While garden-show-level lawns can be quite complex to take care of, your average Kiwi lawn will do very well with some careful care and a few important lawn care tips. In fact, more often than not, maintaining a lush green lawn comes down to avoiding a few key lawn mowing mistakes NZ homeowners tend to make.
We provide lawn mowing services every day, so we also see the most common garden maintenance mistakes homeowners make NZ-wide. To ensure you’re giving your lawn the utmost care, we’ve put together this simple guide to the top five most common lawn mowing mistakes to avoid.
With these in your back pocket, you’ll be on your way to that lush, stunning backyard in no time.
Mistake #1: Mowing your lawn too short.
First and foremost, the most common of all lawn mowing mistakes homeowners make is mowing too short, especially in hot seasons.
It’s tempting to mow your grass extra short because, in a sense, it means a longer time between mows. It can be a hassle to break out the mower and spend your Sunday afternoon on your lawn, so a longer time between sessions can feel preferable.
But there’s a downside. In the business, we sometimes call mowing a lawn too short ‘scalping’ because the grass ends up cut almost down to the soil. When that happens, the grass has almost no leaf surface with which to photosynthesise. That means your lawn can’t generate energy as well as it usually can, making the grass much more vulnerable to drought, heat stress, or heavy rain and wind.
So one of the most important lawn care tips is simple: mow more often, and cut less off. You never want to trim away more than a third of the blade of grass at a time, ideally keeping your lawn’s length somewhere between 4- 6 cm.
Your lawn will look healthier and recover more easily between mows, so you can enjoy all that green!
Mistake #2: Letting your lawnmower blade go blunt.
Funnily enough, one of the most common lawnmowing mistakes NZ homeowners make doesn’t happen during the lawnmowing itself, but before.
You’ve used blunt scissors before, so you’ve noticed the jagged, torn edge of something cut by a blunt blade. The same applies to your grass when blunt mower blades cut it. A sharp cut is best, letting the grass heal quickly. Jagged, blunted cuts invite all sorts of issues, including fungal infestations and browning.
One of our best lawn care tips is to sharpen your mower blades regularly to ensure a clean, sharp cut. Once per season is more than enough to keep your blades performing well.
Mistake #3: Mowing after rain.
Routines for garden maintenance NZ-wide are often shaped by our weather, and rain is no small part of that. For many Kiwis, the solution to persistent rain is to simply get out the mower when there’s a break in the weather, but mowing wet grass can create some frustrating problems.
For one thing, wet grass clumps easily and sticks to your mower deck, threatening to clog it as you work. Even if that doesn’t happen, clumps of wet grass left on your freshly shorn lawn will block sunlight, encourage fungal growth, and smother the grass.
Not to mention, the result itself will be uneven, as wet grass flexes and bows unevenly.
Luckily, of all the lawn mowing mistakes NZ homeowners can make, this is one of the simplest to avoid. Simply wait for a dry day to break out the mower, and you’ll be in the clear (both literally and figuratively).
Mistake #4: Mowing in the same direction every time.
Next on our list is something that might not feel all that important, but really is: picking a different direction each time you mow.
A phenomenon called ‘grain’ happens when you mow grass enough times in the same direction, causing a persistent lean in blade growth. The wheels of your mower can also compact the soil over time if you take the same route, reducing how much air and water can reach those patches of soil. This will show up as compaction lines that look like small furrows on the lawn.
It doesn’t sound significant, but over time, sticking to the same mowing pattern can create patches of dry, dead grass along the tracks and a visible lean in the grass blades. Together, these two phenomena create a patchy, inconsistent lawn that doesn’t reflect the work you’re putting into it.
You might not see this particular suggestion on many lists of lawn care tips, but it’s worth integrating into your lawn care routine: alternate the direction you mow each time. Go horizontal one week, vertical the next, and diagonal the next, rotating evenly to encourage the grass to grow upright.
For garden maintenance in NZ, this is one of the simplest changes you can make to get your lawn closer to those award-winning gardens.
Mistake #5: Always removing all your lawn clippings.
Last on our list of common lawn mowing mistakes in NZ is the tendency for homeowners to remove all of their lawn clippings after each mow. It’s tempting, as the clippings can make your lawn look messy, but grass clippings are actually free fertiliser. They break down quickly and easily, releasing vital nutrients into the soil.
Always removing all clippings interrupts that reabsorption cycle, so your lawn doesn’t have what it needs to recover quickly between mows. Therefore, our lawn care tips around clippings are:
- Leave short clippings on your lawn if you’re mowing regularly.
- Remove long or clumping clippings, or at least break them up by going over your lawn a second time at the same height. Or if the lawns are wet, use a rake to break up the grass clumps.
Both approaches support your lawn to be healthier and greener. In terms of garden maintenance NZ-wide, this ‘grasscycling’ is a fantastic way to not only minimise your effort, but maximise what your lawn gets out of each mow.
Enjoy a picturesque lawn with no headache; talk to Paramount Gardening.
We are Paramount Gardening, your elite property care partners. From lawn mowing services to garden maintenance in NZ, our teams specialise in making Kiwi homes and businesses look their best from the outside in.
If you’re ready for a stunning lawn without the weekend work, talk to us about setting up a garden care routine today.
