Trim Height

When cutting your grass, make sure to adjust the length at which you cut your grass. Depending on the time in the season, you’ll cut at different lengths. In the hottest parts of the summer, it’s okay to leave the grass a little longer to protect the soil from getting burnt in the sun. In cooler months like the beginning of Fall, it’s okay to cut it shorter, allowing you to cut your grass less frequently.

When your grass is cut too short, it’s much more susceptible to sun damage and disease. When you scalp your grass (cut it too short), your grassroots become weak as the soil is exposed to the sun. When your soil is exposed, it’s easy for weeds to come and take root in your lawn. On the other hand, grass that is too tall looks unkept and messy.

A good rule of thumb is to keep your grass around 2.5 inches tall, and to only cut 1/3 off of the grass length at any given time. Alternating your mowing pattern also helps to reduce ruts in your grass, and avoid the same place from getting too much exposure from the sun.

Grass-Cycling

An easy way to help fertilize your lawn is by “grass-cycling.” This is when you leave refined grass clippings on your lawn, rather than bagging the grass. This saves you a lot of time and allows you to use less fertilizer. However, this works best on lawns that are trimmed frequently. Otherwise, the long thick clippings can prevent the grass from getting the oxygen and sunlight it needs to grow.

Avoid Cutting Wet Grass

After it rains, your lawn is damp and less firm. If you attempt to cut grass without a solid foundation, you risk damaging and tearing your grass out of the soil. Grass tends to clump together when it is wet and unevenly distributes itself (if you’re hoping to grass-cycle). Clumped grass doesn’t allow grass to breathe as well, and will soon turn to brown clumps in your yard, which doesn’t look the best.

To avoid injury, don’t cut on slopes that are wet. This can lead to serious injury as you can easily slide down. When cutting on a slope, be sure to never cut up and down the slope, but rather across the slope, in order to have more stable footing.

However, just because you shouldn’t cut wet grass doesn’t mean you shouldn’t water it! In dry climates like Idaho, it’s especially important to regularly water your lawn, and find out how often your lawn needs water to not die.