by Jules Older
I was robbed, and I couldn't stop laughing.
"They look the lawn mower! They took the lawn mower! I can't believe they took the lawn mower!"
I was glad to see that old clunker go. It coughed like an asthmatic smoker, never started until the tenth pull and exhaled blue clouds like an old diesel bus. And now it was gone forever -- unless the robbers tried it and decided to bring it back.
It's not always that easy to improve your lawn-mowing pleasure, but in a less dramatic way, you can take steps to make life behind the blades less agonizing and more fun. Here are seven ways to get mowing without pain.
Back to basics
It's best to start with the basics, and in lawn care, the most basic element is what kind of grass you're growing -- and, all too soon, mowing. If you plant slow-growing grass, you'll spend a lot less time behind the mower than if you plant fast-growing seed. Some of the speedier species like Kentucky bluegrass can keep you mowing every five days. Some of their slower cousins can go without a trim for up to two weeks.
Which slow-grower you choose depends on where you live. For northern lawns, some of the best choices are fine fescues -- creeping, red, chewings and hard fescue. In the South, zoysia and centipede grasses are slow; Bermuda and St. Augustine will keep you pushing the mower. In arid parts of the Southwest with 15 inches or less of annual rainfall, buffalograss is an unhurried developer.
It's ironic, but the lower the clipping height, the faster the replacement growth. It has to do with the famous one-third rule of thumb: don't remove more than one-third of the new growth above the last cut. Or in other words, mow when your lawn grows one-third taller than its lowest height. So if you're keeping your lawn clipped to 1 1/2 inches, you should mow whenever it grows 1/2 inch, but if the lawn is maintained at three inches, it doesn't need cutting until it puts on a full inch of growth. Variety selection plays a role here, too. Some grasses, such as bentgrass, must be cut low. Others, such as Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue, grow quite well at a greater height.
Put your lawn on a diet
The more you fertilize a lawn, the more you'll have to mow it. This doesn't mean you should starve your grassy areas, but you might consider altering how you nourish them.
Fertilize with grass clippings and by using natural organic lawn foods, which are bulky and have low analyses -- 6% or 7% nitrogen compared with 20% in some of the non-natural, non- organics. The combination of bulk and low punch makes for slow release of nutrients, and that means slow growth -- up to 50% slower than the harder-hitting fertilizers.
Deep water
The more you water a lawn, the more you'll have to mow it. No,
don't parch your grassy areas -- just alter how you hydrate them.
The secret to watering is to do it deeply but infrequently. Surface water speeds foliage growth; fast foliage growth means a lot of mowing and a lawn with a weak immune system. Deep water -- six to eight inches deep -- promotes root growth. Strong root growth is the basis of a healthy lawn, and a healthy lawn is the bedrock of a weed-free lawn.
What does lawn health have to do with mowing less? Weeds grow faster than the speediest grass, and the only way to keep a weedy lawn looking nice is to mow. And mow. And mow. Just like humans and pets, healthy grass needs less attention than sick grass.
It's not just what you mow, it's how you mow it
Lawn mowing is a combination of three factors: meditation, art and science.
The art of mowing can, like most art, assume many forms. Some folks just go crazy over those rows of perfectly straight, perfectly even mower tracks stretching from house to horizon. Others, following Robert Frost, intentionally leave high spots for the pleasure of birds and butterflies. (See Frost's poem, "The Tuft of Flowers" for details.) And some -- I happen to be one -- like to take a different patch each time they mow. The justification is that it's better for the lawn not to always have the tire tracks running in the same grooves; the reality is that it's more aesthetically pleasing to our slightly untamed minds.
Meditation and art are in the eye, nose and ear of the beholder. But the science of lawn mowing is available to all. Using it, you can take a number of steps to reduce the number of steps you take each time you take out the lawn mower. (That's clear, isn't it?) Here they are:
Get the grass out of the trees
Mowing around trees is a time-waster, a back-breaker and a tree-injurer. Rather than backing and turning a 20-inch power mower around the base of a six-inch tree trunk, feverishly trying to cut grass without bruising bark, simply mulch around the tree and be done with it. If you don't like the look of mulch, plant it with wildflowers or spreading plants.
At my home in northern Vermont, I dug a variety of plants, short and tall, into the mounds of hardwood shavings I use as mulch. Daisies, buttercups, blue myrtle, marsh mallow and unidentified plants I dug up by the roadside have now replaced grass around the trees. At first my hills of wood chips looked strange enough to inspire the neighbors to include my house as a stop on their Sunday driving tours, but now that the flowers are in, folks seem to be getting used to it. And I've cut nearly a half-hour off my mowing time.
Don't square your corners
Just because your lawn is a perfect square doesn't mean that you have to make hospital corners at the end of each row. Instead, treat the lawn as though it were oblong and simply leave one roughly triangular patch in each corner uncut until the end. Then, go back and mow 'em down. This not only saves you time, it will save money in replacement wheels for your mower.
One pass is enough. A lawn is not a bowling green. A lawn is not a billiard table. A lawn is a pleasant outdoor area to enjoy the fruits of your labors in pursuit of such activities as barbecues, softball catches, water fights with your niece and smelling the flowers. One pass with the mower gets your lawn in fine shape for all these activities. Two or more is gilding the lily -- as well as wasting time and gasoline.
Finally, for those penultimately lazy mowers, there's one last alternative.
Let your fingers do the walking
The idea has filled cartoonist's heads for years -- the mower that cuts while you rest. Now Kubota Tractors has come out with the PC2100, the automatic lawn mower. As you sip your mint julep and press a button or two on the remote controller, the PC2100 mows the lawn by itself. All this pleasure costs a mere $21,000 (batteries not included).
Jules Older, a freelance writer in Albany, Vermont, reviewed bird feeders in our September/October 1991 issue.
Copyright NGA
Reprinted with permission HouseNet, Inc.
Mow Better Blues