lawn question... sorry if it's not the right group

No, it never is.

No. The only time the lawn is cut close is just before overseeding to improve seed-to-ground contact. Sharpening the blade is always good practice. Read rec.gardens, but there are anal environmentalists there.

If you don't cut at all, you get first ragweed, horseweed, fireweed and crabgrass. Various asters add color, along with goldenrods and ironweeds.

In 3 years you get bunch grasses like broom sedge, and seedlings of shrubs and trees.

At ten years, clumps of trees and shrubs drive out grasses, and you get multiflora rose, shadbush, meadowsweet, northern bayberry, huckleberry, poison ivy, virginia creeper, and various trees: cedars, aspens, birches, cherries, sweetgum, tuliptree.

At this point it's too late to cut.

After a freeze grass goes dormant so it probably doesnt matter, but deep roots need long grass. The shorter the grass the shallower the roots.

It certainly is a good idea if you live in an area where you can expect to get a lot of accumulated snow on the lawn over the winter. Wet heavy snow plus long grass can result in a case of snow mold on the lawn. For that reason, up here in the North people are advised to lower the blade for their final mowing of the season.

HellT

No you're not..

grass for (what I

I'd rather have

much lower setting

able to concentrate

practice?

When I had a problem with the sod I put in my back yard, The sod company sent an "expert" out to advise me. He said to cut it long in the summer to shade the soil, and short in the winter to avoid fungus diseases. This was in Seattle where winters are WET.

Bob

yes to allow the snow tp penetrate and keep the ground moist

Define short? During the summer I mow 2.5''- 3'' and the final cut in December is 2''. My neighbor cuts his grass to about 1/2''. Most of the time it looks like a muddy field with specs of green that I'm assuming are weeds. I told him to just t mulch over his yard and forget about mowing altogether.

"Phisherman" wrote

Plus when you're going to apply a topdressing of soil. And just before a winter in a snowy area, as others have said.

Tell me about it. But they're good target practise. There's lots of sensible people as well (hopefully I'm one).

My winters areen't as harsh as yours, but the final mowing here is short, about

1- it keeps the leaves blowing off the property, and not getting caught in the grass blades which end up trapping them in little piles, corners, nooks and crannies which eventually mat and kill the grass below.

Yes, but personally I don't think lopping it off all in one go is the best practice.

Once the lawn slows its growth, I start dropping the mowing height incrementally. And I don't drop the mower as low as it will go. Only about 1/2 way down from its highest setting.

In the spring, the mower goes right back up to the full height.

I may try mowing once more this year to chop up the last remnants of the fallen leaves.