North Texas Mowing Tips

A thick lawn creates a canopy over the soil, which helps to prevent weeds from germinating.  When you scalp the lawn, you remove this blanket and expose your lawn to severe weed outbreaks.  Additionally, scalping the lawn before it has fully come out of dormancy exposes your lawn to weed outbreaks at the most vulnerable time of year for weeds in our region.  Pre-emergent applications do not stop all weeds, but a thick lawn along with pre-emergent applications help prevent many weeds. 

There are a significant amount of web sites, landscapers, and mowers who insist scalping the lawn is necessary.  They are wrong!  The trusted resource for lawns in our region is Texas A&M University, and they recommend normal mowing heights at all times of the year (scalping is not a normal mowing height), and do not remove the grass clippings from the lawn.

North Texas lawns should be mowed regularly at their proper heights (see below). This means that your North Texas lawn may require mowing more than once a week during peak growth and only once every two weeks during periods of slow growth.

The root system of a grass plant grows proportionately to the above grounds parts of the plant; therefore, a longer cutting height results in a stronger, deeper root system.

Calculate your mower blade height by measuring the distance between the concrete surface and the base of your lawn mower at the sides, front and back.