Is it too soon to mow this?

10 years ago

Hi everyone :-)

I purchased my first home last October. The sellers moved out in August so that was the last time the lawn had been mowed. After I closed in October, I was so consumed with doing work INSIDE of my home, that I neglected the yard and never got a chance to mow it before the snow came (I live in the south west suburbs of Chicago).

My issue is, I'm not sure if its too soon to mow my yard for the first time. As you can see in the pic, some parts are much longer than others, and all of the grass has not started to stand up yet. We racked the yard yesterday to try and get the grass to stand up more but its probably just too cold. Temperatures have been in the upper 50s, low 60s.

I was told that before I could aerate, seed, and fertilize that I needed to cut my grass down first, since it has grown so long. I think some of the longest parts of the grass are about 4"-5"

What are your thoughts on whether or not I should mow now, or wait? Could I possibly mow the longer sections of grass for now, so that I'm able to aerate, seed, and fertilize?

Comments (3)

OhGucci
Original Author
10 years ago
Also, I should add that its Kentucky Bluegrass and Perennial Ryegrass. I've also included another pic
dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
I have really good news for you! Yes, you can mow now. Set your mower up to the medium height or higher and mow off what mows off.

The other good news is that you should never have to aerate or seed. You need to take note of anyone who told you that and put some imaginary duct tape over their mouth. I'm not sure aerating has any benefit at all for a homeowner. Perhaps a golf course might benefit from it because they have people walking on the grass even when the soil is too wet to be walking on. That causes compaction. You don't get that at home. If your soil is hard, there is another solution for that. Also KBG is the one northern grass which should never need to be reseeded. It spreads fast to fill in bare spots. The other popular northern grasses do not spread.

The rest of the news is that you don't need to fertilize until after you have mowed real grass for the second time...at least. I would wait until Memorial Day. Once your grass awakens, it will grow like gangbusters for several weeks. If you had fertilized early, that fast growth would be hyper fast growth requiring mowing 3x per week to keep up with it. Then by late spring the grass plants would have exhausted their food supply and need more fertilizer.

So just leave it alone, wait or it to come in naturally, mow when it is tall enough, fertilize in late spring, and enjoy not aerating and seeding.
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OhGucci
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks dchall! This was very helpful! I mowed my lawn yesterday afternoon aftering reading your response and it looks soooo much better! Seems like the blades from my lawmower helped to make the grass stand up even more so it looks much greener.

As far as the aerating goes, now I'm not sure if I even need it or not. Since I cut my grass, I'm able to see down through to the dirt in most parts. There are still some areas in my front lawn that are so compacted that I can barely rake it. And with all the snow we got this past winter (70+ inches), I wonder if it will have a hard time bouncing back. I'll take the "wait and see" approach as you suggested. Thanks again! :-)