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5 Lawn Mowing Mistakes To Avoid

You are mowing the lawn because you want to improve the look of it, right?

While you can greatly improve the yard’s look when you do it right, you can also interfere with the look if you do it the wrong way.

Here are some of the mistakes you should avoid making when mowing your lawn:

Ignoring hearing protection

How many people have you seen mowing without wearing hearing protection for lawn mowing? Many of them, right? Well, this is wrong.

When you mow the lawn without protection, you not only suffer from distraction from the noise, you also put yourself at the risk of suffering from noise-induced hearing loss.

There are many hearing protection devices in the market you can go for. You can use radio headphones for lawn mowing, among many others.

If you don’t like the radio playing in your ears when working, there are earplugs and earmuffs that you can go for.

Unless you are using an electric or reel mower, you should always wear hearing protection all the time.

For the hearing protection devices to last for a long time, take good care of them.

You can do this by regularly cleaning them. You also should repair the parts as soon as they start showing signs of wearing out.

In addition to wearing hearing protection for mowing, you also should wear gloves, safety glasses, and any other protection devices you might need.

Cutting the grass too short

You must be aware that you should only remove 1/3 of the grass blade when mowing.

The reason for this is to ensure that you end up with shorter grass clippings that are easily broken down by bacteria and natural nitrogen returns to the soil.

When you cut the grass too low, you end up with long clippings that stress the grass, inhibiting its growth in the process.

Cutting the grass too low also exposes the grassroots to the sun, which puts the grass at the risk of drying out.

Cutting the grass with a blunt blade

For you to achieve a perfect lawn, you should mow using sharp blades. Using sharp blades also makes your work easy.

When the mower blades aren’t sharp enough, you end up with torn or bruised shoots that turn gray or brown after some time, leaving you with an ugly lawn.

The best way of going about it is sharpening the blade at least twice every season.

A telltale sign that it’s time to sharpen the blades is when the lawnmower seems to be pulling or trampling the grass instead of cutting it.

You should note that sharpening the lawnmower blade is easy. You only need to follow the tips given in this guide.

Bagging the grass clippings

I used to make this mistake so many times. Once I had cut the grass, I would hurry up and put the grass in a bag.

I remember once I bought a lawnmower with a bag to make the work easy.

While bagging the clippings will leave your lawn looking great, it’s not the right way of going about it.

As mentioned above, you should leave the clippings on the lawn so that they can return the nitrogen back into the soil, thus leaving your lawn looking spectacular.

To make the work easy, invest in lawn mowers with mulching capabilities.

Watering too much

Most of us have made this mistake. While water is important for the grass’s proper growth, you should be cautious that you don’t overdo it.

Most publications will tell you to water the lawn every evening, but you don’t need to do it this often.

The best way of going about it is by watering the lawn every few days. Give the grass a third of an inch of water three times a week, and you will be good to go.

Remember, when you give the grass a lot of water, you risk flooding it, making it turn brown.

Too much water also attracts pests and diseases that might be harmful to you or your family.

On my 15th birthday, I became the designated gardener in my home.

Now at 32, I have a small garden and every day I'm out trying different plants and seeing how they grow. I grow guavas, peaches, onions, and many others. Want to know more about me? Read it here.

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