Seasonal changes in grass cutting height, collection of clippings and fallen leaves.
Ran Pauker
For many years I have recommended that cutting grass ‘long’ by as little as 1 cm in summer to help protect against heat and an additional 1 cm in winter to help protect against cold. The results in your lawn looking good all year round. Note that this applies to warm season grasses.
There is no need to collect clippings after mowing if you mow the lawn at the correct time. If you follow my suggestions, the day after mowing there is no sign of clippings.
- Do not remove more than 40% of the height in a single mowing, i.e. if the mower blades are set to 4.5 cm (the distance between the soil and grass height after cutting) then mow before the grass reaches a maximum of 7.5 cm.
In this situation the grass clippings are mostly water and light cellulose (rapidly degradable). The image below shows a lawn here at Nir Oz. Grass clippings have not been removed for many years.
Sometimes, however, lowering the cutting height in Spring creates a large mass of clippings that require collection. If you have a lot of weeds in your lawn collecting the clippings also help remove unwanted seeds.
Autumn leaf fall on lawns:
- If you have a mower with mulching facility, the fallen leaves will be mulched into the lawn and will degrade there without harming the lawn. There are several studies that confirm this approach.
If you don't have a combined mower-mulcher you have to collect clippings manually otherwise they may shade the grass and it will suffer from a lack of light.
