Published October 21, 2026
You can stop regular mowing in Central Texas once your St. Augustine or Bermuda has gone dormant and stopped growing, which for most Georgetown and Austin-area lawns arrives around the first freeze, on average the start of December. Until then, the lawn still needs cutting, just less often and a little higher. Here is how to tell when you have reached the last mow, and what still needs a mower after that.
Warm-season grass goes dormant as the weather cools toward the first freeze, and in the Austin area that usually lands around the start of December. The National Weather Service's Austin climate summary puts Austin's average first freeze on December 1 for the 30 years from 1991 to 2020, and on November 29 across its 120-plus years of records.
An average is not a promise. The same summary lists Austin's earliest first freeze on record as October 26, 1924. Georgetown and Liberty Hill sit north of the Austin station, so treat those dates as a guide and watch your own forecast.
St. Augustine is the grass that shows the change most clearly. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension's St. Augustinegrass Lawn Management guide says it grows best between 80 and 95°F and turns brown or off-colored during winter dormancy.
It is time to stop when the grass stops growing between visits. AgriLife's guide Mowing Recommendations for Warm-Season Turfgrasses says it is unnecessary to mow warm-season grass during winter months when it is dormant and not growing.
The one-third rule tells you the same thing from the other direction. AgriLife says no more than 1/3 of the green blade should come off in one cut, and that growth rate, which drops as temperatures fall, sets how often you mow. When a week or two goes by and the lawn has not grown enough to need even a light trim, you have reached the end of the season for that lawn.
A useful check is the color. A lawn that has turned tan across the whole yard and is no longer putting up new blades is dormant. A lawn that is still green and still growing after a mild November still needs cutting, even if the neighbors have parked their mowers.
The last mows of the year should be at the top of your grass's range, not the bottom. AgriLife's mowing guide recommends raising the mowing height in fall so the grass stores as much energy as it can before winter dormancy.
Do not scalp the lawn short in November to "get ahead" of winter. A dormant lawn is not growing, so it will not replace leaf it loses until spring green-up.
Winter weeds keep growing after the grass stops, and that is the main reason a dormant lawn still sees a mower. AgriLife's bermudagrass calendar says winter annual weeds such as henbit and rescuegrass sprout in late summer or early fall, grow through fall and winter, and then flower, set seed and die in spring. Annual bluegrass is another common winter weed in lawns.
AgriLife's mowing guide says regular mowing while winter weeds are active helps hold them back, and that cutting off their flowers and seedheads limits how far they spread. It also says clippings carrying weed seedheads should be bagged and removed, not mulched back into the lawn. The St. Augustine guide gives the same advice: do not return clippings while weeds are flowering.
Mowing only slows winter weeds down. AgriLife notes that winter annual broadleaf weeds are easiest to treat while they are small, which is usually early fall. If your yard comes up green with weeds every January, that is a job for a lawn treatment program next fall rather than more mowing.
Frosted, wet or diseased grass is the main reason to skip a winter mow. AgriLife says to avoid mowing grass that is damp from dew or irrigation because it can spread disease and clump the clippings, and to keep heavy mowers off soil soaked by rain because it compacts.
Cold injury raises the stakes. UF/IFAS Extension's page on cold damage to turf says foot and vehicle traffic can make cold damage worse, so stay off injured grass until the soil and plants have thawed. The same page says a lawn may be permanently damaged if temperatures suddenly drop below 20 degrees, but that a brown lawn in winter is a normal part of dormancy. Brown does not necessarily mean dead.
Watch for circles with yellow to orange edges in St. Augustine this time of year. AgriLife describes large patch as a fall and spring disease that moves on equipment, and it discourages mowing those areas until the disease stops spreading.
Fertilizer and most of the watering should wind down with the mowing. AgriLife's St. Augustine guide says the last nitrogen should go out at least 4 to 6 weeks before your county's historic first frost date, and that feeding too late in fall can increase winter kill and disease. The bermudagrass calendar says not to fertilize in late fall and winter while the lawn is going dormant.
Both guides also say to turn off or sharply cut back irrigation from late fall to early spring while warm-season grass is dormant. AgriLife's St. Augustine guide adds that extra watering in these seasons is wasteful and can raise the risk of diseases such as large patch.
Keep mowing, a little higher and a little less often, until the grass stops growing, which in most Georgetown and Austin-area yards comes around the first freeze. After that, mow only to knock down winter weeds before they seed, and stay off frosted or soggy turf. Our mowing maintenance visits follow the grass rather than the calendar, so the schedule slows as the lawn does. We cover yards across Georgetown and the surrounding towns.
CTX Mowing adjusts recurring mowing to how fast the grass is growing, from the last fall cuts through winter weed passes. Get a free quote today.
