How high to cut grass question...

Charlesaf3 · Jun 14, 2008

yeah, as someone said above, another bad thing is removing the clippings. That's free fertilizer, some of the best fertilizer you can put on a lawn. Crazy that people bag them and throw them away.

Another thing is you can cut shorter in fall than spring - if you cut short in spring you give the weed seeds a nice home. They don't propagate so much in fall.

If you regularly cut high, the lawn will look "fuller". Cutting low requires a lot of fertilizer and water because the grass will basically be on life support.

Runner · Jun 18, 2008

I cut mine as high as the mower will go, which is about 4 1/2 inches. It is mostly fescue and I believe it survives the summer heat/drought much better at this length. Also, taller grass tends to compete better with the weeds and keep them smothered-out IMHO.

MrJimi · Jun 18, 2008

I cut ours Credit Card height...
about 3 3/8 inches

thatguy · Jun 18, 2008

Runner said:
I cut mine as high as the mower will go, which is about 4 1/2 inches. It is mostly fescue and I believe it survives the summer heat/drought much better at this length. Also, taller grass tends to compete better with the weeds and keep them smothered-out IMHO.

This is my philosophy.. Im cutting around 4.5 to maybe 5" - I hope that helps it make it through a hot, dry summer.. My yard is Kentucky 31...

Brian

Charlesaf3 · Jun 18, 2008

thatguy said:
This is my philosophy.. Im cutting around 4.5 to maybe 5" - I hope that helps it make it through a hot, dry summer.. My yard is Kentucky 31...

Brian

Should help a lot - shades the ground and keeps it cooler at that height. Be interested to hear how it ends up working for you.

I care how the lawn looks, in the end, not how far offf the ground it is...

Egon · Jun 19, 2008

Somewhere I have read the optimum height for grass is six inches. No verification on that.

On our town lawn I cut as high as the lawn mower will go [push mower with engine] This leaves lots of room for clippings to fall into and should help keep down weeds. I also try and keep the PH as close to 7 as I can. In any case it looks okay to me.