When to Mow Your Lawn in Hot Summer Weather
Mowing in summer is as much about protecting the grass as it is about keeping the place looking respectable, because a lawn that gets cut at the wrong hour in the wrong way will go brown on you and then take weeks to come back. The timing does most of the work here, and the rest is height and a sharp blade.
Mow early in the morning
First thing is the best time. The grass is still cool, the soil has moisture in it from overnight, and the plant has the whole day to recover before it gets hit with heat again. It is also a great deal more pleasant for you, which matters more than people admit when the alternative is pushing a mower around at two in the afternoon.
Stay off it through the middle of the day
Between about eleven and four the sun is doing its worst, and cutting a lawn then puts the plant under two kinds of stress at once. You get browning at the tips within a day or so and the recovery takes far longer than the mow saved you.
Late afternoon is the fallback
If the morning is gone, wait until the heat has come out of the day rather than mowing through it. The lawn then has the cool of the evening to settle down in. It is not quite as good as morning, because a lawn sitting damp overnight is slightly more prone to fungal problems, and it is a long way better than midday.
A blunt blade is doing more damage than the timing
This is the one people skip. A dull blade tears the grass rather than cutting it, and a torn leaf loses more water and lets disease in, so every blade of grass in the yard is now stressed before the sun has even started. Sharpen the blades or replace them, and do it more often than feels necessary.
We are a tool sharpening depot, so if you would rather not stand there with a grinder, bring the blades in and we will get them done.
Leave it longer than you think
Through summer, keep the grass somewhere around seven to ten centimetres. That length shades the soil underneath, which slows evaporation right down and encourages the roots to go deeper, and deeper roots are the whole ballgame in January. Take no more than a third of the leaf off in any one cut, because scalping a lawn in the heat is how you get a bare patch that lasts until autumn.
Do not mow it wet
Wet grass cuts unevenly, it clogs the deck, and it spreads fungal disease around the yard on the blades. Let it dry off first.
Mulch the clippings back in
Clippings are free fertiliser and free mulch. Leaving them on the lawn puts nitrogen straight back into the soil and helps hold moisture, so a mulching mower or a mulching plug pays for itself over a season. It also saves you the bagging, which is nobody's favourite part of the job.
Shop related products
- Neutrog Sudden Impact for Lawns 10kg. Organic based, so it feeds without burning the lawn in the heat.
- Neutrog Blade Runner Lawn Fertiliser 15kg. For a bigger area, and it goes a long way.
- Brunnings Feed 'n Weed 3.5L. Feeds and takes the broadleaf weeds out in the same pass.
- Jak Max Grinding Stone 3/16 inch, 5 pack. For putting an edge back on your own blades.
- Jak Max 2.00mm Trimmer Line, 15m. For the edges the mower cannot reach.
- Brunnings Kikuyu Max Lawn Seed 135g. For patching the spots that did not survive.
Replacement mower blades to suit most of the common mowers are on the website, and the fertiliser and seed are in the garden centre. If you are not sure which blade fits your machine, ring us on (08) 8536 4333 with the make and model and we will sort it out for you, which takes about a minute and saves you buying the wrong thing twice.
More from the garden
- How to Prevent Lawn Burn in the Harsh Summer Sun
- How to Keep a Lawn Green Through a South Australian Summer
- How to Plant a Kikuyu Lawn in South Australia
Cheers, Candeece. I am the person who mows at the wrong time of day and then acts surprised.
