Mulch mowing

Remember the one-third rule – never remove more than one-third of the length of the blade of grass whenever you mow. This is good advice no matter what type of mower you use.

Mow high

Set the mowing height to about 4 to 5 cm (1.5 to 2 inches) for most lawns, this will develop deeper root growth and crowd out weeds.

The one-third rule also recommends that you should mow your grass before it is 8cm (3 inches) high. A mulching cutter deck will have no problem chopping 3cm (1 inch) of clippings into tiny particles and concealing them in the remaining standing grass. Leaving grass to reach 13 to 15 cm (5 to 6 inches) would make it impossible for any mower to hide that amount of chopped clippings in just 5cm (2 inches) of lawn.

Mow often

Try to mow weekly, especially in the spring – cutting too much at once stresses the grass. Every two weeks will probably be often enough in the summer.

Choose the right mulching mower

For clean mowing that leaves no visible clippings, you need a dedicated mulching mower. They chop clippings extremely finely and blow them down into the lawn so they disappear and won’t be tracked into your house.

Mulching mowers mow more leaving less to trim

Because mulching mowers have no discharge chute sticking out the side or a collector overhanging the front or back of the mower you can mow within an inch or two of any object. This virtually eliminates time spent trimming around edges or other obstacles.

Mulching is much more neighbourly

A mulching mower is not only friendly to the environment through recycling but also in noise pollution as mulching mowers are significantly quieter than their collecting counterparts. The quietest powered mower in the world is an electric mulching mower whilst the quietest petrol mower in the world is also a mulching mower, with a noise level 88.9DB it is half the apparent noise level of an equivalent collecting mower.

Grass disposal – a thing of the past

Mulching lawn mowers efficiently cut and re-cut the grass clippings into tiny particles, the particles are then blown back deep into the lawn. As a result, you have no clippings to dispose of, no trips to the tip or piles of rotting grass in your garden and, because the clippings are turned into such fine particles, NO raking is required.

Depending on the quality of design of the lawn mulching deck on the mower you buy, clippings virtually disappear.

To produce beautiful mulching results:

1. Follow the ‘one third’ rule. Never cut more than the top third of the grass;
2. Leave grass about half an inch longer than you would normally if you were discharging or collecting the clippings;
3. Keep your mower blades sharp. Mulching tends to dull blades faster than other methods of mowing. Sharpen them more often, it necessary;
4. Water the lawn after mulching, not before. Dry clippings disperse more easily than moist ones. Watering after the lawn has been mulched helps clippings settle better and speeds up decomposition;
5. Reduce fertiliser usage. The clippings you give back into the lawn return nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil, you may not need to use any artificial fertilisers;
6. Use the correct cutter blades. Don’t be fooled by aftermarket mulching blades. Only the proper combination of air flow chamber design and blades will produce optimum mulching results.