How Often Should You Mow Your Lawn?
The Answer Really Is “It Depends”
If you pay attention to your lawn over the growing season, you’ll notice the growth rate isn’t constant. The folks at the University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources studied grasses commonly used in North American lawns and generated the graph below to summarize their results.
It was clear that no matter where you are, your grass growth rates will vary over the mowing season.
They grouped the grasses by behavior, into northern cooler climates and southern warmer climates. Read on or watch the video for the mow-down. It’s important to note the graph from UCIPM is a blended result of the entire country – so there’s a little transformation required to align it to your actual latitude.
Cooler Northern Grass Growth Rates
As you can see in the graph above, cooler northern lawns exhibit early and late season growth spikes while slowing down dramatically during the peak heat of midsummer.
During the peaks, you’ll want to mow weekly to keep your lawn looking sharp and avoid overgrowth. During the troughs, you’re safe mowing every other week or even less.
For customers, in places like Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, or Ohio your peak growth will occur from late April to mid-June. It’ll then slow down as peak heat sets in – typically through the middle of August when the second growth spike kicks off and goes until the end of October.
Warmer Southern Grass Growth Rates
Grasses adapted to warmer climates of the sun belt have different behavior; with a single longer spike in growth rates that is aligned with the peaks of summer (and often, humidity).
These grasses thrive during the warmest temperatures. Our customers in Florida, South Carolina, or Texas typically have a single stretch of weekly mowing from late May to early September. Outside this window, most customers toggle to bi-weekly mowing to save money.
During the winter months, grasses go dormant if temperatures stay below 55 degrees. If they hover at 55 or above, customers generally get monthly service to keep things looking clean.
So Do I Book Weekly Or Bi-Weekly?
Your lawn doesn’t fit in a box, so neither should your lawn mowing service.
When you book recurring lawn mowing with Blanton Services you get the best of both worlds.
You can easily change the frequency from weekly to bi-weekly or even monthly. During the winter we automatically pause or switch to monthly for recurring mowing customers.