Temperatures have dropped and the nights are cooler. It’s almost time to stop mowing your lawn. This is the ideal temperature to store your mower until spring.
With temperatures starting to drop, many people are thinking of putting their mower away until spring. And they’re not wrong: an expert is encouraging garden owners to ditch their mowers and stop mowing altogether, especially when temperatures reach a certain threshold.
Gardening expert Samantha Richards says: “The key to protecting your lawn when the temperature drops is knowing when to stop mowing it. As a general rule, you should avoid using your mower when the temperature drops regularly below 10°C.” This temperature is usually reached at the end of October or November, but we have already had very cool night temperatures this week so it is important to start monitoring the thermometer.
The expert adds: “When the temperature drops below 10 degrees, the grass enters a dormant phase and stops growing.” The ideal grass height going into winter is around five centimeters; long enough so that the grass still shades the ground and protects the roots, but also short enough to avoid attracting mold or fungus and to prevent it from becoming a refuge for insects and pests.
In preparation for winter, the best practice is to mow your lawn gradually, reducing the cutting height each time, until you reach five centimeters. Although it is not recommended, those who want to continue mowing during the colder months should increase the cutting height as high as possible to protect the grass as much as possible.
Having the last mowing doesn’t mean the job is done for the winter; there is still much to be done to ensure that the lawn remains in tip-top condition. Such as eliminating weeds, trimming lawn edges, sweeping leaves and aerating the lawn. A priority task is to eliminate weeds as soon as you see them growing on your lawn. By eliminating these unwanted plants quickly, you limit their ability to spread through your lawn and generally avoid a larger job involving herbicides in the long run.
