Putnam County UT Agriculture Extension Offers Mowing Advice

Mow often and mow high. That is the mowing advice from the Putnam County UT Agriculture extension to keep your yard healthy.

Extention agent Wayne Key said the most common mistake he sees is people mowing their grass too short. He said having thick tall grass can help to prevent weed seeds from germinating and keep the grass moist during the dry summer months

“We recommend three inches as a minimum mowing height,” Key said. “Three to three and a half works really well to maintain a good thick dense amount of grass and leaf blade tissue there.

Key said failure to prevent weeds is another common mistake people make. He said weed control is just as important as mowing, and there are several commercially available herbicides for taking care of them.

“They don’t take care of weed control and they allow that to creep in and then have competition with the grasses,” Key said. “Stealing nutrients, taking up phosphorous and potassium from the soil, and so you get this competition, and a lot of times it will smother out the grass to where you just have a large weed patch on top of that short mowing.”

Key said he recommends mowing your yard regularly every five to seven days. He said doing this along with maintaining weed control and fertilizing will allow for a healthy and good-looking yard all year.

“Mowing that yard at that specific height will help control weeds, it’ll keep the lawn denser, it’ll be a lot healthier,” Key said. “It’ll reduce competition so that you have the products you put on, the fertilizer in the spring and fall when you do fertilize your yard, it’ll be able to take those specific nutrients and maintain a nice rich dark green color throughout the spring and into the summer.”