First Grass Cut Of The Year – Simple Tips You Need To Know

When the spring arrives and things start to show signs of life after winter its time for the first grass cut of the year.

This also means your beautiful grass lawn is going to start growing and you will have to put in some work to get it the attractive lush green color you like to see.

It also means that you’ll need to dust off your lawnmower as it’s only a matter of time that you’re going to need to do the first mowing of the season. However, knowing when and how to do the first grass cutting of the year is crucial.

Keep in mind that your grass went into a deep “slumber” during the winter. Thus, if you are not careful, you could do more damage than helping with your first mowing. Thankfully, you have this article to guide you with the year’s first grass cut.

For the first grass cut of the year, you don’t want to stress out your grass too much so stick strictly to the rule of never cutting more than 1/3 off. Make sure your mower blades are nice and sharp, have you ever tried shaving with a dull blade? it rips instead of cutting and that is not good for lawn health.

First Mow of the 2020 Lawn Care Season!!

Check out my article on simple yet effective lawn mowing techniques.

Pre-Cut Tidying

Before you even take-out the lawnmower, you must do some tidying. After the winter months, there’s a good chance that your lawn will look unkept with rubbish, leaves, and sticks lying around.

The most important thing here is to remove the items that could potentially damage the blades like thick branches and stones. Keep in mind that the lawnmower blades must be sharp at all times.

When To Do The First Mowing

The best time to do the first mowing is during the first two weeks of April. However, this may depend on your location and the local climate. Hence, it’s probably better if you check the length of the grass.

Most experts would suggest that you’d want to start mowing when the grass is at least two inches tall.

Mowing Too Early

The dangerous thing about mowing too early is that there’s a chance that you may cut it too short.

If that happens, the grass may be too stressed to fight off insects or diseases. Hence, it’s a lot better to err on mowing too late rather than mowing too early.

Check out my article on cutting your grass with no lawnmower.

One-Third Rule

Among the most important concepts when it comes to lawn care is the “one-third rule.” It’s a rule of thumb that states you should not cut your grass more than one-third off the grass blades in one mowing.

If you cut more than that, there’s a good chance that you will stress the grass. As a result, your grass lawn will be more susceptible to weed infestations and diseases.

If you want the grass length to be lower, then do another mowing after a few days but still follow the one-third rule. Keep repeating the process until you get the desired grass length.

Don’t Forget About The Edges

When mowing your lawn, it’s easy to fall into the trap of obsessing about the length, color, and other factors. That’s not entirely bad as long as you don’t forget about cutting the lawn’s edges.

You’d want the edges to be trimmed and clean. If your lawn is mowed regularly, but it seems something is “off,” or it’s not as attractive as you want it to be, then chances are the edges are not trimmed.

Check out my full article on the best lawn edgers.

Avoid Watering Immediately After Mowing

Most people fall into the habit of watering the lawn immediately after mowing. However, knowing when to water is a crucial part of taking care of your lawn. There are no specifics when it comes to how many times you should be watering per week.

In most cases, a good rule of thumb to follow is to water when the lawn needs moisture. Another thing to consider is the time of the day.

You don’t want to water during the night, as it can lead to fungal growth. This is because the moisture has no time to dry out, which gives way to the ideal environment for fungal proliferation.

You also don’t want to water in the middle of the day. The reason for this is because it’s the time of the day when it’s the hottest, which leads to the water evaporating quickly. Also, the droplets will act like a magnifying glass, which may lead to damaging the grass.

The best time to water your lawn is during the mornings. The temperature is cool. Thus, water evaporating too quickly isn’t a big concern, which allows the water to travel deeper into the soil and roots.

Check out my article on the best affordable sprinkler systems.

Don’t Forget New Grass Seeds

Spring is an excellent season for planting new grass seeds as it has plenty of time to grow and build-up. Hence, don’t forget to spread some grass seeds around, especially at spots where you want the grass to be thicker.

As a reminder, new grass that has grown from newly planted seeds will be weaker than the rest of the lawn. Hence, don’t mow it too soon. In fact, you only want to start mowing the freshly grown grass once they have grown at least three inches.

Pick The Right Tools

When taking care of your lawn, you will need tools. Hence, it is unavoidable that you will need a couple such as a decent lawnmower and aeration tools. When choosing the tools, consider the size of your lawn and its relative needs.

Then, select the tools that will do the job efficiently for the size of your lawn. If you are thinking of being eco-friendly, you might want to use an electric lawnmower rather than a petrol-powered one.

The Lawnmower

When taking care of your lawn, then the lawnmower is perhaps the most critical part of your toolkit. Hence, this article will cover the lawnmower in finer detail.

Check out my article on the best mowers for a small yard.

Sharpen the blades

You have probably tried shaving with a dull blade. How does it feel? If you’re like most people, the shaving experience would feel uncomfortable. A dull blade will result in leaves being torn and ripped rather than cleanly snipped.

A needlessly torn or ripped grass blades increases the chances of diseases and will cause more stress to the grass.

How often do you need to sharpen the mower blade? The best answer is to examine the grass blades after mowing.

If you see torn and ripped edges instead of a clean-cut, then it may be an excellent time to sharpen the blades.

Check out my article on creating patterns with a manual push mower.

Clean the lawnmower regularly

Like any other machine, a lawnmower’s efficiency, and effectiveness go down if you allow dirt and debris to build around the vital workings of the machine.

Hence, you should clean the lawnmower regularly.

For a thorough and deep clean, you should do it at least twice a year. You should also get in the good habit of cleaning it lightly after every use. Simple tasks like removing debris and leaves stuck inside or outside the lawnmower should improve the performance and lifetime of your mower.

When doing a thorough clean, make sure you refer to the user’s manual on how to do it properly. Also, keep in mind that a lawnmower is a cutting machine.

Hence, you’d want to take extra precautions. For example, if you have an electric lawnmower, make sure it’s unplugged from an outlet. If you have a petrol-powered variety, make sure you take out the spark plug.

Wrapping It All Up

After lying dormant for the cold winter months, your lawn is ready to flourish again during spring.

However, it’s also a critical time because of the transition. You want to encourage your lawn to grow during springtime as this sets it up for a healthy growing period. Thus, extra caution should be done, especially when it comes to the first mowing.

While this article provides plenty of tips, but perhaps the essential part is knowing when to mow and what amount. As a rule of thumb, you’d want to start mowing when the grass is at least two inches tall.

When it comes to the “how much?” It’s best to follow the one-third rule. This means you should not cut more than one-third of the current grass length.

Also, you must not forget about the lawnmower blades. Make sure that it is sharp so it won’t cause needless stress and problems for the grass.

As a bonus tip, spring is also an excellent time for fertilizing your lawn as it gives ample time for the grass to fully utilize your fertilizer.

Furthermore, after the winter months, the grass could use a boost of nutrients to get them in a lush shape as soon as possible. Just keep in mind the specific grass you have and fertilize at the right times and the right amount.

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