Mowing your lawn is an important part of your lawn care routine every year, but did you know that if you do not mow it properly, you can end up harming your grass immensely?

Learn about three techniques you should always use when mowing your lawn, or ensure that your lawn care company is doing when they mow your lawn in Happy Valley, Gresham, Troutdale, and the surrounding cities in the Portland, OR metro area.

1. Rotate mowing patterns every time you mow.

Lawn in Happy Valley, OR with vibrant mowing pattern.

When you mow your grass, you need to make sure that you rotate mowing patterns every time. Running your mower or heavy tractor over the same areas of soil each time will create ruts in the lawn and will also heavily compact soil in that part of the yard. If soil is compacted, it inhibits the grass growth in that area and makes it harder for nutrients such as air, water, and sunlight to reach down to the roots of the grass. Keep the lawn as healthy as possible by switching up the patterns. Mow horizontally, then next time vertically, and diagonally after that.

2. Mow your lawn at the proper height each session.

During each mowing session, you will also need to keep your mower settings at the correct height. Never mow your lawn too short, no matter how tempting it may be to do so. This practice can harm the grass and weaken it, making it more susceptible to lawn disease or other threats such as insects and common weeds. If you are leaving to go out of town and do not want your grass to grow too tall, consider hiring a lawn service to perform a one-time vacation mow.

Your lawn should always be mowed by no more than 1/3 of the height of the blades, and in order to keep that height corrected, your lawn should be mowed at the right frequency.

At J&C Lawn Care, we recommend mowing your lawn weekly during the Oregon mowing season, which typically lasts from mid-March through November.

3. Ensure your mower blades are sharpened so they provide a clean cut.

Lawn mower with sharpened blades cutting grass in Happy Valley, OR.

Another practice to follow is to ensure that your mower blades are always as sharp as they can be. When mower blades get too dull, they will no longer provide a clean cut and will instead tear your grass as they run over the lawn. Torn grass blades leave openings for lawn disease or insects to sneak in and begin attacking your previously healthy turf. It is generally best practice to sharpen your mower blades once every 20-25 hours of use. Thus, if it takes you an hour to mow your lawn, then you need to have the blades sharpened every 20 times the grass is cut.

Do you want help with mowing your lawn each year? Our experts are ready to assist.

If you hate spending your spare time mowing your lawn each year and want help with taking that task off of your plate, our experts are ready to assist you in Gresham, Happy Valley, Troutdale, and neighboring areas of Oregon. Give us a call at (971) 284-2035 to set up an estimate.