There are many reasons why a lawn may become overgrown, whether it be that we have been pressed for time with a hectic schedule, or perhaps we just moved into a new home and the lawn has been unattended for quite some time, or maybe we’re living in a rental and need to do a quick cleanup before our next inspection.
The manner in which we would approach mowing an overgrown lawn is rather much the same depending on how overgrown the lawn actually is. There are only minor modifications as to how we would go about the task at hand, which is explained below.
Good Lawns Which Have Become Overgrown
So we’ve got a decent lawn that hasn’t been mowed in some time, the best course of action here is to firstly mow the lawn at a higher height than we normally would. As we have left the lawn to become overgrown, the crowns of the lawn which sustain the lawn itself, have also raised. Therefore if we mowed the lawn at the regular height we normally do after it has become overgrown, we risk cutting off those raised crowns in lawn mowing, and may kill the lawn in certain places. So we cut at a higher height to preserve those raised crowns.
Besides this, if we mowed an overgrown lawn too short in one go, that lawn would then most likely become brown as we’ve just cut into the raised thatch layer as well. So we’d end up with a lawn which is brown and ugly, and possibly dying in patches.
Next thing we will quickly find is that it will be difficult for us to mow the lawn with the lawn mower when it is overgrown. The excess leaf material going through the mower blades and trying to find its way into the catcher, will overwhelm the lawn mower’s ability to cut and catch efficiently. In these circumstances we would only mow a half strip at a time; meaning that we mow half the width of the lawn mower, as this will allow the grass to flow through the blades and into the catcher more freely, and hopefully without clogging the discharge chute.
If we’re using a self propelled lawn mower with a variable speed gearbox, we would also want to reduce the travelling speed of the mower at this time. This too will allow for less grass to be passing through the blades and into the catcher at any one time. Also, many self propelled lawn mowers will have only half width chutes, thus restricting the discharge ability of that mower to push clippings into the catcher. A half width chute lawn mower and overgrown grass do not generally mix very well, especially if the overgrown grass is wet.
So the number one rule with overgrown lawns is to cut at a higher height than we normally would, and to do this for the first cut.
Good Lawns Which Are Very Overgrown
Here we’re talking about lawns which have become extremely overgrown, but underneath that excessive growth is actually a decent lawn, and one that’s worth saving and whipping back into shape. Much the same as above, but the grass is even longer.
The same rules apply as above, though this time we may find that we can only cut one third of the mower width in any one pass with the lawn mower due to the added grass length.
Though in reality we may need to cut these very overgrown lawns not just once, but twice.
The first pass of the lawn mower would likely be at nearest the highest height setting of the lawn mower, and we would mow the entire lawn at this extra height to remove a great deal of leaf material in the least amount of time. We’re not going for a primo cut here, just removing a lot of grass quickly.
On the second pass, and also the finishing pass, this time we would reduce the lawn mowing height to the final desired height for the lawn, which as we remember will still be higher than it normally would be for a regularly well maintained and mowed lawn, as we don’t want to brown the lawn too much by cutting into the thatch layer, nor do we want to cut out any raised crowns from the lawn, and thus possibly kill the lawn in places.
We will most likely find that we can still only do half passes with the lawn mower, in order to get a nice clean finish to our lawns when we’re done, though in reality we may only be able to do a one third width cut on the first pass. Cutting only half the width or less of the lawn mower deck with each pass. This should leave our lawns in their best shape possible for when we’re finished the job.
Should the lawn mower begin to struggle at any time through cutting the longer and thicker grass, or if the discharge chute is clogging too often, then we should reduce the width of the lawn mowing accordingly, mowing less grass with each pass.
Regardless of how careful we may be with our mowing, we may still find the mower clogging too often, which may be a signal to us the the underside of the mower has become heavily clogged with grass stuck to the base of the mower. In such a case we should stop the mower, tilt it onto its side - always with the fuel cap nearest to us - and then clean out the mower deck with a stick or some other instrument to remove the clogging.
Achieving Our Desired Lawn Mowing Height
With the above two scenarios we’re trying to bring an otherwise good lawn back into order again, and doing so carefully so that we don’t bring any damage to the lawn or leave it looking in very poor condition when we’re done, which is why we cut at a higher height.
Now we want to reduce our lawn mowing heights back to what they normally would be, because we’ve promised ourselves that we’ll keep our lawns in good order from now on.
After the initial cleanup cut, we would then maintain a regular lawn mowing schedule as we normally would for whatever season we are in, perhaps 2 weekly in Summer and 4 weekly for Winter, and 4 weekly in Spring and Autumn. With each subsequent lawn mowing we would reduce the lawn mowing height by a single notch on the lawn mower for each following lawn mowing until we achieve our final desired lawn mowing height, which we would then continue to mow at from then on.
If at any time during this height reduction phase that we see the lawn coming off looking brown after lawn mowing or if too much thatch is exposed, then we would stop reducing the height any further over the next one to two cuts. Once the lawn remains green after each lawn mowing, we could then reduce the height of the mower by a single notch again, until we achieve that perfect finishing height that we’re after.
Slowly but surely is always the best course of action when reducing lawn mowing heights.
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