One factor in managing a routine for mowing your lawn is preventing clumps. Keeping your lawn healthy can be challenging without knowing a few things about optimal growth. Like maintaining healthy hair, a good care plan for your yard can help you gain envious looks from the neighbors.
What Causes Grass to Clump During Mowing?
If you find yourself with clumps of grass when mowing your lawn, there are many ways to remedy this issue. The two common factors that lead to clumping lawn are cutting the grass when it is still wet and cutting the grass after it has become too long.
Mowing Wet Grass
In addressing lawns that are wet, it is best to allow the lawn to dry before mowing. In the morning, your lawn is prone to have dew on it from lower overnight temperatures. Grass already has a high amount of water in it, which is why mulching it back into the lawn can be a good practice.
Mowing wet grass can lead to increasing the amount of maintenance you need to do on your lawnmower. Wet grass can stick to the blade and undermount of your mower.
Wet grass that builds up under the mower can dull the blade, unevenly distribute the weight of the mower, and cause a mess in the garage if not cleaned up before storage.
Cutting Grass When It’s Tool Long
If your lawn is not mowed on a regular basis, you may run into issues related to the grass becoming too long. Attempting to cut grass that is too long complicates mulching it back into the lawn. One way you can assist in preventing clumps while mowing is to adjust your lawnmower’s height depending on the length of your grass.
If your grass is too long, it may be beneficial to cut your grass at a higher mowing height with less time between periods of mowing. The overall goal is to maintain a healthy lawn, and more frequent mowing may help prevent issues associated with cutting your grass too short. If you cut your grass too short, it may become less adaptive to weather, water, and fertilizer changes.
As much effort as you put into your own landscape, your neighbor’s yard can also have an effect on your property, whether you like it or not. Your neighbor’s landscaping can influence your lawn if your neighbor’s trees shade parts of your yard, creating differences in sunlight exposure.
You may also run into a list of other scenarios like the following:
- Different soil compositions
- Differences in water drainage
- Runoff from neighbor’s yards
- Variability in the use of the lawn (regular foot traffic, pets)
- A combination of different grass varieties
Other Remedies for Clumping Lawn
Excessive clumps in the lawn after mowing will not be able to break down. A mulching mower will be ineffective as grass clumps prevent the grass from taking in sun, water, and nutrients it needs to grow.
If you have clumping in your lawn, one remedy is to use a garden rake or leaf blower to spread the clumps more evenly throughout the lawn.
Additionally, there are other remedies to clumping grass such as:
- Bagging grass clippings
- Lifting the mower chute
- Raising the mower deck
- Mowing over areas of clumping to disperse
If you do not want to change your mower’s deck height, lifting the mower chute is one idea for dispersing grass clippings. Typically, grass cuttings are forced down into the lawn after cutting.
Allowing the mower chute to be lifted spreads the grass clippings outwards where a collection bag would be located in the event of bagging the grass.
Bagging grass clippings is an effective way to reduce or eliminate clumping in the lawn. Homeowners need to check with their city about how they can properly dispose of grass clippings. In some municipalities, bagged grass requires a fee to dispose of.
If your lawn has lots of weeds, mulching grass clippings would not be advisable.
Otherwise, bagged grass can be used as a ground cover like wood chips, providing a cover on garden soil that keeps moisture in the soil.
Composting grass clippings allows for the water in the grass clippings to benefit your yard and create a better soil composition.