Mowing lawns can seem like a very simple task, after all, what’s really involved? We start the mower and push it over the grass, the grass is cut, and that’s about it. Right? Well, actually, when we look at the pros in the lawn mowing profession, we see that they do have very specific ways in which they mow lawns,

and their results are a far more professional looking lawn finish, quicker lawn mowing times, and the lawn and surrounding areas are all clean and tidy when they’re done. So how can we copy the lawn pros to get a better looking lawn in less time?

Let’s take a look at how we too can get our lawns looking their best after mowing.

Start With The Lawn Mower

This is of course the business end of things. So the better condition the mower, means the better quality of cut, as well as easing the mowing work itself for the operator of the machine.

• we want sharp mower blades, and mower blades which are clean and in good condition
• the underside of the lawn mower, as well as the catcher should be clean, so that grass cuts and catches with ease
• a quality mower in good condition will always be easier to use, will do a better job, and with less fatigue

Is The Grass Long?

If the grass to be mowed is long and we’re looking at a cleanup type of job, then we would want to begin our lawn mowing with slashing instead of mowing. We use a string trimmer to trim all the long grass from along fence lines and along garden beds.

The grass is trimmed down to just above the regular lawn mowing height.

We do this so that all those long grass clippings will be picked up by the lawn mower during mowing, which will then leave us with a much cleaner looking lawn when we’ve finished lawn mowing. If we didn’t do this, and instead trimmed the fence and garden bed lines after mowing, the end result would be a very ugly looking lawn with all that slashed long grass still sitting at the lawn edges.

If there are any other areas of the lawn where the grass has grown particularly high, then we can also trim the height of that longest grass while we still have the line trimmer out and running. This will make mowing these areas even easier.

Time To Start Our Mowers and Get To Work

To start the mowing job, we want to first cut along the outside perimeters of the lawn area. Due to the spinning direction of mower blades on many lawn mowers, we would want to mow the perimeter in an anti-clockwise direction, so that any excess debris created during mowing is thrown back onto the lawn, which would then later be collected when mowing the entire lawn.

Sometimes we will need to do a double width mowing around the perimeter of the lawn, which allows us enough room to turn the lawn mower when doing our full length cut, so that no lawn is missed during the mowing.

Any obstacles in the lawn, such as garden beds or other garden features, should be mowed around before the full lawn mowing is done. This allows us to easily turn the mower when we’re doing the full length mowing of the lawn, while not missing out on mowing any area of the lawn which surrounds these obstacles. Cutting around the obstacles first also gives a much better finish to our lawn mowing work.

With the lawn perimeters and all other lawn obstacles cut around, it’s time to mow the full length of the lawn. Cutting up and down in the straightest lines possible.

And that’s about it. The lawn is mowed.

If the grass wasn’t too long and we didn’t line trim (string trim) the fence lines first, then now is that time. Using the string trimmer to clean up any remaining bits of grass along fences, garden beds, paths etc.

And if we have a leaf blower, even better, to finish off the mow with a quick cleanup of any remaining grass clippings left on surround pathways around the lawn.

A Little Planning For Much Better Results

The system used is very simple and easy. Yet having any system at all, especially one so simple and effective as this, can save time in mowing and give us a much better quality of finish when we are done cutting the lawn.

There are many little tricks to save us time in lawn mowing, which would be impossible to go into all those here. For the homeowner though, we each should continue to look for little ways to improve our lawn mowing quality and speed by looking out for any possible improvements that can save time or otherwise overcome any shortcomings we may be facing with our own particular lawns and how they are mowed.

These are the basics of getting started in how to mow lawns properly, professionally and in good time. So keep improving on these tips for your own yard, and the results will only keep improving.