How I Took My Height of Cut From 3 Inches to 1 Inch
Over the past several years, since I started understanding how to take care of my lawn, my height of cut has stayed around 3 inches.
There’s nothing wrong with mowing tall. Taller grass blades have more surface area to absorb sunlight for photosynthesis, and provide substantial shade to the soil surface and the base of the grass plant.
Recently, I felt a desire, a temptation really, to start mowing my front lawn shorter. I was curious to see how the grass would respond. Would it turn yellow? Would I scalp it? Would I hate the look or feel of it?
Only one way to find out…
There are a couple of different ways you can approach this. The most aggressive way would be to completely scalp the lawn-take the mower deck down as low as possible, and just go for it. The grass would take a beating, look terrible for a while, and slowly recover as you keep mowing low. I decided that wasn’t how I wanted to do it.
Slow and steady was my approach. One notch at a time with my Toro TimeMaster. Before starting this endeavor, I was on setting ‘C’ on the TimeMaster, which sets the height of cut at 3.25”.
So, to get started, I lowered the deck to setting ‘D’, and I decided to bag the clippings. Normally, I would mulch, or double cut (side discharge, then mulch), but I had done a double-cut on my previous mow. So, to keep from putting too much material back into the soil, I made the decision to bag.
I was really happy with the results. The color held on, and I immediately had the inclination to mow it lower again.
A week later, I went lower. From ‘D’ to ’E’. Before I got started, I made sure to sharpen my blades. It’s important to keep sharp blades, especially when you know they are going to be cutting into a much thicker section of the grass than they normally do.
This attempt was, to be honest, difficult. Cutting was a struggle. Again, I bagged as I was breaking the 1/3 rule and I didn’t want to put a ton of material back into the soil. I had to ease the mower through the yard as I made my passes, and the grass was very obviously stressing and losing color. I was also cutting into the thatch layer, which is where most of the struggle was coming from. Too much material was getting in between the grass I wanted to cut and the blades of my lawn mower.
It was at this point I knew I had to be a bit more aggressive, but in a strategic way. I decided to keep mowing back at setting ‘D’ for a bit, and I started spoon feeding the lawn. First thing I did was give it the Double Dark™️ mix of the N-Ext products - 6oz/1000 of MicroGreene and 9oz/1000 of GreeNe EfFect. The results of that were really helpful, bring a deeper green color back to the lawn.
From there, I decided to dethatch. I figured by removing that excess material, I would expose more of the grass blades to achieve a cleaner cut on lower settings.
Dethatching your lawn is tough. Not so much physically, but mentally. The best way I can describe it to people is you are pretty much punching your lawn in the face. When you’re done, it looks beat up and miserable.
For this I used my Greenworks electric dethatcher. That machine works so well. I made two passes on my lawn with it. North, south, then east, west. Between passes I mowed the lawn to vacuum up the material that was removed. I think I mowed my lawn four times that day. When I was finished, I decided to make another application of the Double Dark™️ mix of the N-Ext products, as well as an application of Simple Grow Solutions Soil Hume. A lot of work, but it was worth it. It set me up for my most favorite mow of the year.
Fast forward about 3 weeks until I attempted setting ‘E’ again. I was pretty timid given the fact that I didn’t feel too great the last time I tried this.
What. A. Difference.
Cutting the grass was so easy. The mower moved so smoothly through the yard. The grass felt super soft as I walked on it. It was a great experience. I did double cut again (side discharge, then mulched). As soon as I made my first pass I knew it was going to work out. The color held really nicely as well. I was so excited.
At this point there was no turning back. I had to keep going. I wanted to keep going.
Next stop was setting ‘F’. That setting gets me sub-two inches. 1.75 inches height of cut. I have never cut my lawn that short before. Ever. I was worried about this. I was worried that I wouldn’t have a repeat of that incredible mow I had just experienced. I didn’t savor that mow very long, either. This time I went from ‘E’ to ‘F’ in consecutive mows. I mowed on ‘E’ on a Saturday, and ‘F’ the following Tuesday.
This attempt was interesting. The deck was low enough that things that once weren’t obstacles now were. Dropping the machine into the yard from the concrete had to be done before starting the machine and engaging the blades, because the deck scraped on the edge of the concrete. The sidewalks and curbing around the yard were also in play this time as well.
I side discharged, then bagged again this time. I like to side discharge first mainly because it avoid any grass from clumping up under the deck of the mower.
As expected, I did lose a bit of color, and I didn’t feel good about going to setting ‘G’. From this point on I wanted to get the cleanest cut possible, and to do that I had to get reel.
At this point, I don’t have any extra money for a decently used greens mower, so I sprang for SunJoe’s manual reel mower. I did some research to find the longest width of a reel with the shortest cut for around $100. So I went with SunJoe’s 20” model. The lowest height of cut it offers is 1.2 inches. I figured that would be a good place to mow until I could get my hands on a greens mower.
So that’s basically where I’m at now. I started at a middle setting, and have just worked it down about every time I’ve mowed. It does scalp the lawn a bit, but not too bad. The first mow on a lower setting is usually harder than any subsequent mows on that same setting. I hope to be able to level the lawn with sand in the near future to help with that a bit. I’ll be doing a review on the SunJoe mower in a separate post/video.
The biggest thing to remember if you decide to take you height of cut down this way is to be patient. It’s going to take some time, but at lest you’re maintaining the look and the color pretty well throughout the process.
The other thing to remember is to not be afraid. You will more than likely scalp your lawn in a few places. That’s okay. It may turn a lighter color, even yellow a bit. Don’t worry. As you keep mowing, watering, and spoon feeding the lawn, it will adjust to its new height and start spreading laterally and looking nice and green.
This has been a lot of fun for me. I like trying new things, and I hope to continue this next year to see how I can maintain it through the summer months. It’s a whole new look, and a different feel for my front lawn, but I really honestly enjoy it. I don’t like walking in grass that tickles my ankles. I really enjoy walking on top of the lawn. My son likes to kick his soccer ball more on the front lawn because the ball rolls much easier. So far it has been a really positive experience, and I look forward to its future.