Mowing grass

There's been a fair amount of talk on different blogs about moving up the mower blade and leaving your grass a little high. I've done this for a few years and can tell you that it works very well. My grass is very healthy and it certainly keeps the weeds from being able to germinate.

When we moved into this house last year, there were a fair number of dandelions in the yard. My wife enjoys going around and spraying dandelions with Weed-B-Gone so I let her have all the fun she wanted. The previous owners had kept the yard fairly short but I kept my mower blade up as high as it would go as I had done at the previous house. This year I probably only ever saw maybe a dozen dandelions!

Now this can be carried to extremes. I won't tell you who did this because they might be a bit embarrassed but they have the same initials as my mom and dad. As a matter of fact, they just happen to have the same names as my mom and dad!

Since they spend about half the year in Florida anymore, they didn't return until just after May 1 this year. Normally, they had had somebody mow their yard until they returned but for some reason decided not to do so this year. Of course, when they got home, the grass was about knee-high. Knowing that the riding lawn mower wouldn't be able to cut the grass, my dad jumped on his tractor, attached the bush hog and started cutting his yard. After he got it to a manageable height, he got out his riding lawn mower and cut the yard like normal.

I was down at their house this past weekend for my niece's high school graduation. Their grass is more lush and green than normal. And my dad says he hasn't seen a dandelion yet this year!

Maybe the quality of their yard comes from the fact that it's been very wet and cool this spring but I'm attributing it to their mowing height. By the way, this bush hogging of your front yard works well when you live in the country without neighbors within view. I certainly wouldn't recommend it for those who live in town.