Lawn mowing heights are an important determinant in the overall health of our lawns, including their susceptibility to diseases and weeds, their health during the hot Summer months, and how often we must undertake any type of repair work on our lawns should problems arise due to incorrect lawn mowing techniques, which in this case regards lawn mowing heights.
There is no one size fits all advice for lawn mowing heights.
Certain recommendations can be given as a guide for us, but in the end we all need to adjust mowing heights in direct connection to where and how our lawns are being grown individually. So here we’re going to discuss overall considerations which should be thought through to help us to find the right lawn mowing heights for our own lawns.
Sunlight Determines Mowing Heights
Whenever our lawns grow in direct sunlight, we can and should lower lawn mowing heights. Likewise when we grow our lawns in partial shade we can and should increase lawn mowing heights, the more shade the longer the leaf of the lawn.
Photosynthesis is directly powered by direct sunlight, and acts through the green leaf material of our lawns, this process supplies the food for our lawn from the nutrients in the soil. When lawns grow in partial shade they need a longer green leaf so they can photosynthesis enough food to survive while having less available sunlight to power this process. And then the opposite applies in full sun, where because there is so much direct sunlight to the lawn we can get by with far less green leaf material on the lawn, while still receiving adequate sunlight to power the entire photosynthesis process to feed the lawn.
Also, we will find that lawns growing in full direct sunlight can and will thatch up much faster than a lawn growing in partial shade, so the regular lawn mowing at lower heights in full sun will keep the lawn from developing excessive thatch.
This doesn’t require us to cut lawns too short in full sun, as many of us in Australia do indeed cut our lawns far too short, we only need keep them shorter in full sun when compared to partial shade. Lawns cut too short in full sun lose a lot of soil insulating properties over Summer, which can lead to dried out soils, dried out lawn roots, lawns in poor health, weeds encroaching into bare patches, brown lawns, and the list goes on.
the author would mow this lawn at 12mm with a cylinder mower in full sun conditions
more direct sun lowers the cutting height - more shade increases the cutting height
Lawn Type Determines Mowing Heights
Couch, Queensland Blue, and Zoysia can be cut quite low if the owner so wishes, though this can lead to other problems as just outlined. Male Sterile Kikuyu should be cut a little higher. Buffalo can be different dependent on the type of Buffalo being grown, old style common scratchy Buffalo lawns can be cut real low and have no problem at all, yet the modern Soft Leaf Buffalo grasses will all need to be cut higher than all other warm season grass types.
So the type of grass we have as a lawn is directly linked to lawn mowing heights.
Available Water Determines Mowing Heights
This once again goes back to an earlier concept already mentioned, whereby lawns being grown in full sun and with low mowing heights can cause many different lawn problems in the heat of Summer. Most noticeably this can occur when the topsoil of the lawn dries out, this will then also dry out the upper roots of the lawn, which can then lead the the lawn stolons drying out, which can lead to brown lawns, bare and dead patches in lawns, and so forth.
So the same concept applies when we are faced with water restrictions when our lawns cannot get the right amount of water they need to survive through Summer.
In these situations we need to increase lawn mowing heights so as to protect the upper topsoil of the lawn from drying out in Summer. The increased lawn height and thatch layer will greatly aid in insulating the lawn soil from moisture loss, giving us a far healthier and more drought tolerant lawn over Summer.
Preference Determines Mowing Heights
Lastly, we have our own personal preference to determine lawn mowing heights for our turf.
What we want and what we prefer can often be at great odds with what is best for our lawns continuing health, and this factor is far more common than we might expect, leading to so many lawns being in unnecessarily poor health in Australia for this very reason.
We say, ‘we like this’ and ‘we want that’…
Instead of just properly applying good lawn care practices to what the lawn itself actually needs to stay healthy and strong throughout the year.
The truth is that what we prefer really means nothing at all when it comes to lawn care. Either we give the lawn what it needs, or it’s going to get sickly on us, and stay in poor health, or may even die off or become filled with weeds. And that’s the truth of the matter.
Cut a lawn too short in heavy shade, and it will suffer badly.
Cut a lawn too short in Summer, under water restrictions, and it will suffer badly.
Keep a lawn cut too high in full sun, and leave mowing intervals too long, and the lawn will badly thatch.
These are all just facts.
Our preferences mean nothing.
We give the lawn what it needs, or we don’t.
And we reap what we sow.
It’s as simple as that.
There is wiggle room for our own preferences with lawn mowing heights, so long as the lawn itself can bare what we give to it. One Buffalo lawn in partial shade may do just fine with a 20mm cut or a 60mm cut, and stay healthy, so our preferences then come into play as a real option. Another Buffalo lawn down the street in partial shade may drop dead if cut at 20mm, or may thatch up at 60mm. A Couch lawn may do just fine at 12mm or 30mm in full sun. Each lawn is different to every other lawn, as are their specific growing environments. First we give the lawn what IT needs, then we see what wiggle room we have for our own preferences, if the lawn doesn’t like what we’re doing, it will let us know, and we adjust our lawn mowing until the lawn remains in good health at all times.
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