Consequences of Lawn Mowing
Mowing is a regular part of lawn maintenance, and its benefits go beyond keeping the yard neat. A regular mowing schedule reduces the prevalence of weeds, adds compost to your lawn and makes grass more stress tolerant. Before you rush to mow your lawn, know the ideal height of your particular type of grass and how much grass height is safe to remove at one time. This helps you avoid the negative consequences of overmowing.
When you mow your lawn, leave the clippings as compost. This recycles nutrients into the soil, which means your lawn won't need as much fertilizer. Clippings also act as mulch, keeping the soil moist and cool to prevent water and sun stress. Using a mulching mower makes clippings small for quick absorption into the soil.
Mowing your lawn regularly helps prevent weeds from overtaking your yard. When you mow frequently, existing weeds remain short until you remove them. This prevents the weeds from growing flowers and developing seeds -- meaning the weeds won't propagate as readily to destroy your lawn. However, this mowing should keep your lawn at a healthy height, and taller is often better than shorter to block sunlight that germinates weed seeds in the soil. Taller, well-kept grass is also more stress tolerant.
Potential Lawn Damage
Mowing your lawn can have negative consequences -- particularly if you cut it too short. Cutting grass so that the blades are less than an inch tall can cause grass to grow a shallow root system. This becomes a problem when summer heat stresses the lawn, because shallow roots depend on surface water. Meanwhile, the exceptionally short grass allows sunlight to overheat and dry out the soil more readily than taller grass. The extra nutrients, water and sunlight hitting the soil can also encourage weed development, while the short grass has trouble manufacturing food for itself to compete.
Mowing for Healthy Grass
To keep your grass healthy, mow no more than one-third of the lawn's height at a time. This means that a grass species that is best kept as a 2-inch lawn should grow to 3 inches before you mow off the top inch, returning the lawn to its original 2-inch height. Mowing your lawn also causes your grass to lean in the direction you mowed; mow in a different direction each time to prevent this.