Think of mowing your new lawn like pruning: It makes your grass healthier by allowing light down to the root crown, encouraging it to produce new blades to spread out and fill in, creating that uniform, dense carpet we all know and love. But if you mow a new lawn too soon, you risk pulling out young seedlings that have yet to establish a strong foothold in the lawn bed or pulling up newly laid sod, plugs or sprigs.
Reel mowers are the preferred type to use on newly planted turf. (If you have to use a power rotary mower, make sure the blades are very sharp.)
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Whether using a power rotary or reel mower, make your first run over your grass in a series of parallel passes, overlapping each mowed row by a third. When you’re finished, turn and make a second run at right angles.
Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Reed Estabrook
No matter how you’ve planted your new lawn, wait until the grass blades have grown 4-5 inches tall before mowing. Even sod shouldn’t be touched for 10-14 days after installation and should show signs of vigorous growth before being clipped.
When the time has come to mow, turn to your mower. The type you use on new grass makes a big difference. For first-time mowing on new turf, the best choice is a reel mower (preferably hand-powered). A hand-powered reel mower features curved blades that spin around a fixed-bed knife, cutting the lawn with a scissorlike snipping action to leave a clean cut across the top of the grass blades. A rotary mower, on the other hand, has a rotating blade that sits parallel to the lawn surface and whips across it. Dull blades tear grass more than cut it, so if you have to use a rotary power mower on a new lawn, be sure to sharpen its blade before you start.
Next, set your mower’s height adjustment to its maximum, and only go over a small area of grass the first time around. You just want to tidy up the lawn’s appearance and encourage the turf to spread, not strip away the seedlings’ capacity to photosynthesize. And when you make that initial pass over your lawn, remember to avoid any sharp turns or abrupt starts and stops, which can tear up the new turf.
As with all lawns (new or old) make sure the grass is dry when you mow. In fact, midafternoon mowing is always best, because it allows time to water the lawn after mowing and still have the grass dry completely before dusk and overnight dew formation. (Watering at nighttime can promote diseases.)
Don’t worry about picking up the clippings – leave them right where they fall. They’ll decompose quickly and provide a nitrogen boost to your new lawn (but do remove any particularly large clumps of cut grass immediately after mowing). After you’ve finished mowing, water your lawn well. Turfgrass goes into mild shock after it’s been cut, and watering helps regain its food-synthesizing capacity.
Once your new grass is well-established, you can use any type of mower on it: hand-, electric- or gas-powered. Then try out new mow patterns on your lawn each time you go over it – and enjoy the ride!
