Mowing Tips for Spring

Mowing Tips

• Keeping your mower's blade sharp is perhaps the most important part of proper mowing. Dull blades will tear the grass, making your lawn susceptible to fungus and insects.  We use freshly sharpened blades each day.  Saber Lawn Care takes it one step further by having 4 sets of blades on hand, one for each day we mow lawns (We perform mulch jobs, leaf cleaning, etc on Mondays).  We then sharpen our blades on Saturdays, all four sets ready for the next week!
• Don't cut your grass too short, particular for cool season grasses. Higher heights will promote root growth.  If the blades are cut too short, the grass is stressed, and will expend more energy repairing the blade instead of the roots.  Taller grass also provides shade to the roots in the summer heat and prevents moisture from evaporating before being absorbed into the soil.  The front lawns of eight houses have the cooling effect of about 70 tons of air conditioning. That's amazing when the average home has an air conditioner with just a three or four ton capacity.
• Don't remove any more than one third of the grass leaf at any one cutting. If it rains and you have to skip a mowing and the grass is too tall the next week you'll need to break it down and mow it every couple of days for a week.  Besides not stressing the lawn, this practice also quickens the process of the clippings decomposing which adds nutrients back into the soil.  
• Try to avoid mowing when the grass is wet.  The homeowner has greater leeway than a Professional Lawn Service due to our scheduling, but  Saber Lawn Care does its best to keep from mowing wet lawns.   
• Mow your lawn in a different direction with each mowing.  This discourages ruts, and blades of grass being "trained" to grow in one direction.  
• Cool season grasses such as Fescues and KBG should be cut no shorter than 3 inches in height.  Saber Lawn Care will not cut these types of grasses shorter than 3.5 inches during the summer.  Warm season grasses should be cut at 1.5 inches. 

Safety Tips

The only thing more important than your lawn is safety.  Saber Lawn Care practices safety first. Here are some tips to help keep your family safe.

• Keep children and pets out of the yard while mowing. 
• Do a walk-through of the area before you begin mowing. Clear the area of large sticks or other debris.  If you have sewer grates or any type of obstructions that cannot be moved spray paint them with a bright orange spay paint so they are easily picked out.  
• Wear long pants to protect your legs.   Wear eye protection, like glasses, sunglasses, or goggles, while mowing.  And do not forget hearing protection.  
• Understand your mower and  all of its safety features prior to use. Never disable any safeties on your mower, they are there for a reason.
• Caution adolescents who are operating lawn-mowing equipment to avoid carelessly placing hands near power blades. Do not clean the grass exit with your hands.   If you have a child that wants to start helping with the lawn teach him/her about the mower first week.  Children under 12 years of age should not use mowers.  The second week have them mow the front lawn.  The third week let them do the back yard.  Each week quiz them on these safety tips making sure they don't miss a thing.  
• Do not push a lawn mower onto the pavement. The lawn keeps objects from being hurled at a high speed. On the pavement, there is no such protection.
• Make sure your mower is in good working condition at all times.  Perform weekly PMCS (Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services) on your mower.  Saber Lawn Care has a daily checklist and a weekly checklist for our equipment and follow it without exception.  Even in bad weather, we may not mow that day, but we check all our equipment, and check it again the next day before mowing.  Safety FIRST!
• Do not operate a mower when under the influence of alcohol or other drugs that impair judgment.