Gardening: A lush, green lawn is a beautiful thing

Proper mowing of your lawn can kill weeds and chinch bugs, cure disease, save water and provide fertilizer. However, improper mowing can be harmful.

Mowing is stressful to grass because it is meant to grow tall, mature and make seeds. Man decided that lawns look good when freshly mowed and most people feel the shorter the better. But a close cut doesnt do much for your lawn or your water bill.

Grasses are basal-growing plants. The growing point is at the crown (the area between the root and the blade) of the plant near the soil line. The tips are the oldest part of the blade which means you can cut off their tops without killing them. When you cut the tips, new growth pushes up from the crown. When the mower cuts off those grass tips, it causes severe shock to the grass plant.

Grass lives primarily on food manufactured in its blades not on what is drawn up through the roots. Cutting the blades reduces the ability of the plant to manufacture food. That food is used for both top and root growth so the shorter you cut the grass the less root growth you will have.

A plant with deep roots will be better able to withstand drought, fight off disease and insects and store food manufactured in the leaves. So the longer the root the healthier the grass. Every time the grass is cut the root system is weakened to some degree. When cut too severely, the roots stop growing. Mowing tears the plant and creates ports of entry for disease. Sharp mower blades give a cleaner cut which heals faster.

Mowing has actually tamed the wild grasses of our past. Mowing grass before it sets seeds prevents sexual reproduction and many grasses respond by reproducing asexually by spreading stolons and rhizomes creating a thicker lawn. How high you mow will also influence the spread of the grass. A higher cut makes healthier grass with deeper roots, more mass for photosynthesis and more stolons and rhizomes for a thicker sod which means less weed invasion.

You should also take into account that grass grows at different rates throughout the seasons. The summer months require more frequent mowing than our cold winter and dry spring months when you should not cut as often. The cold weather will slow the growth and bi-weekly mowing will be all that is needed. Some lawns could go three weeks or a month without mowing during a really cold winter. If the grass doesnt need to be mowed save it from the extra stress and dont mow it. Then we move into the dry spring months and grasses will be stressed by heat and drought so care must be taken to properly irrigate to help ease the stress of mowing. We are now moving into the growing season of summer when weekly mowing will be needed again.

In past years drought required the city to reduce our allowed watering to once a week. The fact is our lawns could easily survive on this schedule and be healthier for it. We should practice horticultural practices every day which produce deep-rooted lawns that dont require excessive water to keep them green. All lawns, properly cared for, could be conditioned to require no more than once a week watering all year. The exception would be during the cold winter months when once every two or three weeks will do.

Check your irrigation system to be sure of proper coverage. It may seem that the sprinklers are reaching all areas but if you have dry spots on the edge of your sprinkler pattern you may not be getting adequate water at the edges of the sprinkler pattern.

It was once believed that grass clippings were the cause of thatch accumulation in the lawn. It is now known that they do not accumulate unless the clippings are exceptionally long. They break down soon after they hit the ground. In the process they return a lot of nitrogen to the soil.

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Gardening: A lush, green lawn is a beautiful thing