Why NOW is the perfect time to start mowing your lawn

IF you have managed to resist mowing your lawn until now, you are one of the sensible ones.

As tomorrow has been dubbed “First Cut Sunday”.

Let’s be honest, it’s a date concocted by lawn mower companies to sell their machines, but there is actually some science behind it.

According to Michael Holden, Flymo’s lawn expert, reaching for your mower any earlier could risk causing excessive stress to the lawn, leaving freshly-cut blades exposed and vulnerable to frost damage.

But now the weather has finally warmed up, it’s all systems go.
“Waiting until the grass is actively growing again means your first cut helps strengthen the lawn, rather than putting it under stress while it’s still recovering from winter,” he told Sun Gardening.

“Wait until your grass is about five to eight centimetres high before its first cut of the year.

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“And remember that, during your first mow, you shouldn’t take more than a third off the grass blade in one go.

“So, if your lawn is around six centimetres tall, you should only be taking one or two centimetres off, with your mower at the highest cutting height.”

He added: “Light clippings can actually be a great benefit to your lawn, as they are around 80 per cent water and contain valuable nutrients such as nitrogen, so as they break down, they are putting that much-needed goodness back into the soil.”

But once you have mowed, there’s six vital tasks I’d recommend.

1) Give it a really good, hard rake. This removes all the thatch and moss, that will be preventing water and air getting to the earth.

2) Aerate your soil, either with a fancy shop-bought device, shoes with spikes, or an actual aerator (you will need decent storage space for it) or by simply digging in your garden fork repetitively to create small air pockets.

3) After that, it’s time to overseed. This is basically scattering grass seed on all the bare patches.

4) And if you really want to go for it, apply a top dressing and gently rake it over — but make sure you can still see the grass blades poking through.

5) Then if no rain is forecast, lightly water it.

6) Avoid mowing for one to two weeks, or until the top dressing has fully settled to prevent damaging your mower blades.

Best of luck. A lush green lawn is no mean feat but these tips should help.