Hi I participated in a CBSM Workshop in Brisbane a few years back and as part of my work group we developed a trial CBSM for increasing the cut height of mowers used by peri-urban 'blockies' in South East Queensland. I cannot find my notes and who else participated in this session. I would like to try and get this happening in the Logan-Albert Catchment. Does anyone from Brisbane have notes on this? Or does anyone else have idea from their neck of the woods?
Andy Grodecki
Logan and Albert Catchment Association
Australia
Increasing Cut Height of Lawn Mowers
Sign in or Sign up to comment
I could go on ad nauseam about this topic. Increased cutting heights are preferable in situations where you are trying to limit weed invasion, to increase root length and therefore increase drought tolerance. Counter intuitive to most folks sensibilities it actually decreases the frequency of mowing since you ideally should cut off no more than 1/3 of the grass blade at each mowing. So the longer the blade the longer it takes to grow that 1/3. Mowing low is the single most common mistake that lawn owners make which then causes weed problems, drought stress, etc.; which ends up in their desire to use weed controls and fertilizers which end up in our water resources and they also utilize much more oil and natural gas products in the fertilizer and pesticide products and in their lawn mowers. See what I mean about ad nauseam?
Gary Fish
Manager, Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
United States
http://www.YardScaping.org
I have never watered a lawn so don't worry about droughts. Weeds are part of life, and although I hand pull "excessive patches" of weeds, I generally just mow them down with the grass. I guess I will never make the cover of Better Homes and Gardens.
Mel Tremper
United States
Well Mel you totally missed the point. If everyone was like you I wouldn't have to go on ad nauseam but unfortunately most people, in the USA at least, have been convinced by years of training that they need to have a perfect lawn and many of us are trying to find little steps that can be taken to turn that whole concept on its head. But without these intermediate steps the audience totally tunes out and considers the the ideas to be just from another environmental whacko. SO I am just passing on the little steps that can be taken without too much pain but result in real reduction in pollution. Hopefully in the future your kind of landscape will be the example used as a "Better Garden" but its going to take time and patience.
Gary Fish
Manager, Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
United States
http://www.YardScaping.org
I guess the moral of the story is that "the best" way to mow might depend on what you want to achieve by mowing. Given what most folks demand from their lawns, taller mowing seems like good advice. Keep Downeast chemical free, we still spend the summers up there.
Mel Tremper
United States
That's all good, Gary, but here's my dilemma: We grow fescue, and in order to eliminate noise, fuel and ghg impact, I have a human-powered push reel mower. However, as the grass blades get longer (4" is recommended minimum for fescue), the reel mower becomes impractical to use (it "misses" too many grass blades).
Those darn trade-offs again - do I use the Toro on the longer grass, or should I make an effort again to convince my wife to let me cut the grass shorter?
Bernie Burgener
self-employed
United States
Bernie,
I think non-powered mowing is better. It just means you should mow more often and keep the reel mower sharp. With the fescue you get better drought tolerance anyway. They do make reel mowers now that cut higher for instance http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/sunlawn-reel/classic.htm can cut to a height of 3.5 inches.
Gary Fish
Manager, Pesticide Programs
Maine Board of Pesticides Control
United States
http://www.YardScaping.org
...
I have often heard about raising the cutting height. My lazy man's theory is to use a low cutting height, thus increasing the time it takes the grass to grow high enough to begin to approach our town's height limit. Thus I mow less often.
Mel Tremper
United States