
• Never cut a lawn when it is too wet. We have had a good drying wind this weekend, but a return to winter, with snow, is forecast. Leaving the lawn might let it get too long.
• Try to keep the lawn at a constant height. Letting it get too long presents it with too much of a shock from which it will waste time recovering.
• Leaving grass too long thins the turf too much.
• There are visitors to the neighbourhood and I don't want them to see an untidy lawn . . .

I could go on and on. But I am sure you have got the message. Things are rarely clear-cut with growing. Appropriate action is always a matter of carefully considering available options. This is why it is more of an art than a science. But this is also what makes it so challenging and rewarding (when we get it right). Increasing our knowledge and understanding helps us to make better decisions.

Anyway, as you can see, I decided to cut it.