Weekly or biweekly mowing in Georgetown

For most lawns in Georgetown and the rest of Central Texas, weekly mowing is the right schedule while the grass is growing, and every other week only works when growth slows down. The rule that decides it is simple: never take off more than a third of the grass blade in one cut. Here is how that plays out for St. Augustine and Bermuda through the year.

What decides weekly or biweekly mowing?

How fast the grass grows decides it, not the calendar. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's guide Mowing Recommendations for Warm-Season Turfgrasses says no more than 1/3 of the green leaf should come off at any one time. If you keep the lawn at 2 inches, that means mowing before it passes 3 inches.

The same guide says growth rate changes through the year with temperature, rainfall, light and fertilizer. So the honest answer to "weekly or biweekly" is: whichever interval keeps each cut under a third of the blade. In a Georgetown summer with the sprinklers running, that is almost never two weeks.

How high should you mow St. Augustine and Bermuda?

Mowing height sets how often you have to mow, because a shorter lawn crosses the one-third line faster. AgriLife's numbers for the two most common grasses here:

• St. Augustine: between 2 and 4 inches, per AgriLife's St. Augustinegrass Lawn Management guide, which advises setting the mower at its highest setting or one step below.
• Bermuda: 1 to 2 inches with a rotary mower, per AgriLife's bermudagrass lawn calendar.

Height and frequency trade against each other. AgriLife says a lower cut needs more frequent mowing to stay inside the one-third rule, and a higher cut generally needs less. A taller canopy also roots deeper, and in some grasses it crowds out weeds.

Why Bermuda lawns usually need weekly mowing

Bermuda grows fast and is kept short, so it runs out of room quickly. AgriLife's calendar lists frequent mowing as one of Bermuda's weaknesses and says home lawns often must be mowed weekly during the growing season, or as often as necessary to prevent scalping. Its own example: a Bermuda lawn kept at 1 inch should be cut again as soon as it reaches 1.5 inches.

On a two-week schedule in July, a Bermuda yard in Georgetown will blow well past that line. The mower then takes off far more than a third, and the lawn pays for it.

What happens when you mow every other week in summer?

The lawn gets scalped. AgriLife defines scalping as removing too much green leaf at once, and says it is more likely when grass is mowed too infrequently. The St. Augustine guide adds that frequent scalping lets sunlight reach the soil and invites weeds in.

There is a quick way to check your own lawn. AgriLife's Bermuda calendar says that if the yard turns from green to brown after you mow, too much leaf came off, which means it is being cut too low or not often enough.

Summer can even call for more than once a week. During peak growth for warm-season grasses, AgriLife's mowing guide says mowing sometimes twice per week may be needed to prevent scalping. Feeding the lawn speeds that up: the guide notes extra nitrogen drives faster growth that may not suit a lawn mowed less often.

When is biweekly mowing enough?

Every other week holds up when growth slows enough that two weeks of growth stays under a third of the blade. In practice that means:

• Late fall: AgriLife recommends raising the mowing height in fall so the grass stores energy before winter dormancy. Taller grass and slower growth together stretch the interval.
• Dry spells on an unwatered lawn: when the grass is barely growing, there is less to cut.
• Winter: AgriLife says it is unnecessary to mow warm-season grass while it is dormant, though a pass to cut down active winter weeds helps keep them in check.

If the yard has already gotten away from you, do not fix it in one pass. AgriLife's advice is to bring the height down gradually over several mowings so no single cut removes more than a third.

A few habits that matter as much as the schedule

• Skip the wet mow: AgriLife says mowing grass damp from dew or the sprinklers can spread disease and leaves clippings in clumps. Running heavy mowers on soil soaked by rain or irrigation also compacts it.
• Leave the clippings: clippings are usually 2 to 4 percent nitrogen, and AgriLife says returning them can cut the need for extra nitrogen by up to half. Blow any that land on the driveway or street back into the lawn so they stay out of storm drains.
• Keep the blade sharp: a dull blade shreds the leaf instead of cutting it, and AgriLife notes those ragged ends leave the grass more open to disease and insects.

The short answer for a Georgetown lawn

Mow weekly from spring green-up through the end of the growing season, mow more often if a fed and watered lawn is outrunning that, and stretch to every other week only when the grass slows down in late fall or a dry spell. Our mowing maintenance visits run on a recurring schedule built around that rule, with the cut height set for the grass in your yard. We cover lawns across Georgetown and the surrounding towns.

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