A little more on the thread as people are now mowing weekly here.

Someone said earlier that the larger riding mowers could mow the wet
grass so easily because they were so powerful. If that is the case,
they why can't they handle a yard that has been skipped a week?

Secondly, last week was pretty much rain all week here. Residents
didn't mow during the rain. Businesses with lawn care were mowed. Now,
those powerful riding mowers apparently cut the grass but the
dandelion stems seemed to have been too slippery. By the end of the
day they were mowed, the stems were standing up proud and tall above
the now lower grass. That really looks bad. On a dry day everything is
cut.

Charles


"Timothy" wrote in message m...
On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 12:32:12 -0500, Patch wrote:


"Charles Woolever" wrote in message
om...
We were never allowed to mow wet grass growing up. Two main reasons were
clogging and that the wetness caused the blade of grass to "slip" off
the blade rather than cutting the grass. It left you with a more unkempt
lawn as some blades would be cut and others weren't.

That said, I live in Western NY and rain or shine, the office parks
around here have their lawns mowed by the larger riding mowers. After
they have passed by my window, the lawn looks like it was hardly
touched. I've seen them mow in a driving rain.

Seems to me, if I were the landlord, I wouldn't pay to have them mow on
that day. Skip the week and come back the next.

Any thoughts on mowing with riding mowers when its raining?

Charles

It's a pain in the butt. I just had to mow my yard last week-end right
after a rain. The grass was so tall I couldn't wait any longer. I have a
42" wide, riding mower with a mulch kit installed. After mowing, my yard
was covered with patches of wet, clumps of grass. I tried picking it up
with my tow-behind lawn rake. It left a lot behind. 3 days after mowing
and the cut grass was dry, I walked around with a rake & raked up those
matted down grass clippings before it killed the grass. I started to mow
it Fri afternoon, but decided to wait until Sat. Then on Sat we got 3" of
rain! Never again will I put it off.

Make sure the mower blades are sharp, mow the lawn slower and when the
lawn is high mow it twice. The first mow should be half of the hight you
want the lawn. The second mow should be the final hight you want. You
mowed too much too fast and your mower couldn't mulch the grass. It balled
it up and 'puked' it up instead of mulching or bagging it.