5 Ways To Prevent Grass Clumping On Your Lawn
When it comes to caring for your lawn, you’re probably aware there’s a lot of things you should be doing. There are also some things you might not know about. Removing and preventing big clumps of grass clippings are near to the top of that list. The reason for this is simple: when you leave these grass clumps on the lawn for too long, they can actually start suffocating the grass beneath it. It can turn your lovely turf yellow, not to mention it will add to that pesky layer of thatch.
With that in mind, the second best thing you can do to protect your grass from these clumps is to disperse them from the lawn with a blower or rake them up, put them in a waste bag and carry them off to your compost bin. However, the first best thing you can do is reduce the chance of these grass clumps ever appearing in the first place… and here’s how:
Only Mow When It’s Dry
One of the most important rules is never mow your lawn when it’s wet. Never-ever. This is because wet grass is roughly 6,319% more likely to form clumps than dry grass. As such, make sure you avoid mowing after any rainfall or in the early morning when there’s still dew clinging to the blades of grass. If you ignore this rule and get your mow on while your lawn is still damp, you can bet your bottom dollar that you’ll have to deal with clumping.
Mow A Little More Often
Another easy way to prevent clumping from happening is to mow your grass more regularly so that it doesn’t get too long between mows. Why? Because when grass gets too long, your mower is forced to chop off way more than a ⅓ of each grass plant. This in turn will result in a clumping nightmare. That’s why we recommend you set the mower deck to around 3 and ½ inches and mow more often. Never remove more than one-third of the blades length at a time. Sure, this could mean mowing your lawn twice a week in the height of spring, but that will still be less work than removing clumps from your lawn.
Raise The Bar (Of Your Mower)
The worst thing you can do to your grass is cut it too short. We repeat: the worst thing you can do to your lawn is cut it too short. This is because it encourages diseases, welcomes weeds and causes weak roots. But it also increases the chance of clumping. This is mainly because mowing your lawn too short will increase the stress on your grass plants. The will try to fight back from being scalped. As such, weeds are encouraged to spread at a much faster rate. And this means adding a new source of organic material to your clumping materials down the line.
Swap To Mulching Blades
The big difference between normal mower blades and mulching blades is how finely they chop your grass up. They massively reduce clumps in your lawn, meaning you won’t need to spend any extra time gathering up these clumpy clippings. And that’s not all because mulching your grass blades has the added bonus of improving the health of your lawn. A healthy lawn is a good-looking lawn.
Keep Your Mower Healthy
Mower maintenance is way too underrated and one of the most effective ways to both keep your lawn healthy and clumps at bay. What’s more, it’s really easy to do. Simply turn your mower onto its side, scrape the bottom of the deck with either a plastic scraper or putty knife. Be sure to remove all dried grass that’s stuck to the inside of the deck. Then sharpen the blade, which will help you cut your grass cleanly and prevent clumping. Once you’ve done this, focus on cleaning out the dispenser chute. Removing all these layers of dried grass, mud, and organic debris you’re also removing the chance of grass clumps forming.
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