Mowing The Lawn, The Importance, The Frequency, The Height, The Commitment 

Dad's advice for me from day one. Just mow it, water it, and feed it. He was right...again. Turns out he knows what he's talkin about. Especially if you say so too. I actually touched on this very thing in a video a couple weeks ago. Happy to hear it reinforced!

Thank You John! I love that everyone is reiterating that we can have a short lawn without killing it or having a weed issues.

I can't agree with you highly enough that mowing often is the best single cultural practice that you can do to improve the condition of your lawn. My back yard was a mess when I started improving my lawn in 2017, and with a little N and frequent mowing, I reduced the weed count drastically, and when I learned about pre emergents, it was a game changer.

Awesome video, John! You and the LCN have inspired me to cut my lawn 2x per week and I just mowed last night at 10pm, after putting the kids to bed. Will mow again over the weekend. Using a reel mower that I bought a couple of weeks ago and trying to maintain my St Augustine grass at a 2.5 inch cut. Just need to continue being consistent with the 2x per week mow and not let life get in the way. Thanks again!

First Ginja!!!

Thanks John! I look forward to your videos!

Another awesome video and great info

Great videos and I appreciate all your advice! Question, I keep the lawn long to get through the hot months. I have this "branching" going on with my Blue grass. How short do you think you need to cut to re-train the grass to single blades?

I was doing that earlier this Spring. Mowing every few days. It did make a big difference. I am still mowing 2 times a week. Hope to keep it up for the rest of the season.

Great advice & love the video and thank you !!!

Your lawn is looking great, and is a great example of how much you can push a lawn with low inputs and good cultural practices.

Cute dog John.. reminds me of an old pet of mine. Lawn looking mint..

Bag clippings if weeds are present? Or still just leave clippings? I have 1 in hybrid Bermuda cut with a reel mower. I cut almost every 2 to 3 days

Good video , one extra I would point out would be to change mowing direction on a regular basis , I mow my grass every day so I agree with all your points .

Excited for this series, I’m struggling with a thinner area in my lawn but it gets mostly shade throughout the day, I was leaving it long thinking the plant needed more height to absorb more sunlight but I’m curious if I cut it maybe a little lower and more often if I could force some thickness

Great video I love the way that you're teaching explain things

Thats a good looking lawn 👌

Good stuff!

I have Tall fescue. Some blades are very thick and some very thin. I know crowding determines the thickness of the blades but does letting it get tall thicken the blades more or does cutting it often? The thicker blades look better to me. Why are some really thick. The ones that are thick are usually on the edge of the lawn.

Common Bermuda, blazing heat and too many high/low spots in the front lawn. I have to cut 2 3/4 this time of year. Looks great. Would like to go lower but just can't. Side yard was thin but pretty level. So a month ago decided to go at around 1 3/8. It is spreading amazingly well. And by the end of the season I think it is what I wish the front could be.

Great content! First Arizonan!

Hey John, I am a new subscriber to your channel. Gotta say I love watching your video content. I am learning a lot and find it very interesting as well. Keeping it simple seems to work well and I appreciate your efforts to the group. I am from New Hampshire and mowing my grass at 3 inches but now you have me wondering about maybe trying to cut a small section shorter to see how it does. Thanks for the great info, much appreciated.

So if I want to take my lawn down short from 4” down as low as I can get it. How do I take it down slowly? Like one notch lower every week if I have good growth going? Not looking for a end all be all, just a rule of thumb for beginning to bring it down low.

So is it better to cut KBG to 3.5 inches to help hold water and also grow deeper roots or is it better to cut it at one inch so it thickens and is more dense? I've heard both and don't know what to believe

Great video

I like his grass and now I just see his nice watch as well ...

Thanks, very interesting!

Your dog seems to really enjoy the lawn 😀

Wow!

I took my TTTF low this weekend getting ready for overseeing in the fall. I'm in socal and we are in triple digits so it stressed it out in certain areas. My plan was to start lowing it slowly from 4 inches over the next month so it would be be ok being short. My plan failed lol. I took too much off. I think I'm just going to wait until I seed to do lower it.

John, I've been mowing my KBG at 3.75" thinking the taller blades will shade the turf during the hotter months. So your short grass that is so thick by frequent mowing is accomplishing the same shading as a taller turf. If I were to drop down to 3.25' or2.75" and mow often and watering when needed would that be a good option verses mowing tall? Right now I have my worst rust issue ever. I do like the look of KBG when I mow at 2.75' or a little taller. Just mowing short in the summer is the oppositewhat has been preached for years.

Love the dogs cameo in the vid!

This is exactly what I needed. Trying to get my 4” KBG down to 3” or even 2 1/2 for my aerate and over seeding this fall. When would be the go time for that here in Salt Lake City?

#LawnDog Great vid! Keep the info coming, please!

Great info brotha! Your co-star, however, stole the show...lol.

Does elevation effect the ability/speed to mulch? I am at 3000ft in California and find clippings do not break down. They are very small and not clumped together but if I dig down to the soil I find they are not breaking down.

Hi John, I have a question that I have been pondering all season. I'm in the lawn care business. There are a couple lawns we mow that have a thick base to them whereas other lawns don't have such a thick base. I was wondering if the mowing height has anything to do with this. One of the lawns is a new client and he always cut his lawn at 4 inches and has me cutting at the same height. The lawns I'm comparing are all pretty much healthy. I'm in the northeast. Another great video!

I’m planning on planting new grass seed next weekend, elite kbg varieties designed for short cut height. Should I ignore the traditional advice of waiting for it to grow super tall before I mow for the first time if I want to train it to be cut at an inch going forward? Maybe once it hits 1.5” only then I take 1/2 inch off right away instead of waiting for it to grow to 3 or 4 inches like most people say you should do with fresh baby grass? Will that do more harm that good or should I just hack it down right away first mowing?

yeah, all spring I was mowing often(every other day or 3rd) and as short as my mower would go on my KBG, then this summer I worked it up, 2nd notch, next 3rd, 4th height, and last at the 5th setting and was only mowing once a week; but I just did not like how it looked and I think I got more weeds ...now I'm already back down to the 3rd setting height; taking it slow to get there and next week going one notch lower to 2nd setting plus mowing more often for about two more weeks till I drop down to the lowest height again(about 1") - but my question is: did mowing taller in the summer *really* help with water retention, heat stress, prohibit weeds, promote more root development, or anything at all? or is that just a myth

Is keeping my cool season turf at 2" with a rotary fine as long as I'm keeping up with mowing and feeding? When I got into lawn care, I followed the theory of mowing super tall for less heat stress etc, but I've seen a lot of short cut cool lawns now to think maybe the tall cut theory has been debunked?

This is my first season I haven’t had to use chemicals on my lawn. I thought it was due to the gallons of humic I sprayed, but maybe it’s the mowing frequency.

Great Vid John! Your Wabbit patch over in the corner is looking way way better! Are you keeping them away now or is the grass thick enough now that you cannot see their damage! Thanks for all the great content! Chad Upstate NY

I'm afraid to cut mine short. Mine her in Michigan looks ok at 3" but does lay down. I'm afraid if I cut it down little at a time to maybe 2" the 85-90 days will hurt it. Any ideas? I have an old school lawn. Little bit of everything I think lol. Nice grass and beautiful dog man

As soon as the dog came into frame I didn’t hear a single word you said for the next minute or so. 😂

How low can you go with KBG?...Can you get it to putting green height, ie 1/4" or lower?

Good video on mowing. How often is your lawn irrigated? Looks great.

I just sent my Yard Machine rotary mower to another home switching up to an American push reel mower for my fescue lawn. The Interweb gurus say this type of grass/lawn should be left tall around 3" most of the time to promote its health. Most available American reel mowers have a max blade height of .5 to 1.75" for cutting options. Does it really matter since I'm going to make the commitment to mow every week until the dormant season of winter? Why do I care? Because I'm beginning to put some serious time into my lawn now and I don't want to change things up over and over again regarding the 5 golden rules made to maintain a healthy lawn. Ha, and then I watched long enough to see you push that reel mower.

Great video as always, and I can't wait for more in the series. I'm in Austin Texas and just renovated with Yukon Bermuda seed. I'm 5 weeks after germination and things are going pretty well. I'm currently mowing twice per week (rotary with 2" being my lowest setting) and I have automatic underground irrigation. What's the best advice to thicken high performance Bermuda?

New to the grass game. I’m addicted to it and believe me with my income it’s very hard to not spend every dime to have a golf course growing in back of my house. But I appreciate the videos. That’s bluegrass?

John, I'm just curious - You shoot all your recent videoes on that same patch of grass. Behind the patch is a hilly, rocky dirt/natural grass area. Does the rest of your property look like this grassy area or the rocky dirt/natural grass area? Another question - I follow what you are saying about mowing frequently, but if you are cutting really low, like 1/2" or less, aren't also cutting any possible weeds that short so you wouldn't be able to notice weeds growing in your yard, but they are there?

Can't believe how well your manual lawn mower cut that much off with that much ease in the last video. My Fiskars gets bogged down with my Zeon Zyosia even when I raise it to 2 and 1/2 height. Great exercise though but makes cutting religiously kind of tough now that my grass is growing in thick. I do like the "greeness" of my manual mower but need more power. Don't think an electric Swordman is in the budget anytime soon; so, will have to look at the electric rotaries.

Hi John, How would you address Dollar spot? we get tons and tons of rain here in Pittsburgh Pa all spring and summer, till just recently, I def keep up w my N and organics and mow @ 4inches I just don't know how to get rid of it from coming every summer, I am doing everything on my end correct! Thanks ;)

Can you mod your manual reel mower with a striping kit?

How do I get my hands on a lawncology shirt???

What about non-irrigated cool-season lawns? If I normally cut at 4", isn't it fine to let it go a week or two so it holds more water in the leaf blade when it is too hot (over 90), compared to mowing every couple days at 4" and stressing it from mowing when it is too hot out? It seems to keep it green longer and then it's quicker to recover when I finally cut it when it cools down.

Yep

I want to roll around on your lawn like the dog!

Awesome video as always. You seem more determined than usual this time. Different camera work? I dunno. Just saying 👋.

Don’t underestimate the power of the mow.

Hercy should be in all videos

Even though I'm against them; you should probably get a robot mower since your gone from your home so long.

Reel first

Takes forever to get to points. I’m sure there is useful information in there somewhere but not easily digestible in my opinion

First.

Lets make mowing great again. :)

A year late to this video, but you might want to have Hercy's ears checked, John. The way he's slinging his head and rubbing his ears on the ground makes me think he might have an ear infection.

I guess i should be cutting my KBG shorter hahahaha

Dirty first

Why not use a robotic mower

you need to dethatch that lawn... it looks like crap