Creating A More Fruitful Garden

Recommendations To Help You Mow With A Riding Lawn Mower

Mowing your lawn with a riding lawn mower may seem like an easy walk-in-the-park project where you sit back, relax, and drive your mower all around your yard to trim its new growth. However, there are some tips you should follow so you don't damage your lawn or your riding lawn mower and so you and others can stay safe while you do so. Here are some recommendations that you can use as you mow your lawn with a riding lawn mower.

Follow Safety Recommendations

A riding lawn mower is a great convenience that you can use when mowing a large area of lawn, and it helps you keep your lawn healthy by not allowing it to grow too tall. Tall lawn falls over upon itself, smothering the lawn's roots and also covering sprinklers, which will result in dead patches through your landscaping. A riding lawn mower provides you with easy mowing ability, but be sure you are safe with its function. 

Always start out in low gear so you don't lose control of your mower and cause an accident or run over your bedding plants. Wear closed-toe shoes to protect your feet from the mower and wear ear protection and safety glasses to protect against projectiles. But watch out where you are mowing so if there are any rocks or debris you can remove them from the lawn before you mow over them.

Adjust Your Mower

When you start your mower, do so on pavement and keep the mower blade disengaged until you get onto the lawn. Then, be sure that the mower blades are at a higher position so you don't scalp your lawn and cause a dead spot. Only trim off one-third of the lawn's blades, so check its length and the height of your mower blade for the right position. When you need to adjust the mower deck, do so when the mower is switched off and be sure to adjust both sides if there is more than one deck height adjuster on your riding mower.

Plan to trim your lawn blades so they are a bit longer or at least two and one-half inches tall so the plant shades its roots and helps keep moisture in the soil. Longer lawn length will also promote a deeper root and heartier lawn plant to help it survive during drought and heat stress. 

Mow In the Proper Order

When you care for your lawn, you should also make sure you mow first in a regular back and forth pattern to make even cuts. Vary the pattern each time you trim your lawn so the plants don't grow at an angle. Then, follow up with your edger to trim the sides back and prevent overgrowth and avoid scalping the edges of your lawn, which can put it at risk of weed growth.


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